The Foreign Service Journal, May 2022

66 MAY 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL IN MEMORY n EdwinThomas “Tom” Chapman , 86, a retired Foreign Service officer with USAID, passed away peacefully at home in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., from a stroke on Dec. 10, 2021. Mr. Chapman was born in New Kent County, Va., on Aug. 10, 1935. He earned master’s degrees from Duke University and the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University. After joining USAID in 1965, he served two tours in Vietnam, followed by Sudan, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Washington, D.C., and the Soviet Union. After retiring in 1990, he worked as a USAID contractor in Moscow, New Delhi and Mosul. Mr. Chapman was particularly adept at planning, negotiation and collabora- tion. He advanced the international development agenda and improved lives and institutions wherever he worked. He is remembered by those who knew him for his love of helping others. The network of “Friends of Tom” is vast and constituted by people of many cul- tures, ages and languages. He lived life large and traveled extensively with his many close friends and family. He was called on to be the officiant at multiple family and friend weddings due to his eloquence and humor. He was an enthusiastic advocate for gay rights, international peace, human develop- ment and democratic values. Mr. Chapman is survived by many nieces, nephews, and great-nieces and great-nephews to whom Uncle Tom was a huge and positive figure. n Larry Colbert , 81, a retired For- eign Service officer, passed away on Feb. 4, 2022, in Denver, Colo. He was born in 1940 in Glouster, a former coal town in southeastern Ohio, and graduated from high school there. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Ohio Univer- sity and a master’s degree in European history from the University of Missouri. Subsequently he spent two years teaching English in rural Turkey as a Peace Corps volunteer. In 1967 Mr. Colbert joined the Foreign Service and was in the first Civil Opera- tions and Revolutionary Development Support class to attend the Vietnam Training Center in Arlington. His first posting was as CORDS refugee adviser in Da Nang, where he witnessed the Tet Offensive from the roof of his apartment. Four months later he married Chris- tina Ku, a Taiwanese citizen, whom he had met in Arlington. After Vietnam, Mr. Colbert was posted to Ankara as a junior political officer, following which he was pro- moted to a one-officer posting in Oran, Algeria. He was assigned to Dublin as the head of the consular section from 1978 to 1981, and then served in Manila as chief of American services from 1981 to 1984. He returned to Washington as direc- tor of visa operations and later attended the National War College. In 1987 he was assigned to Tijuana as the consul general, and after four years there was appointed consul general in Madrid. He returned to Mexico a second time, as consul general in Cuidad Juárez from 1994 to 1998. His final tour was as consul general in Paris from 1998 to 2001. Although he retired in 2001, Mr. Colbert continued to work as a Foreign Service inspector for several years. He was a devoted husband and father, colleagues recall, and, as so many consular officers are, a color- ful raconteur. He enjoyed telling how, in Juárez, he managed to convince Washington to add more badly needed visitor restrooms to the overcrowded consulate. The department had rou- tinely refused his string of requests for additional such facilities. So, two hours before a Foreign Ser- vice inspection team was due to arrive, CG Colbert ordered the consulate doors closed, and then reopened only a few minutes before the inspectors walked in. The VIPs were appalled to see such a long line of agitated visitors wait- ing to use the restrooms, and quickly convinced the department to authorize several more. Mr. Colbert was diagnosed with PSP, an unusual brain palsy, in 2017 and, following the death of his wife in 2020, moved to Denver to be closer to his daughter. He is survived by his daughters, Gail Seymour of Shanghai and Lyllis Emer- son of Denver; by six grandchildren; and by siblings, Suzanne Tompkins, Carolyn Alison and Philip Colbert. n Carleene Dei , 77, a retired Foreign Service officer and former USAID mis- sion director, passed away peacefully on Jan. 31, 2022, in Colorado Springs, Colo., in the home she shared with her daugh- ter, son-in-law and granddaughter. Born on Dec. 31, 1944, in Kingston, Jamaica, to Cynthia Claire and Wycliffe Samuel Bennett, Ms. Dei immigrated to New York City at the age of 11. Her school noted her academic abilities and placed her in the seventh grade. She then attended the High School of Music and Art (now known as LaGuar- dia High School) based on her gifts as a singer. She played the piano, as well. Ms. Dei earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Cornell Univer- sity, a Master of Education degree from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in urban