The Foreign Service Journal, May 2003

Arnie’s stepdaughter Susanna Fajardo captures his warm sense of humor in her memories of 1979, the year she and her mother and brother, Matthew, embarked on their life with Arnie. “We were soon made aware that our life with this Foreign Service diplomat would have its own special ‘Arnie’ flavor, as the first leg of the jour- ney [to Turkey] was spent driving from Chicago to Washington, D.C. in his dilapidated 1964 Dodge Dart — the Dartmobile,” she recalls. Arnie and Joan built and main- tained a large network of relationships with people from all ends of the world and took great pleasure in hosting friends and new members of the Foreign Service community for din- ners, weekends, weeks and sometimes even months at a time. On these occa- sions, Susanna recalls, Arnie thrived on going out of his way to make people feel comfortable and welcome, and they in turn were gratified by his hos- pitality and presence. Most recently, Arnie delighted in the joys of being a grandfather to Isabel, Susanna and husband Anton Pav’s daughter. “Given the wonderful father that Arnie was to me, it came as no surprise when grandparenthood came so naturally to him,” says Susanna. “I was blessed to be able to see the joy that baby Isabel brought to him.” In the past 10 years, Arnie had taken up running serious- ly, completing two Marine Corps marathons and compet- ing in many 10Ks and other races in the area. He had com- pleted the 2003 St. Patrick’s Day 10K race and was on his way home when he suffered the fatal heart attack. Arnie Schifferdecker was a member of the American Foreign Service Association and the Foreign Policy Association. Survivors include his wife, Joan Schifferdecker of Washington; two stepchildren, Matthew Fajardo of Makanda, Ill., and Susanna Fajardo- Pav of Casablanca, Morocco; two brothers; two sisters; and a grand- daughter, Isabel. A memorial service, “Celebrating the Life of Arnold Schifferdecker,” was held at the DACOR Bacon House on March 22. At the family’s request, tax deductible contributions in Arnie’s name may be made to the Afghanistan-America Foundation, 209 Pennsylvania Avenue NE, #700, Washington, DC 20003. In response to an AFSANET announcing Arnie’s untimely death, the Journal received many messages from friends and colleagues. We have only been able to publish excerpts from a few of them here, but all of the messages were forwarded to the Schifferdecker family. T HE ULTIMATE DIPLOMAT … I knew Arnie Schifferdecker best when we were colleagues at the American Embassy in Kabul, where his special talent of identifying him- self with the people and culture of the country in which he was serving was quickly apparent. He rejoiced with the rest of us when Kabul was liberat- ed by the Northern Alliance and American forces. When many of us gathered here at home to celebrate that historic event, Arnie — true to form — appeared proudly in Afghan costume. Arnie was the ultimate diplomat, but I remember him best for what he was as a human being — warm, decent and full of integrity. If there ever was a ‘Mister Nice’ in the Foreign Service, it was Arnie Schifferdecker. — Bruce Laingen A HEART AS LARGE AS HIS NAME … Such sad news on my screen this morning. Arnie Schifferdecker was my supervisor in Rabat when I arrived in 1988. His affable, generous char- acter set the tone for the office and I’m sure he will always remain one of my favorite FS supervisors. I did, however, have one complaint, which I voiced to him on several occasions: his name. How many times a day did I try to enunciate with my best French accent — “Scheef - err - deck - err” — over the phone to some hap- less Moroccan who then would inevitably ask me to spell it for them? But for Arnie, a man whose heart was as large as his name was long, I would have done it for the rest of my career. — Carol L. Scannell M Y INTRODUCTION TO THE F OREIGN S ERVICE … I hadn’t actually seen Arnie in years, but he was in the most impor- tant ways one of my introductions to the Foreign Service. I arrived in Kabul in the summer of 1970 as a wet-behind-the-ears USIA junior offi- cer. Arnie introduced me to Kabul, to life in an (old-style) embassy commu- nity, to what it meant to be a profes- sional, and most of all, to what a 52 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 2 Arnie with stepdaughter Susanna Fajardo in 1994. A P P R E C I A T I O N