The Foreign Service Journal, April 2007

George Der Koorkanian , 79, a retired FSO, died on Jan. 20 at his home in Manchester, N.H., surround- ed by his family. A graduate of the University of New Hampshire, Mr. Koorkanian joined the State Department in 1954, where he served in the Diplomatic Courier Service. During a 34-year career, Mr. Koorkanian was posted to Panama, Germany, the Philippines and Thailand, as well as Miami, Fla., and Washington, D.C. Upon retiring from the Service in 1988, Mr. Koorkanian settled in Manchester, N.H., where he was active in Democratic Party politics. A stalwart campaigner for various local, congressional, gubernatorial and pres- idential elections, Mr. Koorkanian worked tirelessly to support candi- dates and causes that championed social justice. He also served as longtime treasur- er of the Hillsborough County Demo- cratic Committee, as well as being a member of both the Manchester and State Democratic Committees. Mr. Koorkanian’s commitment to social justice was further reflected through his involvement with a num- ber of community organizations. He served as past president of both Manchester Kiwanis International and the Manchester chapter of the National Association of Retired Feder- al Employees. He was a board member of Child Health Services and also held mem- berships in the American Foreign Service Association, Foreign Affairs Retirees of New England, the American Legion and the New Hampshire Council on World Affairs. Survivors include his wife of 30 years, Cora, of Manchester, N.H.; his daughter, Diana Koorkanian-Sauders, and son-in-law, Robert Sauders, of Bethesda, Md. Sherwin Landfield , 86, a retired FSO with USAID, died on Feb. 3 at the Halquist Inpatient Center of Capital Hospice in Arlington, Va., as a result of complications from a stroke he suffered in 2003. A native of Chicago, Mr. Landfield joined the Army in 1942, and during World War II served in Iceland with the 977th AAA Automatic Weapons Battalion. After discharge from active duty (he remained in the reserves until 1953), Mr. Landfield combined his desire for travel with his passion for learning: thanks to the G.I. Bill, he studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and traveled around Europe. He graduat- ed from Central YMCA College (later Roosevelt University), and received a master’s degree at the University of Chicago in political science and public administration. He taught at Roose- velt University until he was recruited by International Harvester for their adult education department. In 1960, Mr. Landfield joined the Point Four Program, which was soon to become the U.S. Agency for International Development. His first assignment as an FSO was to Port-au- Prince, where he and a team of advis- ers created a teachers’ college. The second post was Asuncion, where he again worked on national education reform, helping to establish that coun- try’s first national bookmobile. Then came two posting to the high Andes: Ecuador, where USAID’s educational reform efforts were focused on a new teacher training system; and then Boli- via, where Mr. Landfield supervised preparation of a new national primary school curriculum. Back in Washington, D.C., in 1970, Mr. Landfield served as USAID/State liaison to the Organization of Ameri- can States and UNESCO. Later he was tasked with improving USAID’s internal communication system, and for that work was recognized with the agency’s Meritorious Honor Award. Mr. Landfield’s final overseas assignment was to Abidjan; from there he traveled throughout West Africa as USAID’s regional program evaluation officer. As he had done in the Americas, Mr. Landfield visited nearly every republic on the African conti- nent before his tour was over. In June 1977, Mr. Landfield retired from the Foreign Service, and for the next 25 years — twice in most years — he and Mrs. Landsfield undertook a new international venture to discover those corners of the world on their “must visit” list. In 1999, Mr. Land- field won a Washington Post -spon- sored contest for the most visas on a single passport: his 1985-1995 pass- port with 51 visas from Albania to Venezuela far eclipsed the closest run- ner-up. In his lifetime, Mr. Landfield visited well over 100 countries, all the American states and countless islands, waterways and byways. A 36-year resident of Arlington County, Mr. Landfield was an active member of the county’s Donaldson Run Civic Association and Citizens for the Abatement of Aircraft Noise. A frequent spokesman for CAAN, he helped push the group’s arguments all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1990. He was also an active member of the National Geographic Society, and supported his wife in her volun- teer work as a multilingual docent for international visitors at the National Galleries of Art. Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Jacqueline, of Arlington, Va.; sons Ken of Homer, Alaska, and Kerry of Pflugerville, Texas; grandson Zach- ary of Pflugerville; sisters Joy Feld- stein of Glenview, Ill., and Phyllis Goldman of Chicago, Ill.; niece Anita Julie Goldman of Brooklyn, N.Y.; nephew Philippe Lacour of Paris, A P R I L 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 75 I N M E M O R Y