The Foreign Service Journal, May 2020

70 MAY 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Widely referred to as “Mr. AFSA,” Tex also remained in contact with scores of retired Foreign Service colleagues from the last 50 years—sharing information and connecting themwith other colleagues to discuss major issues facing today’s Foreign Service. He was also an active member of the group of former AFSA presidents who advise AFSA and other Foreign Service groups. In October 2019, AFSA presented Tex with its Award for Achievement and Contributions to the Association, celebrating his half-century of tireless support of AFSA and the career Foreign Remembrances In 1993, with the benefit of 15 years of historical hindsight, the State Department conferred the Distinguished Honor Award on Tex for his reporting from Argentina. Service. During the ceremony he gave a typically rousing speech, which had the audience cheering him loudly. It was Tex at his best, and the honor was well deserved. In recent years, Tex had turned his focus to climate change and climate diplomacy, arguing that the Foreign Service has a critical role in combating global warming under the voluntary National Determined Commitments regime established in the Paris Accords. “The U.S. Foreign Service will be called on to meet its greatest challenge since the Cold War in convincing elites and general publics in more than 200 nations to ‘ratchet up’ their national voluntary cuts in fossil fuel usage to save the planet from further overheating,” he said. “We have probably already lost the coral reefs, much of the Arctic ice and low-lying areas of Alexandria, Miami Beach and Lower Manhattan to global warming. American diplomacy must lead the way to protect the planet from major damage.” Never one to shy away from big ideas and actions to match, Tex Harris remained true to himself until the very end. n Integrity, Compassion, Loyalty Tex was my oldest, best Foreign Service friend. Almost 52 years ago I was temporarily detailed fromwithin the Economic Bureau to the front office to serve as a staff assistant with Tex. We worked hand in glove and quickly bonded, a bond that grew every time we were both inWashington and became even tighter after we retired. Our career experiences were sufficiently similar—serving mostly in the developing world, with the exception being Australia for both of us. I even had a brief time on the AFSA Governing Board when he was president. When I reflect on why our friendship prospered, I also ask myself what made him an iconic figure in our professional diplo- macy, touching and earning the respect of hundreds. His uncom- mon values and virtues stand out: integrity, loyalty, intellectual curiosity, compassion and genuine love of people. What for others might have been despairing frustration with bureaucracy or incur- able indifference was for Tex a challenge to persuade and co-opt. Whether in difficult places or in leadership of AFSA, Tex was During Orvis fishing trip on the Shenandoah River with Clyde Taylor, April 2000. COURTESYOFCLYDETAYLOR