The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2006

in the office of Director of Mutual Security Averell Harriman. From 1953 to 1972, he worked in a variety of capacities for the U.S. foreign assis- tance agencies that became USAID, beginning with the Office of Program and Planning dealing with the Near East and Africa. After attending the National War College, Mr. Black became chief of the USAID Military Assistance Divi- sion. He directed missions in Tunisia, Senegal and Costa Rica, and was sub- sequently appointed director of the Latin American Office for Population Programs and Civic Development. His last assignment was as head of the Social Development and Demogra- phy Program within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Deve- lopment in Paris. He represented the OECD at the first U.N. World Population Conference in 1974. Apart from his career, Mr. Black had many interests. He was an avid reader and an enthusiast for theater, modern dance and music. With John H. Esterline, he wrote Inside Foreign Policy: The Department of State Politi- cal System and Its Subsystems (May- field, 1975). He also wrote exten- sively on questions of planning and development. He was an ardent envi- ronmentalist and outdoorsman. He checked regularly for pollution in the streams around Washington, D.C., as a member of Save our Streams. He fly fished all over the world throughout his life, and was an expert canoeist and member of the Sycamore Island Club in Montgomery County. He was a Washington, D.C.-area resident from the late 1940s until 2003, when he moved to Kennebunk, Maine. Survivors include his wife, Jean- netta Wilson Black of Kennebunk, also retired from USAID; two daugh- ters, Brenda Pollara Black of Hing- ham, Mass., and Rebecca Black, a Foreign Service officer with USAID in New Delhi; a brother and a grand- son. His first wife, Martha Mooney Black, died in 1963. Clarence A. Boonstra , 92, a retired FSO and former ambassador, succumbed to pneumonia at his home in Gainesville, Fla., on March 20. Born in Grand Rapids, Mich., Ambassador Boonstra graduated from Michigan State University, studied at the Universities of Chicago and Wis- consin, and earned a Ph.D. in agricul- tural economics at Louisiana State University. He was commissioned as a Foreign Service officer in 1946, after tours with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., and overseas. Amb. Boonstra specialized in trop- ical development. On the staff of General Douglas MacArthur during World War II, his assignments includ- ed sugar purchases and food supply in Cuba and the Caribbean region, and agricultural reconstruction in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. Later, Amb. Boonstra was posted to Peru, to Argentina during the turbulent Peron years, and to Brazil. He served again in Cuba when the Batista regime was falling to Castro’s forces. After a year at the National War College in Washington, D.C., he served as director for South American affairs in the State Department and, subsequently, as political adviser to U.S. military forces under the Southern Command in Panama. In the 1960s and early 1970s, he was deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires in Mexico and Brazil, consul general in Rio de Janeiro and ambas- sador to Costa Rica. After retiring from the State Department in 1974 with the rank of career minister, Amb. Boonstra be- came a consultant to the Weyer- haeuser Corporation, the United Nations, and several public and pri- vate agencies. He also lectured extensively, provided foreign affairs expertise to commissions of the State of Florida and served for a number of years on the University of Florida’s External Advisory Board. He was an active Rotarian and a Paul Harris Fellow, an avid fisherman and conservationist, a golfer and tennis player. He was a member of Diplo- matic and Consular Officers, Re- tired and enjoyed events at the DACOR Bacon House during fre- quent trips to Washington, D.C. Amb. Boonstra moved to Florida in 1975 after living in Washington, D.C., for over 30 years between post- ings abroad. He leaves his wife of 40 years, the former Margaret Beshore; three daughters, Alexa Barnett of McLean, Va., Sandra Page of Miami, Fla., and Tara Boonstra of Gainesville; a son, Carl Boonstra of Miami; six grandchil- dren; two great-grandchildren; a sister, Lillian Piersma of Lansing, Ill.; and numerous cherished in-laws, nephews and nieces. His first wife, Mildred Fereira, died in 1960. John Edward Devine , 92, a retired FSO, died on Feb. 16 at the Carroll Manor Nursing Home in Washington, D.C., of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. Born in Chicago, Ill., he was mold- ed into a distinguished government servant by his father, an assistant post- master of Chicago. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1935, and later received his master’s degree from the same institution. After a stint in the Army Air Force during World War II, Mr. Devine J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 53 I N M E M O R Y