The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2010

82 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 for two years with the Special Forces in Heidelberg, and was a courier for the Laos Conferences in Geneva in 1962, the same year he joined the Foreign Service. Mr. Taylor’s overseas posts in- cluded Yaoundé, Libreville, Rome, Florence, Oporto, Nassau and Bissau. His final posting was as ambassador to Togo from 1988 to 1990. There he was instrumental in establishing a free trade zone. He also planned the Togolese president’s successful first official visit to the United States. Mr. Taylor received that country’s highest award for exceptional contributions to U.S.-Togolese relations. His stateside tours included serv- ice on the Italy desk from 1967 to 1969, as special assistant to Secretary of State William Rogers from 1970 to 1972, as senior management analyst in the Office of the Inspector General from 1979 to 1981, as director of the Office of Press Relations from 1981 to 1983, and as deputy U.S. coordi- nator for international communica- tions and information policy from 1983 to 1988. Ambassador Taylor retired from the Foreign Service in 1990 with the rank of minister counselor. He then entered the private sector, serving first as president of Cie. Des Bauxites de Guinea in Guinea, West Africa; then as executive director of the United States–Angola Chamber of Commerce; and, finally, as vice pres- ident of HSBC Equator Bank. Amb. Taylor is survived by his wife of 45 years, Joanna Bellows of Arling- ton, Va.; three daughters, Ann Taylor of Alkmaar, Netherlands, Charlotte Taylor of Providence, R.I., and Emily Taylor of New York City; one son, Patrick Mensah of Woodbridge, Va.; and nine grandchildren. Hildegard Elisabet Wachob , 81, wife of retired FSO James Wachob, of Chevy Chase, Md., died on Feb. 14 at Clark House inWestwood, Mass., after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease and spinal cancer. Mrs. Wachob was born in Breite- nau, in 1928, to Pastor Ernst Henn and his wife, Caroline Schellhorn Henn. She was the second-oldest of eight children; five of her siblings survive her. Her youth included the hard work of caring for younger brothers and sis- ters. She enjoyed hiking with her fa- ther in the German countryside, playing the organ at church and at- tending hotel management school. She married James Wachob in 1955, and for the next 35 years they lived in six foreign countries: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, the Cen- tral African Republic, Swaziland and West Germany. She was employed as an administrative assistant at the American embassy in Prague and as a teacher of German in the American consulate general in Frankfurt. She was engaged in local community wel- fare activities during her family’s resi- dence in the Central African Republic and in the Kingdom of Swaziland. Mrs. Wachob loved caring for her husband, their children and their grandchildren. Her home and garden were an inspiration to many. Hun- dreds of houseguests were privileged to enjoy her hospitality. She enjoyed reading, walking and praying. She was an ardently faithful woman, serving in several capacities at St. Dunstan’s Epis- copal Church in Bethesda, Md.; she regularly spoke of the joy it would be to meet her Maker. Family members recall how she taught by example with her quiet dig- nity, her stoicism and her complete selflessness. Mrs. Wachob is survived by her husband, James, of Chevy Chase, Md.; her daughter, Juanita Allen Kingsley, of Dedham, Mass.; her son, Richard, and his wife, Mary, of Westwood, Mass.; and three adoring grandchildren, Ur- sula, Colin and Aaron. Jim Wilkinson , 72, a retired FSO, died on April 1, at his home in Santa Rosa, Calif., of an apparent heart at- tack. A native of New York, Mr. Wilkin- son graduated from the California In- stitute of Technology as a math major in 1959. He later pursued Russian studies at the Australian National Uni- versity from 1962 to 1963. He joined the Foreign Service in 1962 and, during the next decade, served in Canberra, Munich, Bangkok andWashington, D.C. In 1973, he was assigned to the Soviet desk. He was posted to Moscow from 1974 to 1976, returning to the Soviet desk until 1979, when he was assigned to Bangkok as political counselor. From 1983 to 1985, he served as deputy chief of mission at Embassy Berlin (East). He then re- turned to Washington as deputy assis- tant secretary of State for European affairs and U.S. special Cyprus coordi- nator from 1985 to 1989. In 1989, Mr. Wilkinson was named deputy U.S. representative on the U.N. Security Council, with the rank of am- bassador. He served concurrently as deputy for management of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, head of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Trust- eeship Council and alternate U.S. rep- resentative to the U.N. General As- sembly. From 1991 to 1993, Mr. Wilkinson served as foreign policy adviser to the I N M E M O R Y