The Foreign Service Journal, May 2016

76 MAY 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL ciation for Peace Corps Volunteers in Togo, and gave generously to various organiza- tions empowering women. Mr. Geisler is survived by his wife, Christiane, of Washington, D.C.; children, Ian of Seattle, Wash., and Sammy of New Orleans, La.; siblings, Jerry of Deep Creek Lake, Md., Michelle of Jekyll Island, Ga., and Scott of Selida, Colo. n Morris “Rusty” NelsonHughes Jr. , 70, a retired Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, died on Jan. 9 at home in Naples, Fla., after a long and courageous battle with lymphoma. Born in Humboldt, Neb., on Sept. 2, 1945, to Calista Cooper andMorris N. Hughes, Mr. Hughes grew up in Cuba, Switzerland, Tunisia, Iceland and France. He attended the Loomis School inWind- sor, Conn., graduating in 1963, and went on to graduate from the University of Nebraska in 1967 with a degree in political science. From 1967 to 1969, he served as a U.S. Marine Corps platoon commander in Vietnam, where he received two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and the Navy Com- mendationMedal, both with Combat V designation. Mr. Hughes joined the Department of State in 1970 as a Foreign Service officer, like his father before him. He retired from the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of minister counselor after a 35-year career, during which he served as the U.S. ambas- sador to Burundi and consul general in St. Petersburg, as well as at diplomatic posts in Cameroon, France, Belgium, the USSR andMexico. He also served as diplomat- in-residence at Tulane University. He spoke French, Russian and Spanish. After retiring in 2005, Ambassador Hughes worked for the Office of the Inspector General in Senegal, Mexico, Haiti, China, Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2010, he became captain of his own trawler, The Cooper , and he and his wife spent the next four years having adven- tures. The couple completed the Great Loop, cruised toMontreal, toMaine and circumnavigated Lake Superior. Their next trip was to have been the Down East Loop. He greatly enjoyed skeet and pistol shooting, fishing and his daily cigar and Manhattan. Friends and family remember Amb. Hughes fondly as a gentleman, a deco- rated combat veteran, diplomat, husband, father, grandfather, brother and cousin. He is survived by his beloved wife, Betty de Jong Hughes; his two children, Guy (Kristen) of Geneva, Switzerland and Cassie (Christina) of Berkeley, Calif.; grandchild Hans Hughes; three step-chil- dren: James (Jennifer) of Toronto, Joanna (Pascal) of Montreal, and Jason (Shayna) of Hamilton, Canada; five step-grandchil- dren: Ariane, Andre, Emelie, Courtney and Hailey; and his sister, Mary Solari, of Rocklin, Calif. n Geraldine (Gerry) Frances Keener , 67, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on Feb. 18 in Arlington, Va., after a long illness. Ms. Keener was born on Aug. 29, 1948. She was a graduate of Lourdes Academy in Cleveland, Ohio, andThe Catholic Uni- versity of America inWashington, D.C. She began her career at the Catholic University Law Library, andmoved on to positions at Williams and Connolly, LLP and Lexis. In the late 1970s, she boldly moved across the country to Hollywood to work in film and television production, and rose through the ranks to become an assis- tant director. Ms. Keener shaped classic andmuch-loved American productions including Star Trek: The Next Generation , The Naked Gun and Matlock . She also worked on Gore Vidal’s 1982 Senate cam- paign in California. In her career as a diplomat, Ms. Keener was responsible for managing media rela- tions, expanding cultural outreach and improving local perceptions of the United States. She served inWashington, D.C., Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, but her passion was for sub-Saharan Africa, where she felt she could have the greatest impact. In the 1990s, Ms. Keener was among the first U.S. diplomats to work in post- apartheid South Africa. She later managed public diplomacy programs in support of NATO’s missions in Bosnia and Kosovo at the U.S. mission to NATO in Brussels, and served as spokeswoman for the U.S. consulate in Jeddah and the U.S embassies in Harare and Kigali. She returned to the Washington, D.C., area in 2009 on retiring from the Foreign Service, and continued to stay in touch with her friends for as long as she was able. Ms. Keener is survived by a devoted circle of friends fromher college years, as well as fromher careers in law, film and the Foreign Service. n Gloria Irene (Wasielewski) Kreisher , 89, a retired Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Information Agency, died on Sept. 24 at her retirement home in Bakersfield, Calif. Mrs. Kreisher was born into a Polish- American family in Phoenix, Ariz. She graduated fromhigh school at age 16, completed her associate degree in 1944 and attended the University of California at Berkeley, where she majored in Spanish and became fluent in Portuguese, complet- ing her bachelor’s degree in 1946 at age 20. She was enrolled in the first class at the new American Institute for Foreign Trade (theThunderbird School) and received her master’s degree in 1947, later earning another, in linguistics, fromGeorgetown