The Foreign Service Journal, May 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2019 71 If you would like us to include an obituary in In Memory, please send text to journal@ afsa.org. Be sure to include the date, place and cause of death, as well as details of the individual’s Foreign Service career. Please place the name of the AFSA member to be memorial- ized in the subject line of your email. Returning to the United States, Ambassador Lewis was named the USIA-Murrow Fellow at the Edward R. Murrow Center for Public Diplomacy at Tufts University for the 1986-1987 academic year. He was a senior consul- tant for the Nord Resources Corporation, which operates mining interests in Sierra Leone, from 1987 to 1995. In 2016, Amb. Lewis moved to Wil- mette to be closer to his family. Amb. Lewis was predeceased by his wife, Frances Lewis, and daughter Dian Cuendet-Lewis. He is survived by his daughter Dale (and spouse Pete) Wentz; grandchildren Peter (and partner Meagan), Hilary (and spouse Mike) and Andrew; great-grand- children Bronx, Saint and Marvel Wentz, and Chelsea and Isla Hoye; and many nieces and nephews. He was also preceded in death by his first wife, Dolores, and two siblings. Amb. Lewis was a cousin of Colin Powell, the first African American Secretary of State. In lieu of flowers, memorial contribu- tions may be made to Dartmouth College designated to the Ambassador Arthur W. Lewis Memorial Fund, Gift Recording Office, Dartmouth College, 6066 Devel- opment Office, Hanover NH 03755. n Thomas Joseph Nickle II , 79, a career Foreign Service officer with USAID, passed away on Jan. 13 at the Lower Cape Fear Hospice in Wilmington, N.C. Mr. Nickle was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Aug. 24, 1939, to Thomas Joseph Nickle and Kathleen (Dwyer) Nickle. He was a graduate of La Salle College in Philadelphia, Pa., and served in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve from 1961 to 1969. In 1965 Mr. Nickle began his career as a Foreign Service officer with the United States Agency for International Devel- opment. He was first stationed in Laos, where he met his wife, Phan. From there the family was posted in Niger, Egypt, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Burkina Faso and Jordan. After moving back to the United States in 1988, Mr. Nickle retired from USAID. He moved to North Carolina with his family in 1990. Mr. Nickle had a keen eye for photog- raphy and amassed a collection of pho- tographs from his life and travels. He also enjoyed traveling, camping and driving across the country. He was a lifelong kayaker who brought his kayaks along on every overseas move. While living in Egypt, he became the captain of the smallest vessel to go through the Suez Canal when he took an approved kayak trip through the Canal. Mr. Nickle was preceded in death by his parents and older sister, Patricia. He is survived by his wife, Phan, daughter Seng (and husband Eric), daughter Julie (and husband Matt), son Tom III (and wife Elizabeth) and his Klepper kayak. n Betty Rae Powers , 85, a retired Foreign Service member, passed away on Jan. 9 in Springfield, Va., from pancreatic cancer. As a child, the Minnesota native wanted to travel and see the world. She did just that: after working as a secretary and bookkeeper for a Southern Min- nesota school district, she joined the Foreign Service and went to work as a secretary to the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines. Mrs. Powers married Foreign Service Officer Robert Powers, and they spent the next 35 years living in places such as Lebanon, Mexico, Israel, Italy, Chile, Panama and Austria. They returned to Northern Virginia permanently in 1991. Mr. and Mrs. Powers continued to travel long after their time in the Foreign Service ended, exploring Newfoundland, China, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and India, and cruising around the tip of South America. Mrs. Powers will be remembered for her volunteerism. She answered mail for the First Lady at the White House, and in 2008 was honored by the Fairfax County Public Library Board of Trustees for volunteering more than 1,000 hours at Kings Park Library in Burke (at the time of her passing it was over 2,400 hours), and driving countless hours delivering Meals on Wheels. She was an avid reader who cultivated beautiful orchids and adored her cats, Mouse and Popeye. Mrs. Powers is survived by her hus- band of 58 years, Robert; their two sons, Patrick (and spouse Margaret Anne) of Richmond, Va., and Michael of Spring- field, Va.; and three grandchildren: Lt. Zachary Powers, USN, of Bremerton, Wash.; and Erinn and Mallory Powers, both of Richmond, Va. She was predeceased by her sis- ter, Peggy Zellmer of Arizona, and her parents, Ethel and Herman Zellmer, of Minnesota. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Fairfax County Kings Park library. n