The Foreign Service Journal, June 2005

Washington, D.C., where Mrs. Redford volunteered at Foundry Methodist Church and at Sibley Memorial Hospital. She served as a program officer at the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars until 1990. Mrs. Redford also set up a lectureship in archaeology at her alma mater, the University of Puget Sound. She is survived by her husband of 52 years, Ralph Redford of Washing- ton, D.C.; three sons, Bruce Redford of Boston, Mass., Kent Redford of Pound Ridge, N.Y., and Scott Redford of Washington, D.C.; and two grand- children. George Wachtenheim , 62, a retired USAID mission director and deputy assistant administrator, died at his home in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 9. Mr. Wachtenheim was born in 1942 in Poprad, Czechoslovakia. His parents had been democratic oppo- nents to Hitler and were killed during the Czech uprising of 1944; he was orphaned at the age of 2. Together with his uncle and aunt, who adopted him, he emigrated to the United States following the war. Mr. Wachtenheim studied business administration at New York Univer- sity, and pursued graduate work in international relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced Inter- national Studies. A speech by Presi- dent Kennedy motivated him to dedi- cate his life to his country and helping others. He began his international service in 1964 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru, and later served as deputy director of the Peace Corps in Venezuela. During a 25-year career with the Agency for International Develop- ment, most of Mr. Wachtenheim’s work focused on providing assistance throughout Latin America. He attained the rank of minister-coun- selor, and served as deputy assistant administrator in USAID’s Latin American and Policy Bureaus. He was mission director in Peru, Mozambique and Colombia, and served as deputy mission director in Bolivia, Honduras and Egypt. In the exercise of his managerial duties, he never lost sight of the ultimate human impact of development assistance. The project he was most proud of was a rural electrification enterprise that transformed the quality of life in an Andean Peruvian village. Following his retirement from USAID in 2002, Mr. Wachtenheim joined the international consulting firm Casals & Associates, where he was vice president for international p rograms. He was a member of the board of inquiry established by Secretary of State Colin Powell to investigate the 2002 terrorist assassi- nation of FSO Laurence Foley, and also served on the Foreign Service Grievance Board. Aside from his myriad professional merits, his friends will remember Mr. Wachtenheim for his great sense of humor and gentle demeanor. They will also recall his enjoyment of, and p roficiency at, poker. Mr. Wachtenheim is survived by his wife Pocha of Washington, D.C.; two sons, Erik of Lima, Peru, and Marc of Washington, D.C.; his parents, Herman and Olga of Boca Raton, Fla.; a brother, Robert of Scarsdale, N.Y.; and a sister, Joan Kushner of Conifer, Colo. Walter Paul White , 74, a retired FSO with the U.S. Information Agency, died of cardiac arrest Jan. 13 at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Fairfax, Va. He was a resident of Alexandria, Va. Mr. White was born in Alabama. He received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia in 1952, and then worked for a year at the Atlanta Constitution . He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1953 to 1955, and retired from the USMC Reserve in 1967 as a major. Mr. White began his 30-year career in the Foreign Service in 1956. His first posting was to Tel Aviv. A year later he was transferred to Karachi, returning to Washington in 1958 to study Farsi at FSI. In 1959 he was transferred to Tehran, and in 1960 to Meshed as branch public affairs offi- cer. Mr. White was fond of the poetry of Saadi and Hafiz, and often quoted couplets in conversation. In 1962 he was transferred to Kabul as informa- tion officer. While stationed in Washington from 1964 to 1967, Mr. White served as deputy chief of the Near East Division of the Voice of America and, later, in 1982, as its acting chief. He returned to Tehran in 1967 to serve as information officer, and in 1971 was detailed to the National War College. From 1973 to 1976 Mr. White was assigned to Bombay as public affairs officer. There he directed a broad public affairs program for western India. Mr. White was subsequently posted to Turkey, Iraq and Morocco as a public affairs officer or cultural attaché. He retired in 1986. In 1995, Mr. White served as the U.S. delegate on an OSCE mission to wartorn Tajikistan to assess human rights and democracy. Mr. White enjoyed fishing, hunting and camping. His avocations also included cabinetmaking and photog- raphy. He is survived by his wife, Colleen Kelly White of Alexandria; three chil- dren, John, David and Kathleen; and two grandchildren. ■ 100 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 0 5 I N M E M O R Y u u u