The Foreign Service Journal, March 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2022 83 her husband was posted in Vietnam. She diagnosed himwith meningitis and flew with him back to the U.S. for emer- gency care. Two years later, she was in Laos when the Pathet Lao took control of the country, and she hustled her three kids into a propeller plane as soldiers descended. Medicine was her true calling. An “old-fashioned” doctor in the best sense of the word, she made house calls and believed in spending time listening care- fully to her patients. No matter where she practiced—from hospitals in less- developed countries to inner city clinics and the prestigious Walter Reed Army Medical Center—she brought the same dedication to her craft and devotion to all her patients. Long after she retired, she remained a fierce patient advocate. But for all her accomplishments, Dr. Myers may be best known for her genuine kindness and her fabulous sense of style. She remembered birthdays, gave thought- ful presents and checked up on people. An active member of All Souls Unitar- ian Church in Washington, D.C., she enjoyed many hours working in the church garden. She shared her love of gardening and nature with her eight grandchildren, whom she adored. Dr. Myers found and created beauty wherever she went, family members recall. “I’ve lived a beautiful life,” she said on the day she died. She was predeceased by her husband, Robert, in 2005. Survivors include her three sons: Robert Myers III of Washing- ton, D.C., Michael Myers of Worcester, Mass., and Chris Myers Asch of Hallowell, Maine; and eight beloved grandchildren: Matthew, Damon, Pearce, Miriam, Robin, John, Isla and Aaron. n Joseph Presel, 79, a retired Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, died in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 19, 2021, of a heart attack. A native of Rhode Island, Mr. Pre- sel joined the Foreign Service in 1963 on graduation fromHarvard College. In a career spanning four decades, he specialized in Russian affairs and worked extensively in multilateral diplomacy and political-military affairs. Early in his career, he escorted several major American performing arts groups— Duke Ellington and his orchestra, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, among others—on extended performance tours of the Soviet Union. He then continued his studies at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University. Mr. Presel served in Ankara, Paris, Moscow, Belgrade (as deputy chief of mission) and twice on the U.S. arms con- trol delegation in Vienna, the second time as deputy U.S. representative. His Washington service included two assignments to the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, as well as tours in the European, Political-Military Affairs, International Organizations, and Intel- ligence and Research bureaus. He also had several assignments in the offices of Department of State principals. In 1993 he became deputy to the coordinator of U.S. assistance to the newly independent states (NIS) and coordina- tor for NIS regional affairs. Two years later, he was named special negotiator for Nagorno-Karabakh with the rank of ambassador. In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed him ambassador to the Republic of Uzbekistan, a position he occupied until October 2000. His last tour in the Foreign Service was as a professor at the United States Naval War College in Newport, R.I. After retiring from the Foreign Service in 2003, Ambassador Presel worked in the private sector and at the Central Intel- ligence Agency, taught Russian history at the university level and served on several boards of directors. In recent years, he had divided his time between Washington, D.C., and Paris. He is survived by his wife, Claire-Lise Junod Presel, of Washington, D.C., and Geneva, Switzerland. n Frances Helen Scott, 80, the wife of retired Foreign Service Officer and Ambassador Gerald Wesley Scott, died unexpectedly of heart failure on Nov. 6, 2021, in Richmond, Va. Ms. Scott was born in Bournemouth, England, on Nov. 16, 1940. Her parents were Lieutenant and Mrs. Alan Tacon Gardner-Brown. Her father, the descen- dent of a line of Anglican priests, was serving in the Royal Marines. Her mother, Mary Beatrice O’Donovan, was the daugh- ter of a Harley Street specialist and some- time Conservative Member of Parliament. Given the exigencies of World War II, Ms. Scott and her twin sister, Margaret Mary, were sent to boarding school at the age of 4. Later Ms. Scott lived on Malta for two years, attending school with the Mad- ams of the Sacred Heart while her father was posted to the Panama Canal Zone, then completed her ordinary education at Farnborough Hill Convent College in Hampshire. She then gained a nursing qualifica- tion at the Royal Homeopathic Hospital and trained as a midwife at the Simpson Maternity Hospital in Edinburgh. Reading of the devastation of the Nigerian civil war, Ms. Scott joined Save the Children and was sent to Nigeria, and then to Yemen. She met Gerald Scott, a career Foreign Service officer, at the end of 1974 in Hue,