The Foreign Service Journal, March 2023

66 MARCH 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL joined the State Department with the class of 1962. His first assignment took him to Rio de Janeiro, with subsequent postings to Beirut for Arabic language training, to Amman during the Jordanian civil war, and then to Mexico City, where he served as political officer. He shared his love of singing with the local community there, helping found the “ConviviumMusicum,” which performed in various churches as well as the Chapultepec Castle. In 1974 Mr. Zweifel became the first- ever deputy chief of mission at Embassy Muscat before spending a year at the National War College. He went on to work in the Office of Egyptian Affairs during the Camp David Accords process that culmi- nated in the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. He then returned to Amman as deputy chief of mission and long-term chargé d’affaires, and was appointed ambassador to Yemen in 1981. Upon returning to Washington, D.C., Ambassador Zweifel worked as director of North African affairs during the U.S. bombing of Tripoli in 1986 in response to a terrorist incident in Germany attributed to Libya. He also served as director of Caribbean affairs (1987-1989) in the after- math of the ouster of Baby Doc Duvalier, and as director of senior officer assign- ments in Washington (1992-1993). His final assignment was as consul general to his dream post, Rio de Janeiro, where he had met and married Denise Costa Oliveira as a young officer many years earlier. The couple acquired an extensive col- lection of recordings, spanning chamber music, opera, and symphonies as well as Brazilian folk music and bossa nova, which his wife would also performon guitar. In 1995 he retired from the Foreign Ser- vice after 33 years. He continued to work as a Portuguese language interpreter for the State Department’s Office of Language Services and completed several projects with the Office of Inspector General, covering reemployed annuitant contract inspections and Iraq and Afghanistan issues in the early 2000s. Amb. Zweifel loved his life of public service from the time he started as a naval officer to when he was an FSO working on peace treaties, hostage negotiations, and securing embassies during wartime. He immersed himself in the cultures of the countries in which he served, becoming fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, and Arabic. In Washington, D.C., he joined the Paul Hill Chorale, which performed at the Kennedy Center’s Christmas concerts. With an encyclopedic knowledge of clas- sical music, he could readily identify the composer, conductor, and performing artist of any classical piece. In his final years, Amb. Zweifel pursued his avocation and talent for writing, publishing a series of books and memoirs that he generously shared with friends and family. Long after he retired, he continued to enjoy the friendship and respect of those with whom he had worked. Aman of devout faith, he also served actively in his church. He is survived by his wife, Denise; son Mark E. Zweifel; daughter Daphne L. Zweifel; and two beloved granddaugh- ters, Julia Lauren Berger and Elsa Denise Barakos-Zweifel. n If you would like us to include an obituary in In Memory, please send text to journal@afsa.org . Be sure to include the date, place, and cause of death, as well as details of the individual’s Foreign Service career. Please place the name of the AFSA member to be memorialized in the subject line of your email.