The Foreign Service Journal, June 2005

year career in the Foreign Service in 1951. He was assigned to Addis Ababa as an economic officer in 1953. In 1956 he was posted toMexico City as a political officer, returning in 1958 to Washington, where he served as special assistant to Under Secre t a ry of State Christian Herter, as a staff officer of the Operations Coordina- ting Board of the White House, and as special assistant to the assistant secretary of State for Interamerican affairs. In 1961, Amb. Ortiz was again posted to Mexico City, where he worked to find a solution to the long- standing border dispute with Mexico over the Chamizal Tract. After lengthy confidential negotiations, the U.S. and Mexico signed an agreement in June 1963. For this success, Amb. Ortiz received the Chamizal Com- memorative Medal from President Lyndon Johnson and similar decora- tions from the Mexican Congress and President Lopez Mateos. Subsequently, Amb. Ortiz returned to Washington, where he was appoint- ed desk officer for Spain in 1964. In 1967, after a year’s detail to the National War College, he was sent to Lima as political counselor. He was assigned to Montevideo as counselor in 1970, and in 1972 was made chargé d’affaires. During his tour in Monte- video, the urban terrorist group, the Tupamaros, were especially active against American interests, with diplo- mats as primary targets. In 1973, he was named director of the Office of Argentina-Paraguay-Uruguay Affairs in Washington. In 1975 he was assigned to the office of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as deputy exec- utive secretary of State. President Carter named Mr. Ortiz ambassador to Barbados and Grenada and special representative to St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica, Antigua and St. Kitts-Nevis in 1977. In 1979 he became ambassador to Guatemala, and in 1980 Amb. Ortiz served as political adviser to the commanding general of the U.S. Southern Command in Panama. President Reagan named him ambassador to Peru in October 1981. His last over- seas position before retiring in 1990 was as ambassador to Argentina, where he served from 1983 to 1986. Amb. Ortiz was named diplomat- in-residence at the University of New Mexico in 1987. Two years later he was assigned to Washington to partici- pate in reorganization plans for the State Department. Following retire- ment in April 1990, Amb. Ortiz toured the Soviet Union as a guest, and then returned to his hometown, Santa Fe, N.M. In retirement, Amb. Ortiz devoted himself to enhancing cultural and edu- cational opportunities in Santa Fe. He was instrumental in founding the Friends of the Palace of the Governors and in raising over $30 million for a planned New Mexico History Mus- eum. He played a leading role in establishing monuments commemo- rating the city’s founder and the Santa Fe Trail, and in renovation of the Cathedral Park. Amb. Ortiz served on the boards of the Council on International Rela- tions, the North American Institute, Think New Mexico, Art in Public Places, St. John’s College, the City Library, the Cuatrocentenario Com- mission, the National Dance Institute of New Mexico and the National Hispanic Cultural Center. He also served as trustee of the Rancho de las Golondrinas, and was honorary consul of Spain for northern New Mexico. His memoirs were pub- lished posthumously ( Ambassador Ortiz: Lessons from a Life of Servic e , University of New Mexico Press, 2005). Amb. Ortiz is survived by his wife Dolores and four children, Christina, Frank, Stephen and Jaime; three daughters-in-law; and six grandchil- dren. Lora Bryning Redford , 88, one of the first female FSOs, died Feb. 7 at Thomas House in Washington, D.C., of respiratoryfailure. Born in Olympia, Wash., Mrs. Redford graduated first in her class from the College of Puget Sound with a bachelor’s degree in foreign lan- guages. She did graduate studies at Mills College in Oakland, Calif., and Simmons College in Boston. During World War II, she worked for the Rockefeller Commission in Mexico City. There, in 1945, she joined the Foreign Service, becoming one of the few women in FS ranks. During the following years, Mrs. Redford served in Mexico, Belgium, Japan and Burma, where she was assistant cultural attaché. In 1952, then-existing regulations forced her to choose between marrying a fellow Foreign Service officer who had been assigned to the political section of Embassy Rangoon or continuing what was a promising career in the Service. For the next two decades, Mrs. Redford accompanied her husband to postings in Indonesia, Taiwan, Nepal, Turkey and Cyprus. A good linguist with a driving intellectual curiosity and a special interest in archaeology, Mrs. Redford engaged each new culture she encountered. She wrote two books on the Himalayas commis- sioned by the “Getting to Know” series in 1967. When her husband retired in 1973, Mrs. Redford sought to return to the Foreign Service (the policy on spouses was changed in 1972), but she was told she was too old. The Redfords settled down in 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 99 I N M E M O R Y u u