The Foreign Service Journal, April 2005

Robert S. Barrett IV , 77, a retired Foreign Service officer who served as ambassador to Djibouti from 1989 to 1991, died of cancer Dec. 24 at Georgetown University Hospital. He lived in Washington, D.C., and Charleston, S.C. Ambassador Barrett was born in Berlin, where his father, an American, was European manager of a trust company. He grew up in Paris, Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, Va., where he graduated from Episcopal High School in 1944. After serving in the Navy at the end of World War II, he graduated from Princeton University and later received a master’s degree in econom- ics from the University of Wisconsin. While serving in the Army in Japan, he was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. Amb. Barrett began his Foreign Service career in 1953. He served as a consular and diplomatic officer in Iran, Cambodia, France, Martinique, Vietnam, Lebanon and Bermuda. He was chief of mission in Madagascar in the mid-1970s, and also served as a Middle East specialist at the United Nations in New York. He retired in 1992. Fluent in several languages, he worked at learning the culture of the countries where he served. In Cambodia, he chose to live in a thatch- ed hut rather than in the diplomatic section of the capital. Amb. Barrett was a sailor and ten- nis player. He maintained a convert- ed oyster boat called a skipjack at the Washington Sailing Center. He was also a member of the Metropolitan Club. Survivors include his wife of 42 years, Mavis Perry Barrett of Washing- ton, D.C., and Charleston; two daugh- ters, Jane Perry Burden of Mount Pleasant, S.C., and Elizabeth Perry Gourlay, a Foreign Service officer posted in Bangladesh; a brother; and six grandchildren. Donald E. Hickson , 72, a retired FSO, died peacefully at his home in Homosassa, Fla., on Oct. 12. Mr. Hickson was born in St Petersburg, Fla. He served in the U.S. Navy Submarine Service during the Korean War, and graduated from Florida State University in 1957. After receiving his CPA, he joined USAID in 1962. Mr. Hickson’s first post was Phnom Penh, but the family was evacuated to Vietnam in December 1963. He was posted to Bangkok, evacuated from La Paz in 1968, evacuated from Jordan in 1970 and transferred to Lima in 1970, as a controller for USAID. Mr. Hickson was assigned to Swaziland, Washington, D.C., Yemen and India before retiring in 1987. Following retirement he traveled extensively on contract work to Haiti, Jamaica, Pakistan, India, Senegal, Ethiopia, Zambia, Senegal, Niger and Mali. In 2000, Mr. and Mrs. Hickson spent six months in Mali, and visited Timbuktu. In addition to his wife of 47 years, Joann LaMorder Hickson, survivors include his four children, Brian, Bradley, Barry and Bridgette; seven grandchildren; and his sister Amy Ostrander of Fort Myers, Fla. Martin Joseph Hillenbrand , 89, a retired FSO and ambassador to Hungary and Germany, died Feb. 3 at his home in Athens, Ga. Dr. Hillenbrand was born in Youngstown, Ohio, and spent his boy- hood in Chicago, Ill. He graduated from the University of Dayton in 1937, from which he also received a doctor- ate of letters (honoris causa) in 1963. He received his M.A. (1938) and Ph.D. (1948) degrees from Columbia University, and pursued postgraduate studies at Harvard University (1949- 50). He also received the degree of LL.D. (h.c.) from the University of Maryland (1973). A P R I L 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 55 I N M EMORY