The Foreign Service Journal, March 2023

60 MARCH 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL IN MEMORY n Bilha Levy Bryant, 88, wife of the late retired Foreign Service Officer Edward “Ted” W.M. Bryant, passed away peacefully after a short illness on Nov. 16, 2022, in Washington, D.C., surrounded by her family. Born Billi Mosheva in Dupnitsa, Bulgaria, in 1934, she and her family survived the systematic persecution of the Jews in German-allied Bulgaria and narrowly avoided being sent to the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. They immigrated to Israel in 1948 once the Communist Party took power in Bulgaria, traveling by cattle car across land and by cargo ship to Haifa from the port of Rijeka in the former Yugoslavia. Never having spoken Hebrew in Bul- garia, she learned it for the first time on a kibbutz, worked her way through high school, and served in the Israeli Army with the Mixed Armistice Commission. There she worked with General Moshe Dayan, David Ben Gurion, and others instrumental in the founding of Israel. She went on to become an Israeli Foreign Service officer. Her first posting took her toThe Hague in 1960, where she met and fell in love with Ted Bryant, a U.S. Foreign Service officer fromMassachusetts. Despite great differences in their backgrounds, Ms. Bry- ant moved to the U.S., and the two were married in 1963 in Washington, D.C. They had three daughters, and went on to serve in Mozambique, Ethiopia, Korea, Pakistan, and India. They also traveled extensively through Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. After her husband’s retirement in 1981, Ms. Bryant started her second career in the U.S. Foreign Service, working in Soviet and Eastern European Affairs as a public affairs officer. She earned the State Department’s Meritorious Service Award before retiring in 1994. Her life after retirement was filled with travel, classical music concerts, bridge games, friends, and summers in beautiful Rockport, Mass. She adored her grandchil- dren and treasured her visits with them as well as with her family in Israel. In 2018, 50 years after the historic rescue of the Bulgarian Jews, she was honored by the Embassy of Bulgaria in Washington, D.C., as a survivor of the Holocaust. She had the opportunity to return to her home country with her fam- ily in 2019, a trip that she relished. Reliv- ing her childhood memories there and receiving recognition from the Bulgarian Foreign Office as well as local Jewish organizations was one of the highlights of her life. She will be remembered for her grace, intelligence, charm, and ability to light up any room. She loved animals, took a lively interest in politics and current events, and self-published a memoir, titled Magic Life (2021). Ms. Bryant was preceded in death by her husband in 2006 and brother Moshe Levy in 2006. She is survived by her daughters, Penelope Bryant Catterall, Deborah Bryant Keeley (and husband Greg), and Alexandra Bryant Whitaker (and hus- band Jeff), as well as five grandchildren (Philip, James, Sophia, Anna, and Jack), her family in Israel, and numerous nieces and nephews. n Robert A. Cattell, 91, a retired For- eign Service officer, died on Oct. 17, 2022, of natural causes. Known as “Bob” or “Roscoe” to his friends, Mr. Cattell was born in Washing- ton, D.C., on Feb. 16, 1931, to Roscoe and Ruth Cattell. He grew up in Shepherd Park and graduated fromCalvin Coolidge High School in 1949. He attended college at William and Mary, where he developed an interest in foreign affairs, and then joined the U.S. Army reserves in 1952. After graduating in 1953, he volunteered for active duty and served with the Strategic Intelligence Detachment, supporting the U.S. Army Intelligence Command with a focus on the Middle East and Africa. He completed additional academic work in the African studies program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. In August 1958, Mr. Cattell married Brenda Korns in Washington, D.C. He was discharged from the Army in 1960 and joined the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) where he made his career as a Foreign Service officer. During the next 12 years, he facili- tated USIA programs while at post in the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Sen- egal, Lesotho, Swaziland (now Eswatini), and Botswana. During a Washington assignment, he was posted to the office of the agency’s assistant director for Africa. He also served at USIA posts in Frankfurt, Bern, and Madrid. Following retirement from federal ser- vice in 1992, Mr. Cattell worked as a staff aide to the chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. He went on to work for the Environmental Protection Agency as a senior executive employee, where he supported agency efforts to institute policies maximizing safe reuse of land at remediated pollution locations and to design the regulatory regime for reporting releases of hazardous substances into the environment. Mr. Cattell was predeceased by Brenda Cattell, his wife of more than 60 years, and his sister and brother-in-law, Betty Ruth Williams and WilliamH. Williams. He leaves behind his son and daughter-in-law, Marc and Katie Cattell, of Burke, Va., and their children, Grace