THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY-JUNE 2026 89 IN MEMORY n Todd H. Amani, 71, a retired Foreign Service officer with USAID, died on January 26, 2026, in Swannanoa, N.C. Born in 1955, Mr. Amani was raised in Dodge Center, Minn., where for many years he headed out at 5:30 every morning to deliver the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He graduated from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, in 1978 and Johns Hopkins School of International Studies (SAIS) in 1983. He married Mary Jo Felderman, a student at Wartburg College, in May 1979. The couple served in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica from 1980 to 1981. Mr. Amani was injured during his Peace Corps tenure and from then on used a wheelchair or long-legged braces and crutches. Mr. Amani worked as legislative assistant for Congressman Tim Penny (D-Minn.) from 1985 to 1986, and the next year, he shared a political science teaching position with his wife at their alma mater, Wartburg College. In 1987 Mr. Amani joined the Foreign Service at USAID. He served as a program officer in Egypt, Nicaragua, Honduras (1988–2001); democracy, rights, and governance officer in Nicaragua, Washington, D.C., and Guatemala (1994–2004); deputy mission director in Guatemala (2004–2007); and mission director in Mozambique (2007–2012). Mr. Amani retired from the Foreign Service in 2014 as senior deputy assistant administrator in USAID’s Africa Bureau. He then worked for four years as director of Safe Passage, a nonprofit providing schooling and family support for children in Guatemala City, and for two more years as chief of party for IREX’s Transformative Action Project in Guatemala. The couple settled in Swannanoa, N.C., in the fall of 2019. Neighbors will miss his daily evening rolls in his wheelchair with his faithful dog, Saoirse. Friends and family remember Mr. Amani as a natural teacher, who listened closely with curiosity. They recall enjoying his guitar playing, sing-alongs, chocolate chip cookies, sourdough bread, and kombucha. And they celebrate his kindness, good humor, creativity, calm wisdom, perseverance in all adversity, and courage, especially in his final passage: He faced Alzheimer’s disease with quiet grace. Mr. Amani was predeceased by his son Luke in 2015. He is survived by his wife and soulmate, Mary Jo; daughter, Elisabeth; son, Liam (and spouse, Sarah); daughter-inlaw, Cristina; grandson, Gabe; siblings, Scott (and spouse, Robin) Hanson, Mark (and spouse, Steph) Hanson, and Lynn Hanson; mother-in-law, Janet Felderman; and brothers-in-law, Bob (and spouse, Nancy) Felderman, Bill (and spouse, Wendi) Felderman, of Dubuque, Iowa, and Patrick (and spouse, Jeri) Felderman of Fla. n Duane Clemens Butcher, 85, a retired Foreign Service officer, passed away at home in Arlington, Va., on August 17, 2025. Born to Helen Clemens Butcher and Cecil E. Butcher and raised in Ponca City, Okla., Mr. Butcher was always proud of his blue-collar roots. He attended the University of Idaho on a football scholarship, graduated from Oklahoma State University in political science, and received a master’s degree in economics from Princeton University. In 1962 Mr. Butcher joined the U.S. Foreign Service, first serving in Adana and Istanbul, where he helped oversee the evacuation of U.S. citizens from Cyprus and saved a U.S. airman from an angry mob. He was then assigned to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, followed by tours in Bonn, Jeddah, Stockholm, Nairobi, and New Delhi. Mr. Butcher’s stateside assignments included two years of university training at Princeton, a year in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, and a year in the Office of the Governor of Colorado under the Pearson Fellowship as then constituted. Fluent in Turkish and German, he rose to the senior ranks of the Service even while speaking his mind with rare candor. Keeping his sights on long-term U.S. interests, he authored a record number of dissent cables, including urging a coordinated campaign to fight corruption in 1980s Kenya and challenging conventional wisdom about whether 1970s Sweden could be counted on in a confrontation with the Soviet Union. While serving as shift coordinator on the Operation Center’s Kuwait Task Force, which was helping coordinate the U.S. diplomatic response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1991, Mr. Butcher declined to allow a senior foreign official, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations and soon-to-be deputy minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, dictate instructions for a U.S. démarche: “Mr. Ambassador, I take my instructions from the Secretary of State. You are welcome to call Secretary Baker.” At an imposing six feet five, Mr. Butcher approached life with intellectual and physical vigor. An avid reader, he also enjoyed activities such as football, squash, scuba diving in the Baltic and Red Seas, cross country skiing, and even the Marine Corps Marathon at age 50. Family members recall that Mr. Butcher, ever the great linebacker, inspired both his brother, Larry, and his son Duane Jr. to follow his lead into the U.S. Foreign Service.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODIyMDU=