The Foreign Service Journal, May 2008

I N M EMORY Mabel Irene Conley Barrows , 97, widow of the late Ambassador Le- land Barrows, passed away on Feb. 24 in Washington, D.C. Mrs. Barrows was born in Cleve- land, Kans., in 1910. She earned a B.A. and M.A. in English and world litera- ture, respectively, at the University of Kansas, and was admitted to Phi Beta Kappa in 1934 while pursuing gradu- ate studies. In 1935, she married Leland Barrows, accompanying him to postings with the Marshall Plan, the Foreign Operations Administration, and the Foreign Service in Paris, Rome, Athens, Saigon and Yaoundé. Following her husband’s retire- ment, Mrs. Barrows served for a num- ber of years as a tutor for the Kings- bury Center in Washington, D.C., and then freelanced as a tutor. Irene Barrows is survived by her son, Leland Conley Barrows, and daughter-in-law, Adra Benaissa Bar- rows of Blackville, S.C.; her daughter, Jennifer Golden of Washington, D.C.; and her granddaughter, Nassima Irene Barrows. Craig Baxter , 78, a retired FSO, died on Feb. 7 in Huntingdon, Pa. Mr. Baxter was born in Elizabeth, N.J., on Feb. 16, 1929, and raised in Union, N.J., and Cleveland, Ohio. He entered the Foreign Service in 1956, and, during a 25-year career, served in Bombay (Mumbai), New Delhi, La- hore, Accra and Dhaka, as well as Washington, D.C. From 1971 to 1974, he was the Foreign Service visit- ing faculty member at West Point. After retirement in 1981, Mr. Bax- ter joined the faculty of Juniata Col- lege in Huntingdon as professor of politics and history. He also served as a consultant to several groups involved with South Asia. Mr. Baxter was the author, co- author or editor of 19 books on South Asia, including the textbook Govern- ment and Politics in South Asia (West- view Press, 2001), now in its fifth edi- tion. He is also the author of numer- ous articles in academic journals and chapters in collective works. He was the founding president of the Ameri- can Institute of Bangladesh Studies and also served as president of the American Institute of Pakistan Stud- ies. Mr. Baxter’s wife, Barbara Stevens Baxter, preceded him in death on Dec. 23, 2003. He is survived by a son, Craig Baxter II of McLean, Va.; a daughter, Louise S. Baxter of Vienna, Va.; and a brother, William J. Baxter Jr. of Chadds Ford, Pa. Maurice M. Bernbaum , 98, a retired Foreign Service officer who served as ambassador to Ecuador and Venezuela, died on March 9 at his home in the Collington Episcopal Life Care Community inMitchellville, Md. Born in Chicago in 1910 to immi- grant parents, Maurice Bernbaum attended public school and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1931. With a degree in eco- nomics, he had planned to go into investment banking; but because the Depression was in full force at the time, that was not an option. He worked briefly as a social worker in Chicago and then took jobs in 1935 and 1936 with the Treasury Depart- ment and the Tariff Commission, respectively, in Washington, D.C. There he met his wife-to-be, Eliza- beth “Betty” Hahn, on a blind date. Intrigued by the idea of diplomacy and travel, he took the entrance exam- ination and joined the Foreign Service in 1936. His first posting, as vice con- sul, was in Vancouver, followed by Singapore in 1939. There he took the initiative, for which he was later repri- manded, to grant visas to Jewish refugees on a ship bound for the Philippines, thereby saving their lives. He himself left Singapore shortly before the Japanese took it from the British in World War II. On returning to the U.S., he mar- ried Elizabeth Hahn in Washington, D.C., in 1942. The newlyweds spent their honeymoon shopping for house- 66 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 8