The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2014

72 JULY-AUGUST 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL in 1979, Mr. Sober taught for nine years as a visiting and distinguished adjunct professor at American University’s School of International Service. He also chaired South Asian area studies depart- ment at the Foreign Service Institute for 16 years. From 1981 to 2008 he worked part-time for the State Department, reviewing offi- cial documents on the Near East, South Asia and the U.S. intelligence and foreign policy communities prior to their publica- tion in the department’s series, Foreign Relations of the United States . Mr. Sober participated in local affairs at his residential community in Bethesda, Md., serving as president of the Sumner Village Community Association. After moving to a retirement community in Prince George’s County, he was president of the Collington Residents Association. Mr. Sober was a member of the American Foreign Service Associa- tion, Diplomatic and Consular Officers, Retired, the Asia Society and the Middle East Institute. He enjoyed reading and listening to classical music. As a teenager, he was an avid tennis player and then a member of his college track team. Later, he took up golf and became a devoted duffer. Survivors include Elizabeth Holmes Sober, his wife of 68 years, and a son, Stephen, of Woodstock, Va. A daughter died in 1979. n Sidney Weintraub , 91, a retired For- eign Service officer, died on April 10 at his vacation home in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1922, Mr. Weintraub received his bachelor’s degree from the City College of New York and his master’s degree in economics from Yale University. In 1966, he obtained a Ph.D. in economics fromAmerican University. After combat service as a tactical inter- rogator in Europe during World War II and a stint as a journalist, Mr. Weintraub joined the Foreign Service. His first post- ing was as vice consul in Tananarive (now Antananarivo) from 1949 to 1951. After serving as a consular and politi- cal officer in Mexico City (1951-1954), he returned to Washington, D.C., where he worked on Japanese and Korean political and economic affairs (1954-1957). He was then posted to Tokyo as political adviser (1958-1959), and then transferred to Bangkok as economic officer (1959-1961). From 1961 to 1965, Mr. Weintraub worked on commercial policy and trade negotiations in the Economic Bureau, becoming chief of commercial policy. He was posted overseas again in 1966, serving simultaneously as economic counselor and director of the USAID pro- gram in Santiago until 1969. He returned to Washington as deputy assistant secre- tary for international finance and devel- opment, a position he held until 1974. In 1975, Mr. Weintraub became assistant administrator for interagency coordination at USAID. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1976 to become the Dean Rusk Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs of the University of Texas-Austin, a position he held until 2011. Mr. Weintraub was the founding director of the LBJ School’s program in U.S.-Mexican policy studies and played a significant role in research leading to the North American Free Trade Agreement. He directed a number of policy research projects related to international affairs, including studies of the use of public services by undocumented workers in Texas, the operations of the U.S.-Canada automotive pact, the impact of tourism on Mexico’s economy, and the impact on Texas of free trade with Mexico. In 2006, the Mexican government awarded him the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest decoration the country con- fers on foreigners. Mr. Weintraub also held the Simon Chair in Political Economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies from 1994 to 2011. He wrote more than 100 articles, books, monographs, chapters and commissioned papers, and was also the author of two mystery novels. Mr. Weintraub was predeceased in 2001 by his wife of 55 years, Gladys Weintraub. He is survived by his wife of 10 years, Elizabeth Midgley; three children, Jeff Weintraub, Marcia Weintraub Plunkett and Deborah Weintraub Chilewich; five grandchildren; and a great-grandson. n