The Foreign Service Journal, May 2016

48 may 2016 | the foreign Service journal During the last 10 years I have been a professor in San Anto- nio and have now returned to St. Mary’s University as professor of diplomacy—where I taught 50 years ago and where I met my wife of 50 years, Gwyn. The circle of life. I am honored to hold the professorship named for an old friend and late colleague, Ambassador Eugene Scassa, a friend of many of us veteran diplomats and a great mentor to a whole cohort of this century’s Foreign Service officers. My advice would be to not plan your entire career. Think of five years, and see what happens. There is lots of life after the Foreign Service. In the meantime, go for the experience and for the great opportunity to serve our country and, through diplo- macy, improve our world. Jim Creagan began his career at USAID before joining the State De- partment Foreign Service in 1966. He held positions as chargé d’affairs and deputy chief of mission in Italy and the Holy See, consul general in São Paulo, political counselor in Brasilia and Portugal, and consul in Naples, as well as serving in Lima, Mexico City, San Salvador and Rome. He was named U.S. ambassador to Honduras in 1996, and in 2009 served as chief of mission in Bolivia. He retired formally in 1999, and became president of John Cabot University in Rome. Karate Anyone? By Robert H . Curt i s P eople say that happiness and satisfaction in retirement require that you have goals and interests to keep you busy. It is never too early to begin thinking about what you will do when you retire. For me, retirement after 34 years of government service provides the opportunity to focus on gardening, reading, study- ing in college-level courses, teaching a course at George Mason University and teaching traditional adult-focused Okinawan self-defense karate—my lifelong passion. I have been a student of an Okinawan Karate Grand Master, now a 10th Degree, since 1979. In spite of the challenges of a Peace Corps assignment in rural Paraguay and four overseas postings along with Washington assignments in the Foreign Service, I continued to practice and teach karate. When I began studying the martial arts I was unconcerned with, and probably unaware of, the long-term physical ben- efits it provides. Older masters refer to karate as the pathway Robert Curtis, at right in this series of photos, demonstrates techniques for responding to a certain kind of attack by grabbing the attacker’s hand and wrenching his arm or elbow to break it (1), performing a classic arm bar (2) and delivering a kick with a heel to the ribs of the attacker (3). COURTESYOFROBERTCURTIS