The Foreign Service Journal, June 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2021 47 AFSA NEWS AFSA NEWS THE OFFICIAL RECORD OF THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION Please check www.afsa.org for the most up-to-date information. All events are subject to cancellation or rescheduling. June 10 8 a.m. Governing Board election deadline for ballots to be received at AFSA June 15 1 p.m. Diplomats at Work: Reopening the U.S. Consulate in Greenland June 16 12-2 p.m. AFSA Governing Board meeting July 5 AFSA offices closed in observance of Independence Day July 15 New AFSA Governing Board takes office CALENDAR In May, AFSA completed a once-in-a-generation expan- sion of its memorial plaques. The $50,000 project added 10 new or replacement plaques in the C Street lobby of the Harry S Truman Building. The first AFSA memorial plaque was installed in 1933 in the State, War and Navy Building (known today as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building) next to the White House. It memorialized American diplomatic and consular officers who died in circumstances distinctive to overseas service since the founding of the republic. Moved to its current loca- tion on the west wall of the C Street lobby in 1961, its last open space for inscribing a name was filled in 1967. AFSA placed a second large plaque on the east wall of the lobby, but it was full by 1988. AFSA then added four side plaques which, as of March, had only eight remaining spaces. Even while space for future inscriptions was running out, several AFSA members conducted diligent research over a period of years, iden- tifying 56 early diplomats and consular officers dating back to 1794 whose deaths were unknown when AFSA unveiled the original plaque plus 13 FS members who died between 1938 and 1971 not commemorated at the time (see “America’s Overlooked Diplomats and Consuls” by Jason Vorderstrasse in the November 2020 Foreign Service Journal , p. 66). Noting these two develop- ments, AFSA Retiree Vice President John K. Naland pro- posed adding six new plaques on the lobby columns and replacing the four existing side plaques with reinscribed versions. These included the 69 newly identified historical names to provide a chrono- logically coherent, dignified commemoration of our fallen colleagues. Naland also proposed AFSA Renovates and Expands Memorial Plaques Continued on page 50 TOP: Master stone mason John Kinnaird (left) and his team install a replacement side panel beside the original 1933 AFSAmemorial plaque on the west end of the C Street lobby of Main State. Reinscribing the side panels allowed the 69 new historical names to be incorporated with the existing names in chronological order. LEFT: One of six new panels installed on columns in the C Street lobby. JOHNNALAND reinstituting the practice— discontinued in 1965—of inscribing the cause of death. The AFSA Governing Board approved the project in August 2020. The work was carried out by R.S. Kinnaird Memorials of Thurmont, Maryland. John Kinnaird has inscribed names on AFSA’s plaques in the C Street lobby since the late 1990s. He has also completed large projects at Arlington Cemetery, the Smithsonian,