The Foreign Service Journal, June 2013

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2013 67 Programs. During this period he also worked to address the Cambodian exodus into Thailand, during which more than 200,000 Khmer fled into Khao-I-Dang and other large refugee camps, and with the Hmong refugees from Laos. His advocacy for the acceptance of Indochinese refugees into third coun- tries became a lifelong passion, which he continued after his State Department career ended, through positions at the U.S. conference of Catholic Bishops, the Jesuit Refugee Service and Refugees International. It is a lasting hallmark of his accomplishments. Mr. Lowman is survived by his wife, Hiep, of Fairfax, Va.; their children, Kate, Thomas Trinh, Dinh Phuc Nguyen, John Trink, Mary, Lina, Mark Nguyen and Lisa Lowman; 20 grandchildren; and one great-grandson. n William Henry Rodgers , 96, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on Feb. 23 in Peoria, Ariz. Mr. Rodgers was born in Benton, Mo., in 1916, and was raised there until the last year of high school, which he spent at Central High in Cape Girardeau, Mo., graduating in 1934. After two years at what is now Southeast Missouri State University, he transferred to the University of Wiscon- sin in Madison, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1938 and a master’s degree in 1939. His area of specializa- tion was Hispanic studies. He then taught Spanish at Kemper Military School in Boonville, Mo., and at the Lakeside School for Boys in Seattle, Wash., until 1946, when he became an instructor in the Romance languages department at the University of Min- nesota. There he did further graduate work in Spanish literature and Latin American studies. In 1950 Mr. Rodgers took a leave of absence to accept a State Depart- ment grant to serve as director of the Nicaraguan-American Cultural Center in Managua. From there he was trans- ferred to Guatemala to serve as director of the Guatemalan-American Institute. There he met and married Mary Jea- nette Kohler in 1952. After a year of further graduate study at the University of Minnesota, he joined the Foreign Service of the United States Information Agency. His first posting was as cultural attaché in San Salvador. He was then assigned to Lima to serve for two years as cultural affairs officer and two years as information officer. Other foreign assignments included Santiago, Buenos Aires and San José. During two tours at USIA in Washing- ton, D.C., he served as country affairs officer for Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Venezu- ela and the Caribbean area. After retirement from the Foreign Service in 1976, Mr. and Mrs. Rodg- ers settled in Sun City, Ariz., in 1977. He taught Spanish for five years at Rio Salado Community College and for 16 years at the College of Extended Educa- tion of ASU (formally the Sun Cities Center for Lifelong Learning at Arizona State University). Mr. Rodgers was a volunteer instruc- tor in Spanish conversation for the Circulo Español and was president of that organization for two years. Other volunteer activities included tutoring at the Dysart Community Center and recording Spanish textbooks for the Recording for the Blind organization. He is survived by his beloved wife of 60 years, Mary K. Rodgers of Sun City; a nephew, Daniel Miller; and a cousin, Jack Helm. n Virginia A. Weyres , 87, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on Nov. 19, 2012, in Chapel Hill, N.C. Ms. Weyres was born in Racine, Wis., on Jan. 28, 1925. She spent her child- hood in West Bend, Wis., where she worked as a bank teller until she passed the Foreign Service exam. She was one of the few, and perhaps one of the first women, to pass the exam without hav- ing gone to college. She joined the Foreign Service in 1954. Her first posting was to Amman, after which she was transferred to Bue- nos Aires in 1957 and then to Saigon in 1959. She was assigned to Oslo in 1962, returning to the department in 1968. She ended her career as a State Depart- ment inspector. After retiring to Washington, D.C., she continued to work as a consular inspector for several years and was actively involved in various political and charitable causes. Ms. Weyres had spent a month each winter on an island off the coast of North Carolina, and decided about a year ago to move to Chapel Hill, where several of her State Department friends had already settled. Unfortunately, she was able to enjoy her new home for only eight months, when she suffered a stroke from which she never recovered. Family members recall that Ms. Weyres loved her career, and considered herself blessed to have chosen it instead of the more conventional marriage and family. Her nieces and nephews credit her for the fact that they grew up with a greater awareness of the world, because of the exotic gifts she sent from the places she was posted and her compel- ling stories about her years of service. Ms. Weyres leaves two siblings and numerous nieces and nephews who cherish her memory. n