The Foreign Service Journal, May 2012

58 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 1 2 born, he and his mother moved from Paris, settling in Los Angeles, Calif. He attended Hollywood High School, graduating in 1941, and during that time worked as an office assistant for several of the major studios. Favorite jobs included parking Olivia de Hav- illand’s car and walking Gene Tier- ney’s dog. Peter Cody served on active duty in the U.S. Naval Reserve from July 1944 to March 1946, including a year on the USS Diphda , and was promoted to lieutenant. After graduating from sub- marine school in New London, Conn., he served from 1951 to 1956 on five subs. Mr. Cody received a B.A. in 1947 and an M.A. in 1948, both from Yale University, where he also worked to- ward his Ph.D., and was an instructor in economics. After graduation, he worked for the Federal Reserve Board from 1950 to 1954, when he began his Foreign Service career with the U.S. Agency for International Develop- ment. Mr. Cody’s first assignment was as a program officer in Mexico City, where he met his wife, Rosa Maria Cody, nee Alatorre. He was next posted to El Sal- vador (1957-1959), and then returned to Washington, D.C., to the State De- partment’s Laos Affairs Office. In 1961 Mr. Cody was assigned to Cambodia, where he was promoted to deputy mission director. In 1964, at the request of the Cambodian govern- ment, the entire program was termi- nated. Mr. Cody became acting director, negotiating and supervising the closing of the mission. In 1964 he returned to State as director of the Of- fice of Vietnam Affairs, and then served as deputy director of the USAID Mission in Laos. During his tour as mission director in Paraguay (1967-1971), Mr. Cody learned Guarani and often delivered speeches in the indigenous language. He next served as mission director in Ecuador (1971-1975), the Philippines (1976-1979) and Lebanon (1979- 1980). In 1981, at the end of his long ca- reer, Peter Cody received the Agency for International Development’s Mer- itorious Service Award. He was known for traveling far and wide to learn first- hand about a country’s conditions and to meet the population and staff mem- bers working in the field. He learned to speak the languages of every country to which he was posted, and thrived in the often-volatile environments in which he worked. Following retirement, Mr. Cody worked as a consultant for the Pan- American Development Foundation in Central America; the AFL-CIO in El Salvador, Egypt, and Guatemala; Price Waterhouse in Kenya; the Unit- ed Nations in several Pacific islands; and USAID in the Sudan, Zaire, Haiti, Mauritania and Liberia. Mr. Cody was a member of the Cosmos Club, Diplomatic and Con- sular Officers Retired, the American Foreign Service Association, the Mountainside Villas Owners Associa- tion, and the Yale Clubs of New York and Washington, D.C. A great outdoorsman and adven- turer, Mr. Cody reached the summits of Cotopaxi, Huayna Pichu, Pichincha and Mount Kenya, and hiked in many other mountains in the Alps and Hi- malayas. He was proudest of his ascent of Cotopaxi, peaking at 19,347 feet. He canoed down numerous rivers, including the Amazon, played tennis every day and skied until he was 83. He enjoyed scuba diving, kayaking, white water rafting, and water skiing (which he did a number of times in a piranha-infested river). Other hobbies were astronomy and shell collecting. Although he traveled extensively for USAID, Mr. Cody also traveled widely on his own, and had visited every con- tinent and all but a handful of coun- tries. One of his favorite places, how- ever, was in the Adirondacks, where his family had vacationed since his grand- parents bought a home there in the early 1900s. In his 80s, he interviewed Yale can- didates and was also working on the dissertation to finish his Ph.D. and an autobiography. Mr. Cody is survived by his wife of 55 years, Rosa Maria Cody, of Wash- ington, D.C., who traveled and shared many of his adventures with him; two I N M E M O R Y Dear Readers: In order to produce a high- quality product, the FSJ depends on the revenue it earns from advertising. You can help with this. Please let us know the names of companies that have provided good service to you — a hotel, insurance company, auto dealership, or other concern. A referral from our readers is the best entrée! You Are Our Eyes & Ears! Ed Miltenberger Advertising & Circulation Manager Tel: (202) 944-5507 E-mail: miltenberger@afsa.org