The Foreign Service Journal, May 2004

first presidential inaugural concert in January 1961. Mr. Kohn joined the Foreign Service in 1963, and served on the staff of the U.S. committee for UNESCO. He retired from the State Department in 1976, and relo- cated to Florida. In retirement he pursued inter- ests in gardening, spectator sports and environmental causes, and was active in programs at On Top of the World. Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Maribelle; a sister, Ruth Fisk of Buffalo, N.Y.; two nephews, Chris Kohn of Fairfax, Va., and Norman Kohn of Doraville, Ga; and two nieces, Barbara Sanders of Rich- mond Hill, Ga., and Kathie Labys of Morgantown, W. Va. George Thomas Lister , 90, retired FSO, was widely known as “Mr. Human Rights” for his 60-year career with the Department of State that focused largely on the promo- tion of democracy and human rights. He died Feb. 4 of aspiration pneu- monia at the Washington Home in Washington, D.C. He had Parkin- son’s disease. Mr. Lister was born in Chicago, Ill. He was educated in New York City, including a short stint at the Professional Children's School. He graduated from the City College of New York (Evening Session), which he attended for seven years while working as a bank teller during the day. Mr. Lister served as a Foreign Service officer during the first half of his long career, specializing in Eastern European and Latin Ameri- can affairs. His postings included Warsaw, Moscow, Rome, Regens- burg, Bogota and Buenaventura. During his 1957-1961 assignment as a political officer in Rome, Mr. Lister played a key role in initiating contact with the Italian socialists and persuading them to end their coop- eration with the communists. Lis- ter’s role was described briefly in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.’s 1965 book on the Kennedy administration, A Thousand Days , and discussed in detail at a 1993 University of Massa- chusetts symposium, “One Hundred Years of Italian Democratic Social- ism.” He returned to Washington in 1962. Mr. Lister was very active both inside and outside the government in the promotion of human rights. In the early 1970s he cooperated with Rep. Don Fraser, D-Minn., and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, in their call for a higher priority for human rights in U.S. foreign policy and the creation of a State Department human rights bureau. Mr. Lister held several posi- tions in what is now the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, and was named its first human rights offi- cer in 1974. He retired in 1981. For most of the next 20 years, working as a foreign affairs officer and unpaid expert, he served as senior policy adviser in the department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, working on human rights problems worldwide. George Lister’s human rights efforts were recognized in numerous countries. In 1992, the government of Chile presented him with an award for his help in restoring democracy there. In 1998, he was invited to the South Korean presidential inaugura- tion of Kim Dae Jung, in recognition of Lister’s early help to him during the latter's painful years of exile and house arrest. His efforts on behalf of human rights and democracy were also recognized by the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Poland and the Philippines. In 1997, Mr. Lister was nominat- ed for the Warren Christopher Award, for “sustained outstanding achievement on behalf of democracy and human rights.” In 1998, the United Nations Association gave him an award for “tireless commitment and dedication to the promotion and protection of human rights.” George Lister leaves behind a lasting legacy and many devoted friends worldwide. As New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who worked with Mr. Lister in Washington, told the Washington Post : “There are probably a lot of people who have human rights in their titles, but the conscience of human rights is gone.” Mr. Lister is survived by his wife, Dr. Aleta Lister of Washington, D.C. Howard Meyers , 86, retired FSO, died Feb. 6 at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., of complications following coronary artery bypass surgery. A graduate of the University of Michigan (1937) and the Harvard Law School (1940), Mr. Meyers prac- ticed law in New York City before joining the U.S. Army Counter- intelligence Corps in 1942. He served in the Counterintelligence Corps until 1946, with overseas assignments in New Guinea, various Philippine Islands and Japan. He returned to Japan to be chief of the Criminal Affairs Branch in the Government and Legal Sections of the Supreme Commander, Allied Powers, Japan. While there, from 1946 to 1949, he was engaged in revi- sions of the basic Japanese law codes. Mr. Meyers joined the Depart- ment of State in November 1949, and subsequently the Foreign Service. Initially, he was a specialist in international security issues, and then was the principal staff officer responsible for developing State 70 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 4 I N M E M O R Y