The Foreign Service Journal, May 2015

64 MAY 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL n Maudine Conley , 87, a retired Foreign Service communications officer, died on Nov. 21, 2014. Ms. Conley was born in Denton, Ga., on Feb. 9, 1927, to Clayton S. and Ollie Mae Mathis. She began her Foreign Service career in 1979 with a posting to Israel. Other assignments included China, El Salvador, Qatar, Syria, Laos, Beirut, Suriname, Honduras and Papua New Guinea. She retired in 1999. Ms. Conley lived in the Middle Georgia area. She loved entertaining, reading and growing flowers that often adorned the sanctuary of Joyful Life Baptist Church on Sunday mornings. Ms. Conley was predeceased by her son, Thomas Conley; brother, Clayton “Bud” Mathis; and sister, Jeana Quick. She is survived by her daughters, LaDonne O’Connor (Jim) of Aiken, S.C., and Sherry Wilson (David) of High Point, N.C.; grandchildren: Amy Wilson Havlen (Leo) and Michael Wilson, both of High Point, N.C.; Kevin O’Connor (Margaret) of Aiken, S.C.; Cory O’Connor of Cle Elum, Wash.; Kelly Conley Davis (Travis), Kristy Conley and Lesley Conley, all of Virginia Beach, Va.; great grandchildren: Adela, Nora and Karina Havlen, Madison Conley, Riley Conley and Harper Davis; three brothers; three sisters; and a host of nieces and nephews. Donations may be given in Ms. Con- ley’s memory to Joyful Life Baptist Church at 1618 S. Houston Lake Rd., Kathleen GA 31047, or to Heart of Georgia Hospice at 103 Westridge Dr., Warner Robins GA 31088. n Arthur A. Hartman , 89, a retired FSO and former ambassador to France and the Soviet Union, died on March 16 in Washington, D.C., of complications from a fall. Mr. Hartman was born in Flushing, N.Y., on March 1, 1926, to Joel Hartman and Mary Weinstein. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II before receiving a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1947. He enrolled at Harvard Law School but left to enter the Foreign Service in 1948 and join the Marshall Plan administration in Europe. In a diplomatic career spanning four decades, Mr. Hartman held high-ranking posts under Republican and Democratic administrations and developed a reputa- tion, the New York Times once reported, as “one of the brainiest and most profes- sional members of the Foreign Service.” Mr. Hartman’s first post, to France with the Economic Cooperation Admin- istration, was followed by assignments in Saigon as an economic officer in the 1950s. He returned to Washington in 1958 to work in the Bureau of European Affairs and was appointed special assistant to Under Secretary George W. Ball shortly thereafter. Beginning in 1961, Mr. Hartman served in London as chief of the eco- nomic section. A return to State in 1968 in Under Secretary of State Nicholas Kat- zenbach’s office was followed by a short posting to Brussels in 1972 as deputy chief of mission to the Common Market. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called Mr. Hartman back to the United States in 1974 to act as assistant secretary of State for European affairs. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter named Mr. Hartman ambassador to France, only the second career diplomat appointed to the Paris post during the 20th century. His tenure straddled the centrist government led by President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and the Socialist administration of François Mitterrand. The Reagan administration asked Ambassador Hartman to stay on in Paris as a liaison to the Mitterrand adminis- tration. He made an impression on the French for his conspicuous presence at artistic events such as the opera, and his use of his residence as a showcase for American art, borrowed from American museums. In 1981 President Ronald Reagan appointed Mr. Hartman ambassador to the Soviet Union, where he served dur- ing a particularly tumultuous period of the Cold War from the death of Leonid Brezhnev to the rise of Mikhail Gor- bachev. He remained in Moscow until 1987, the longest tenure of any U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union since before World War II. Amb. Hartman led Embassy Mos- cow during events that included the historic summits attended by Reagan and Gorbachev in Geneva in 1985 and in Reykjavík in 1986. He contended with crises including the downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 by the Soviet military in 1983, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 and, later that year, the detention of U.S. journalist Nicholas Daniloff on espionage charges. His challenges also included what he described as the restrictive character of Soviet society. Jack F. Matlock Jr., who followed him as U.S. ambassador in Mos- cow, credited Amb. Hartman and his wife with developing cultural contacts in the Soviet Union, particularly with dissident artists, including acclaimed Russian-born pianist Vladimir Horowitz, who returned to his homeland in 1986 for the first time in six decades. After retiring from the Foreign Service in 1987, Amb. Hartman was a consultant with APCO Associates. He also served on many boards, including ITT Hartford Insurance, Mellon/Dreyfus Funds, Ford Meter Box Co. and the First American Bank in New York. He was chairman of a private equity fund that invested in the