88 MAY 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL climbing the Altai and South Ural Mountains and paragliding down. Next the family moved to Ghana, where Mr. Newton was the deputy mission director in Accra. They then moved north to Mali, where he led the bilateral mission as mission director. It was a challenging time due to terrorist violence. As his assignment in Mali came to a close, Mr. Newton jumped at the chance to put on his democracy development hat and take an assignment in Afghanistan. After retiring in 2009, Mr. Newton undertook short-term assignments for USAID in West Africa, Indonesia, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Haiti, Timor Leste, and Burkina Faso. He and his spouse settled back in Madison, Ga., where they resurrected an antebellum mansion and grounds that had been in the Newton family for more than 100 years. The mansion was used for filming the movie “Warm Springs.” Mr. Newton’s friends and family recall him as “tireless, warm, crazy fun, and a great friend, husband, father, and son” who will be missed and remembered. Mr. Newton is survived by his wife of 33 years, Betsy Wagenhauser, and children Nicola and Simon Newton. n Omero Sabatini, 92, a retired Foreign Service officer with the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), died peacefully at home in Alexandria, Va., on March 5, 2024. Born in Indiana in 1931, Mr. Sabatini lived in ltaly from 1934 until 1954, when he returned to the United States. He was a graduate of the University of Rome and the University of Chicago. Before joining FAS, Mr. Sabatini served as an economist with the Economic Research Service of the Department of Agriculture and an international economist in the Africa Division of the Department of Commerce. Mr. Sabatini received his Foreign Service commission in 1981 and served with the Foreign Agricultural Service in Brussels, Lisbon, Algiers, and Washington, D.C. While working for the government, he traveled on official assignments to most Western European countries, Canada, and several Asian nations. Advertisement from the American Consular Bulletin, May 1924
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