The Foreign Service Journal, March 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2019 73 IN MEMORY n Carleton Stevens Coon Jr. , 91, a retired Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, died on Dec. 3, 2018, in Warrenton, Va., after a short illness. Carleton Coon, who was born in Paris in 1927 of American parents, liked to observe that he arrived just in time to greet pilot Charles Lindbergh. After a short spell in the U.S. Army toward the end of World War II, he graduated fromHarvard and joined the Foreign Service. During his 36-year diplomatic career, postings to Germany, Syria, India, Iran, Nepal andMorocco were interspersed with assignments inWashington, D.C. Ambassador Coon was a traveler both during and after his Foreign Service career. In 1955, when he was transferred from Damascus to Delhi, he made the 2,000- mile journey by road with his first wife in an old Ford station wagon. While in Nepal, he undertook half a dozen treks where there were no roads at all. Later travels took him across the Sahara, through central Asia into China and Tibet, and down a wild Alaskan river where he encountered grizzly bears. In 1981 he was appointed U.S. ambas- sador to Nepal and enjoyed a unique commuter marriage with his second wife, Jane, who was serving simultaneously as ambassador to Bangladesh. Amb. Coon was also an intellectual traveler throughout his life, exploring new ideas and new cultures as vigorously as he exploredmountains and rivers. After retirement, he and his wife built a home in Rappahannock County, Va. Returning to an old love, music, he com- posed a number of pieces for piano and chamber groups. For many years, he was active in the American Humanist Association; he served as its vice president and was hon- ored with the AHA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. He authored several books andmany essays on subjects of his greatest con- cern—evolution and climate change. His memoir, People of Earth , was published a month before his death and is available on Amazon. Amb. Coon leaves his wife of 50 years, Jane Abell Coon, and five children: How- ard Coon of Castleton, Va.; Katharine Coon of Takoma Park, Md.; Elizabeth Gaskill of Chico, Calif.; Ellen Coon of New York City; and Richard Coon of Chico, Calif.; 13 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, withmore on the way; and his close family friend, Bir Bahadur Adhikari. He was predeceased by his first wife, Janet Wulsin Coon, who died in 1967, and a son, WilliamP. Coon. n WilliamEves Culbert Jr. , 93, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on Jan. 13 in Issaquah, Wash., from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease. Mr. Culbert was a graduate of the Whar- ton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University inWashington, D.C. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1951 and was posted to Japan, France, Switzerland andWashington, D.C. Mr. Culbert received a Superior Honor Award in 1966 for his role in persuading reluctant U.S. government agencies to accept a major shift in American inter- national trade policy to authorize trade preferences for developing countries. He participated in numerous rounds of international trade negotiations, including serving as deputy chief of the U.S. delega- tion to the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1973 to 1979. After retiring from the State Depart- ment in 1979, he spent eight years at Boe- ing in Seattle, Wash., where he was deputy director for issues management. In retirement, Mr. Culbert joined his wife, Betty, onmany hiking, camping and horse packing trips across the Pacific Northwest; they also traveled through Europe, Russia and Japan. He enjoyed taking walks with their dogs, Cooper and Samantha. Mr. Culbert was an accomplished singer who trained at St. Peter’s Choir School in Philadelphia, Pa., and performed with numerous singing groups inWashing- ton, D.C., including the National Cathedral Choir. While in Japan, he sang with Kurusa- wa’s Madrigal singers. In 1985, he per- formed with George Shangrow’s Chamber Singers in Seattle on the occasion of Johann Sebastian Bach’s tricentennial. Family members report that he enjoyed entertaining friends around the campfire with playful renditions of classical arias. Mr. Culbert is survived by his wife of 68 years, Elizabeth, five children and 11 grandchildren, with two great-grandsons on the way. As a veteran of WorldWar II, he will be interred at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, Wash. n Charles Robert “Bob” Dickerman , 81, a member of the Senior Foreign Service who spent most of his career with the United States Information Agency, died on Nov. 8, 2018, on his farm in Shenandoah Valley, Va., of a rare neurological condi- tion, multiple systems atrophy with Parkin- son’s disease. While an Antioch College student, Mr. Dickerman spent a year in a Danish folk high school run by the Danish labor move- ment and its Social Democratic party. Mr. Dickerman’s assignments with USIA were, with one exception, near either the Arctic Circle or the equator. He was posted to Finland, Somalia, South Viet- nam, Norway, Iceland, West Germany, the