The Foreign Service Journal, May 2023

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2023 75 transformed the TESOL program into the College Skills Program. She studied anthropology at the American University of Beirut and spent two summers conducting ethnographic fieldwork among the Beni Sakhar tribe near Amman, Jordan. Her mountain home in Fayadiyyah, Lebanon, was a popular stopover for friends traveling in the Middle East. Acquaintances remember how Ms. Gaff- ney enjoyed connecting people even as she suffered from cancer. In 1975 she joined the faculty at Kuwait University where she taught Eng- lish for more than a decade. She traveled often to India and became an expert on Indian cinema while also following Arab media and popular culture. In 1987 Ms. Gaffney was recruited by the United States Information Agency for its mid-level-entry Arabist program. She coordinated U.S. diplomacy in Sudan from temporary offices at U.S. Embassy Nairobi, served as director of the American Cul- tural Center in Cairo and in Morocco, and lent her deep expertise in Arab society as a diplomat in Jerusalem. In Washington, she served as direc- tor of the West Africa and Central Africa offices. Colleagues and interlocutors recall her work in Sudan, noting her grasp of culture and Sudanese style. Ms. Gaffney was among the first to recognize the growing social and politi- cal significance of media and popular culture in the Middle East. She published one of the earliest scholarly treatments of Arab film, “Egyptian Cinema,” in the Arab Studies Quarterly and spoke on represen- tations of the Kurds in Turkish television at the University of Maryland. Her newsletter “Expressions” offered colleagues and friends incisive analyses of Arabic-language entertainment media and music. In 2010 Ms. Gaffney retired to Mary- land, where she raised rescue dogs, most recently her beloved Mocha, with her sister Barbara. Preceded in death by her parents, George and Catherine Gaffney, and her sister Margaret, Ms. Gaffney is survived by her sister Barb, brother Joe, nephews Brandon and Timothy (Kalie), and a great nephew, Wells. Contributions in her memory may be made to the Jane Gaffney Reimaging the Peoples of the Middle East Fund at www. ispu.org/janes-fund. n Roger Kirk, 92, a retired Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, died of pneumonia on Jan. 18, 2023, at Sibley Hospital in Washington, D.C. Mr. Kirk was born on Nov. 2, 1930, in Newport, R.I. He was the son of Admiral Alan G. Kirk, who commanded Allied Naval Forces at the invasion of Normandy during World War II. He graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. from Princeton University in 1952 and then served in the United States Air Force from 1952 to 1955. Mr. Kirk’s Foreign Service career began in 1955. Fluent in Russian, Italian, and French, he first served as a translator at the U.S. embassy in Moscow when Josef Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union and Harry Truman was the U.S. presi- dent. He was posted in Washington, D.C., Rome, Moscow, New Delhi, and Saigon. In 1972 Mr. Kirk was assigned on detail to the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency as deputy assistant director for international relations during the SALT Treaty negotiations. He was appointed ambassador to Somalia in 1973. From 1978 to 1983, he was U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations organizations in Vienna. Serving at the rank of ambassador, he led the U.S. delegation on nuclear nonpro- liferation negotiations with the Interna- tional Atomic Energy Agency. Amb. Kirk finished his career in 1989 as the U.S. ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Romania. Just after he was succeeded in that post, Nicolae Ceaus- escu was swept from power as the Soviet Union crumbled with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Colleagues and friends recall the fine example he set as a diplomat. “Roger Kirk was the kind of diplomat that many of us who have come after have sought to emulate,” said U.S. Special Envoy to Yemen and family friend FSO Timothy Lenderking. “He served in the most interesting places at captivating times and did it all with grace. Roger Kirk was kind and humble and wrestled with the most important issues of our time, not for personal glory but to advance American interests and values at tumultuous times of history. He demonstrated why this profession can be so rewarding when we embrace the challenges involved.” Career FSO Ambassador Teresita Schaffer, a longtime family friend, observed: “In a service that tends to be geographically stovepiped, Roger Kirk’s career spanned an amazing array of countries and subjects, from Somalia— then as now a tough post—to Romania, with assignments touching most of the important issues in U.S. foreign policy. Roger was truly a lovely guy with an elegant sense of humor.” In his retirement, Amb. Kirk contin- ued an active role in U.S. foreign policy studies. He was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a lifetime member of the Board of Directors at the Atlantic Council. He was also board chair of the Washington International School from 1985 to 2000.