The Foreign Service Journal, May 2014

66 MAY 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL IN MEMORY Mr. Brown loved dogs and the outdoors, and had a passion for new adventures. An accomplished skier, snow- boarder, water skier, wake-boarder, rock climber and kayaker, he surprised family and friends with his perpetual willingness to try new things—even taking up ballet and giving his first (and only) recital at the age of 50. A Christian Scientist, he embraced Judaism as part of his family faith. Mr. Brown is survived by his wife of 34 years, Betsey Hulnick Brown, of Lake Placid, N.Y.; his son, Michael Lawrence Brown of New Orleans, La.; his daugh- ter, Danielle Raymonde Brown, of New Haven, Conn.; his mother, Francoise Brown; his brother, Gregory, and sister, Valerie Brown Ewins; his father and mother-in-law, Don and Barbara Helnick of Tupper Lake, N.Y.; and extended family members in the United States and France. In lieu of flowers, the Browns wel- come donations to the Rotary Club of Lake Placed, the American University of Afghanistan Scholars Fund (www.AUAF. edu.af/giving/) or Planned Parenthood of the North Country New York (www. ppncny.org ). Please note “Chris Brown” in the subject line for any donations. n Peter W. Colm , 90, a retired Foreign Service officer who specialized in China, the Far East and Sino-Soviet relations, died on Jan. 5 at his home in Graham, N.C., of congestive heart failure. Mr. Colmwas born in Germany on Jan. 18, 1924. His father, Gerhard Colm, was an economist and his mother, Hanna, was a psychotherapist. Shortly after Hitler came to power in 1933, the family emigrated to the United States. During World War II, Mr. Colm served in the infantry in China, Burma and India as a corporal and sergeant assigned to the 124th Cavalry (Mars Task Force) and to n Christopher Michel Lance Brown , 57, an FSO with the U.S. Agency for Inter- national Development, died peacefully at his home with family and friends in Lake Placid, N.Y., on March 23. The son of Vince Brown, a senior USAIDmission director (one of the first development officials appointed to imple- ment the Marshall Plan), and Francoise Brown, a former French citizen, Chris Brown was in many ways born into inter- national development. Mr. Brown was raised in Islamabad and Kabul, where he learned Urdu and Dari, as well as French and English. He received his B.A. degree fromOccidental College and his master’s and doctoral degrees in agricultural economics from the Fletcher School. His doctorate was based on exten- sive field work in Liberia. Shortly after graduating from the Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Mr. Brown and his wife, Betsy, began a remarkable joint career with USAID. Over the next 20-plus years, they worked in more than 50 countries promot- ing democracy, economic growth, health, agricultural development and strategic planning. Mr. Brown was devoted to educational opportunities in Afghanistan, including the reconstruction of the American Uni- versity of Afghanistan (which was built on the rubble of his former high school). One of the highlights of his career was putting schoolbooks into the hands of millions of children across Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Family members, colleagues and friends recall his dazzling command of seven languages and a zest for life which enabled him to thrive while living with cancer for 23 years. Kind and generous, he worked throughout his life to build a sense of community, bringing people together in celebration with food, music and poetry. the Chinese Combat Command. His com- bat experience in the northern Shan and Kachin areas of Burma, and seven months in Kunming, China, where he spent his off-duty hours learning Chinese, sparked a lifelong interest in Asia. After returning to Harvard University at the end of the war, he changed his major from physics to political science and Asian studies, graduating in 1946. Mr. Colm joined the State Department in 1949 and the Foreign Service in 1960. In 1961 he was posted to Taiwan for six years, where he served as supervising politi- cal officer in the embassy in Taipei and continued his study of Mandarin Chinese in Taichung. From 1968 to 1978, he worked as a research analyst for the Institute for Defense Analyses in Alexandria, Va. He returned to the State Department in 1978 as a political analyst specializing in Soviet and Asian affairs and Sino-Soviet rela- tions. From 1980 to 1982, he was chief of the political section at the U.S. consulate general in Hong Kong. On returning to Washington, D.C., in 1983, Mr. Colm became a senior political analyst of East Asian, South Asian and Soviet affairs, holding that post until his retirement in 1987. He continued to work part-time for the State Department until 1992. Mr. Colmwas a music lover, and intro- duced his children to Pete Seeger and the Weavers, Bob Dylan and Louis Armstrong, as well as Beethoven’s late quartets. Following retirement, he and his wife, Pamela, moved fromWashington, D.C., to Lusby, Md., where they enjoyed enter- taining grandchildren, catching crabs and kayaking almost every evening in the inlets around Solomons Island. They also made several long-distance trips, to Hawaii, Cambodia, Germany and China. In 2010, the couple moved to Graham,