The Foreign Service Journal, May 2012

M A Y 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 57 I N M E M O R Y ment’s Wilbur Carr Award, the highest honor accorded retiring ambassadors. In retirement, Ambassador Boehm was a voracious reader and loved to travel for interest and enjoyment. He had friends all over the world and en- joyed vacationing each summer with friends and family at the beach in Delaware or North Carolina. He was a skilled raconteur who could enthrall his listeners with anecdotes that ran the gamut from his boyhood in Queens to dining with presidents and kings in ex- otic lands. Over the course of his distinguished career, Amb. Boehm served with flair and wisdom. Fluent in French and German, he had an insatiable thirst for knowledge and loved the arts and na- ture. He was highly regarded by his peers as a man of broad education and sharp wit who was always cool under pressure. As friends and family mem- bers recall, Amb. Boehm found his ca- reer exciting and deeply fulfilling on both a personal and professional level. Survivors include his daughter, Karen Boehm, of Waterford, Conn.; his son, Stephen Boehm of Bethesda, Md.; and his granddaughter, Christina Boehm of Arlington, Va. His wife, Pa- tricia, passed away in 1971. He was also predeceased by his sister Betty Shave of Amityville, N.Y.; another sis- ter, MarionWolf of Port Huron, Mich.; and a granddaughter, Veronica Boehm of Brooklyn, N.Y. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 12, at the DACOR Bacon House, 1801 F Street NW, Washington, D.C. Mary Elisabeth von Briesen , 68, a retired Foreign Service officer, died of a stroke on Jan. 8 in Arlington, Va. Ms. von Briesen was born in Mil- waukee, Wis., where her family host- ed many international visitors, and she and her siblings developed a keen in- terest in the world about them. She spent a high school semester as an American Field Service exchange stu- dent in Austria. While studying history at Wellesley College, an internship in the office of Senator WilliamProxmire, D-Wisc., established her love of Wash- ington, D.C., her “second home.” Realizing a longtime ambition, Ms. von Briesen joined the Peace Corps, serving with one of the early groups and as one of the first female Peace Corps Volunteers posted in Nepal. She traversed the country, typically on foot and toting a backpack, promoting women’s education and recruiting fe- male students around the country to attend the Women’s Training Institute in Kathmandu. There they studied home economics, health and hygiene. Returning to the U.S., she com- pleted graduate work at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and en- tered the Foreign Service in 1968. Ms. von Briesen began her 28-year career with the State Department as an Afrikaans-speaking consular officer in Pretoria. Subsequent assignments took her to Taipei; Beijing; Taipei again; Stuttgart, where she directed the consular office; and Washington, D.C., where she headed the Office of Asylum Affairs. She especially enjoyed two assign- ments with the Department of De- fense: a year at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., and a tour as diplomat- in-residence at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. After retirement from the Foreign Service in 1996, second careers with Borders Books andWashington Guide Services suited her passion for books, her love of Washington, D.C., and her experience of teaching and sharing across cultures. Because she was fluent inMandarin Chinese and German, Ms. von Briesen was frequently called on to lead tourists from China, Taiwan and Ger- many to Washington’s attractions, his- toric monuments and neighborhoods. Chinatown was a favored stop for lunch on such excursions. An enthusiastic reader and racon- teur, Ms. von Briesen was also a col- lector, specializing in folk art and handmade treasures. She loved camp- ing, maple sugar, the Green Bay Pack- ers and her dogs and cats. Following her passing, a celebration of Mary von Briesen’s life was held at DACOR Bacon House with family, de- voted friends and diplomatic col- leagues. Amemorial service is planned for June 23 in Milwaukee, Wis. Donations in her memory may be made to American Field Service In- ternational Scholarships, the World Wildlife Federation, the American Cancer Society or a service organiza- tion of one’s choice. Peter Malcolm Cody , 86, a re- tired USAID Foreign Service officer, died on March 2 at Sibley Hospital in Washington, D.C., from complications following a cardiac arrest. Mr. Cody was born on July 30, 1925, in Paris. His parents were part of the American community there, known as “The Lost Generation.” His father, Morrill Cody, was a journalist and novelist, who later worked for United States Information Services in the 1940s. His mother, nee Frances Ryan, was a novelist and actress. Two years after Mr. Cody was