THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL-MAY 2025 85 IN MEMORY n Morton I. Abramowitz, 91, a retired Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, died on Nov. 29, 2024, at home in Washington, D.C. Mr. Abramowitz was born in Lakewood, N.J., on Jan. 20, 1933, the youngest of seven children. His parents, Mendel and Dora, emigrated from Lithuania in 1915. In 1950 he graduated from Lakewood High School and in 1953 from Stanford University. He earned a master’s degree from Harvard in 1955. Mr. Abramowitz joined the U.S. Army in 1957. A year later, he went to work for the International Cooperation Administration, a forerunner to USAID. In 1960 he joined the Foreign Service. His first assignments included Taipei (1960-1962) and Hong Kong (1963-1966). During his long career, Mr. Abramowitz served as special assistant to the under secretary of State; special assistant to the Secretary of Defense; political adviser to the commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet; and deputy assistant secretary of Defense for inter-American, East Asian and Pacific affairs. As assistant secretary for intelligence and research at the State Department in the 1980s, Mr. Abramowitz played a critical role in providing Stinger missiles to the Afghan resistance against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, helping turn the tide in the war and leading to Soviet withdrawal. He served as U.S. ambassador to Thailand (1978-1981), U.S. ambassador to the Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction Negotiations (MBFR) in Vienna (19831984), and U.S. ambassador to Türkiye (1989-1991). He was named a Career Ambassador in 1990. As ambassador to Thailand, he alerted the U.S. government to potential famine in Cambodia and mobilized a massive international effort to save lives. Amb. Abramowitz also played a vital role in mobilizing the Thai and U.S. governments to protect hundreds of thousands of refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia. As ambassador to Türkiye after the Persian Gulf War, he took actions that led to the protection of hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees who had massed on the Turkish-Iraq border in 1991. Former USAID Administrator Samantha Power told The New York Times: “If his career had a through line, I think it was that the human consequences of what we do and what we don’t do in government matter.” Mark Malloch-Brown, a former president of Open Society Foundations, said Amb. Abramowitz “is somebody who will be remembered both for his own extraordinary achievements but also the careers of so many that he encouraged and built and developed. “I consider myself one of those for whom he was a mentor and example. … He inspired me not just to serve but to aspire to change the world.” After retiring from the State Department in 1991, Amb. Abramowitz became president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1991-1997). He founded the International Crisis Group in 1995 and was a fellow at the Century Foundation from 1998 to 2013. Amb. Abramowitz was the author of Remaking China Policy: U.S.-China Relations and Government Decisionmaking, with co-author Richard Moorstein (Harvard University Press, 1971); Moving the Glacier: The Two Koreas and the Powers (International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1971); and Chasing the Sun: Rethinking East Asia Policy, with coauthor Stephen W. Bosworth (Century Foundation, 2006). Amb. Abramowitz was the 2006 winner of AFSA’s Award for Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy. He also received the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Service (1981, 1985, and 1988), the National Intelligence Medal (1989), and the Director General’s Cup of the Foreign Service (1995). Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Muhamed Sacirbey said: “Ambassador Morton Abramowitz has been, in my opinion, a worthy model of how to serve on behalf of a government policy regime while maintaining personal integrity of views.” He served on the boards of the International Rescue Committee, International Crisis Group, National Endowment for Democracy, and Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. Amb. Abramowitz was predeceased by his spouse of 64 years, Sheppie Abramowitz. He is survived by his son, Michael Abramowitz, director of Voice of America (and spouse Susan Baer), of Chevy Chase, Md.; daughter Rachel Abramowitz (and spouse Joshua Goldin) of Los Angeles, Calif.; and grandchildren Kate Abramowitz, Eli Goldin, and Joseph Goldin. n Hollis Spurgeon Summers III, 79, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on Feb. 15, 2025, at Greenspring Village in Springfield, Va., of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Mr. Summers was born on July 14, 1945, in Lexington, Ky. In 1967 he graduated from The George Washington University and in 1979 earned a PhD from the University of Illinois Champaign–Urbana with a thesis on politics in British literature from 1688 to 1885. After several years of teaching, including instruction aboard U.S. Navy ships,
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