The Foreign Service Journal, May 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2017 59 attended Harvard Law School. He also spent a year at the University of Vienna, which helped him develop a lifelong interest in Eastern Europe. Mr. Fischer joined the Foreign Service in 1961. His first assignment was to U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt, where he performed consular services and perfected his already strong German language skills. He was subsequently selected for Polish-language training and assigned to Warsaw in 1964. It was his first experi- ence living in a communist-controlled country, but he was able to develop many good contacts and friendships, including with students and dissidents. In 1968 Mr. Fischer was posted to Washington, D.C., where he worked in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research on Eastern European affairs. He later joined the Arms Control & Disarmament Agency and was seconded to the Strate- gic Arms Limitation Treaty negotiations in 1969, where he remained until com- pletion of the agreement in 1972. He was particularly proud of being part of these and subsequent arms control efforts. Mr. Fischer went next to Sofia as head of the political-economic section. This was followed by an “out of area” post- ing in Kathmandu where, among other things, he and his wife, Pam, indulged their strong interest in mountain climb- ing, joining at least one expedition to Mount Everest during their stay. In 1977 he returned to arms control for the SALT II negotiations, and was then assigned to Dar es Salaam as the deputy chief of mission. As chargé d’affaires for an extended period between ambas- sadors, he was the key U.S. contact with Tanzania’s President Julius Nyerere. In 1982 President Ronald Reagan appointed Mr. Fischer ambassador to the Republic of the Seychelles. He was the first resident U.S. ambassador to that country, which was particularly impor- tant to our missile-tracking program during that period. In 1985 Ambassador Fischer returned to Washington, D.C., as director for East African affairs, responsible for 13 African countries. In that position he helped manage the massive Ethiopian famine relief effort, as well as dealing with strife in Somalia and Sudan. He returned to Germany in 1989 as consul general in Munich, then one of our largest and most important consular posts, where he managed U.S. interests during a critical time as the Cold War faded and German reunification took shape. Fluent in German and a skilled com- municator, he had a legendary network of contacts, including Franz Josef Strauss, one of Germany’s top postwar lead- ers. Along with his arms control efforts, Fischer considered his work in Munich to be the most satisfying of his Foreign Service career. Amb. Fischer retired from the Foreign Service in 1990 and went to San Fran- cisco as president of the World Affairs Council of Northern California, one of the country’s most influential foreign affairs organizations. He boosted its member- ship substantially and hosted important speakers, including many heads of state, academic leaders and opinion-makers from around the globe. In 1998 he took up a career in aca- demia as a faculty member at San Fran- cisco State University. Highly respected as a teacher, his innovative courses in arms control, intelligence and terrorism, and national security decision-making were always full. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and was awarded the Foreign Policy Association’s Medal of Highest Achievement. In 1994 he received the German Service Cross, Germany’s highest civilian honor, for his contributions to U.S-German relations. Amb. Fischer is survived by Pamela, his wife of 55 years, who accompanied him to all his posts; his sons, Mark and Keith; daughter-in-law, Stephanie; a daughter, Anne, and son-in-law, Nathan- iel Gleason, M.D.; as well as three grand- sons; and a brother, Keith Fischer. n Russell Frost (Rusty) Graham, 72, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on Jan. 24 in Greenwich, Conn., after a brief illness. Born in Norwalk, Conn., Mr. Gra- ham attended the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn., and Beloit College in Wisconsin. He received his MBA from the University of Connecticut. He served in the U.S. Army before joining the State Department as a Foreign Service officer in 1974. There he met his wife, fellow Foreign Service Officer Virginia Lancina Graham. Mr. Graham served overseas in Costa Rica, Morocco, Pakistan and Peru before returning to Washington, D.C., to study at the National War College. He served at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York City for the remainder of his career, retiring as minister counselor for host-country affairs in 2012. An avid traveler, Mr. Graham is remembered as a consummate diplomat and a master storyteller. He was passion- ate about cartography, had an encyclope- dic knowledge of the world’s geography and was fluent in French and Spanish. Mr. Graham was predeceased by his wife of 40 years, Virginia. He is survived by his daughter, Eliza- beth Graham Field (and her husband, James) of Annapolis, Md.; his son, Russell Frost Graham Jr. (and his wife, Adriane)