The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2012

he worked as senior consultant for American College Testing, helping write the Foreign Service Examination. Amb. Scassa founded the Model Organization of American States in 1995. He remained an active partici- pant in its planning and execution, and held an honorary permanent seat on the organization’s steering committee. In 2011, in recognition of his passion and hard work over the previous 16 years, the organization was named for him and is now known as the “Eugene Scassa Model Organization of Ameri- can States.” Colleagues and friends recall Amb. Scassa as a superb mentor who had a profound impact on students at St. Mary’s University. Over the course of 16 years there, he was directly respon- sible for mentoring and directing 30 alumni active-duty FSOs, 30 alumni in various federal intelligence agencies and 12 alumni involved in international development work. Amb. Scassa is survived by his wife; his three children, David, Susan, and Eugene; and 13 grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made in honor of Eugene L. Scassa and the ESMOAS to the St. Mary’s University Annual Scholarship Fund, Attn: RonanMcAshan, Advance- ment Services, One Camino Santa Maria, San Antonio TX 78228-8544, or donate online at http://|donate.stmarytx. edu/online-giving/giftForm. Barbara Lindner Wood , 92, the former wife of the late Foreign Service officer Ben Wood, died on April 23 in Ocala, Fla. Mrs. Wood was born in Ocala to Dr. Eaton George and Justina (Rhody) Lindner. She graduated from Ocala High School. As a young woman at a time when, as Mrs. Wood told it, nobody believed a woman had the ability to be a pilot, she learned to fly airplanes from the father of a friend. That changed her life for- ever, she would say in later years. Al- ready an adventuresome soul, she went on to enjoy unique worldwide experi- ences. Mrs. Wood met her future husband, Ben, at Ocala Airports’ Army pilot training school. The two wed in Texas and, after the war, moved with their first son to Washington, D.C., where Mr. Wood joined the Foreign Service. She accompanied her husband to For- eign Service postings in the Philippines, Belgium, Vietnam, Cambodia and Lon- don. The marriage ended in divorce in the late 1950s. During the 1960s and 1970s, Mrs. Wood lived in Paris, Washington, D.C., and Sardinia, traveling extensively throughout Europe and Turkey, camp- ing in a signature, customized white Land Rover. In 1980 she settled in Vir- ginia, where she established a garlic farm. Mrs. Wood wrote about her experi- ences in North from Ocala (Special Publications, Inc., 2000), a memoir that “reads like an adventure story,” accord- ing to one reviewer. She was the first female pilot inMarion County, and also enjoyed astrology. Mrs. Wood was preceded in death by her brother, Dr. John D. Lindner, and by her ex-husband, Ben Wood. She is survived by her sons, Ramsay Wood of London, and Chalmers B. Wood of China; nieces, Anne Foelker of Haymarket, Va., Beverly Lindner of Maui, Hawaii, and Barbara Dusch of Cumming, Ga.; a nephew, John D. Lindner Jr. of Ocala; and a grandson, Tryver Wood. ■ 74 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 2 I N M E M O R Y