The Foreign Service Journal, June 2005

Richard Townsend Davies , 84, a retired FSO and former ambassador, died March 30 atWashington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. He had been diagnosed with leukemia less than a month earlier. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Richard Davies graduated with honors in inter- national relations from Columbia College in New York City in 1942. He served in the U.S. Army at the end of World War II, received advanced training in German to serve in a unit of the military government, and was assigned to the forces advancing into Germany. Ambassador Davies joined the Foreign Service in 1947. His first posting was toWarsawas a vice consul. There he met Jean Stevens, and they weremarried on Dec. 5, 1949. Amb. Davies served in Regensburg, Paris, Moscow (twice), Kabul and Calcutta, where he was consul general. In 1970 he was made deputy assistant secre- tary of State for European affairs, a post he held until 1973, when Presi- dent RichardM. Nixon appointed him ambassador to Warsaw. During his tenure in Warsaw from 1973 to 1978, Amb. Davies estab- lished regular contact with Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, then the Roman Catho- lic archbishop of Krakow and an important Polish opposition figure . He also helped prepare the visits of P residents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter to Poland. Following retirement from the Foreign Service in 1980, Amb. Davies continued his involvement in promot- ing human rights in Eastern Europe as president of the Research Center for Religion and Human Rights in Closed Societies. He also served as chairman of the Solidarity Endowment, an American group supporting the Polish workers’ movement. From 1990 to 1998 he was active in Partners for Democratic Change, an international organization dedicated to fostering civil society and institutions in Central and Eastern Europe. In retirement Amb. and Mrs. Davies toured the country, visiting all 50 states, and also traveled interna- tionally. Amb. Davies spoke Polish, Russian, French and German, and was an amateur Celtic historian, proud of his Welsh heritage. Friends remember him as an avid tennis play- er and voracious reader, with a prodi- gious memory. Amb. Davies is survived by his wife of 55 years, Jean Stevens Davies; four sons, Stephen of Takoma Park, Md., John S. of Carrollton, Texas, Michael H. of Middletown, Calif., and Glyn T. of Washington, D.C.; two sisters, Jean Lesser of Yorktown Heights, N.Y., and Ruth Schleicher of Woods Hole, Mass.; and six grandchildren. Dona- tions in his memory may be sent to the Laramie Plains Museum, Attn.: Dan Nelson, 603 Ivinson Ave., Laramie WY 82070-3299. David Charles Denman , 74, a retired FSO with USAID, died Feb. 28 at the Rancho Springs Medical Center in Murrieta, Calif. Born in Toledo, Ohio, Mr. Denman earned a master’s degree in journalism from Wayne State University. He served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, and was discharged after four years as a sergeant. During a 25-year career with USAID, Mr. Denman was posted in Vietnam, Colombia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Washington, D.C. Mr. Denman is survived by his wife, Hien Nguyen Denman of Temecula, Calif.; two daughters, Diane Carol Denman of Rochester, N.Y., and Vicki Mae Denman of Sacramento, Calif.; two sons, Mark Lee Denman of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Kevin Michael Denman of Boise, Idaho; a brother, Richard Denman of Troy, Mich.; and a sister, Phyllis Herrick of Detroit, Mich. Donald R. Dyer , 86, a retired Foreign Service Reserve officer, edu- cator and author, died of a brain hem- o rrhage Feb. 2 in Chapel Hill, N.C., where he had lived with his wife, Marilyn, since 1978. Dr. Dyer was born in Mesa, Colo., in 1919. In 1947, he received a bach- elor’s degree from Stanford University, and in 1950 earned his Ph.D. in geog- raphy (with a specialization in Latin America) from Northwestern Univer- sity. Joining the geography faculty of the University of Florida at Gainesville, he launched a career in education that included a stint at the University of Havana, under the provisions of the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act, and a Ful- bright Visiting Professorship at San Marcos University in Lima. In 1962, Dr. Dyer was tapped by the State Department to be geography J U N E 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 97 I N M EMORY u u