The Foreign Service Journal, May 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2017 65 cousins, John Chantiles and Joseph Chantiles. Memorial contributions may be made to the Alexandria Police Foundation or to Friends of the Fairfax County Animal Shelter. n Harry Elstner Talbott Thayer , 89, a retired Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, died on Jan. 21 in Washing- ton, D.C., after a yearlong struggle follow- ing cancer treatment. Born in Boston on Sept. 10, 1927, to Eliza Talbott and Frederick Morris Thayer, Mr. Thayer grew up in Newtown Square, Pa., at Mill Hollow, his fam- ily’s home. He graduated from Haver- ford School in 1945 and then, at age 17, enlisted in the U.S. Navy. In 1951 he graduated from Yale University, where he majored in English and was a member of St. Anthony Hall and the Whiffenpoofs. Mr. Thayer began his working life in New York City with Alaska Airlines, as assistant to the chairman of the board. He then worked as a copy boy and reporter at Newsweek , before joining the Philadelphia Bulletin as a night crime reporter and rewrite man. The Army-McCarthy hearings and the capture and imprisonment in China of his college friend, U.S. intelligence officer Jack Downey, deepened a growing desire to become more engaged in world affairs and in China, in particular. In 1956, Mr. Thayer joined the State Department as a Foreign Service officer. His first overseas post was Hong Kong, in 1957. While serving in the East Asia Bureau in Washington, D.C., from 1959 to 1961, he participated in Vice Presi- dent Lyndon Johnson’s first around-the- world trip in 1961. Following two years of Mandarin language training, he was posted to the