The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2016

60 JULY-AUGUST 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL lots of golfing, we both joined the boards of all sorts of local groups: the League of Women Voters, a local country club, an FS retirees group (which ultimately folded), the United Nations Association of Southern Arizona, the Tucson Committee on Foreign Relations and the Latin America Center at the Unive r- sity of Arizona. Eventually I became the public affairs director for the local Planned Parenthood chapter, and that proved to be a turning point in our lives. The best part was the chance to form strong ties with a younger group of like-minded friends. They are very tolerant of the aged! We also keep in touch with our FS friends, some of whom are winter visitors, and we see others when we go east to visit our New York-based daughter. Our other daughter lives in Australia with our only grandchild, but our parents faced the same long- distance challenge with us. So, yes, kind readers, there is definitely a life after the FS. And there’s also a hitherto absent sense of permanence. As best Mar- tha and I can recall, we had 23 full household moves, sometimes two or three in the same city, during our 35 years in the Navy and Foreign Service. Since retiring we have moved three times, and have been in our current residence for 23 years. The thought of yet another move is appalling, but no doubt inevitable. Jack Binns entered the Foreign Service in 1962 and served in Guate- mala, Bolivia, El Salvador, the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Hondu- ras and Spain, as well as in Washington, D.C. Two More Careers Open New Worlds BY GEORGE LAMBRAK I S A t age 54, after 31 years in the Foreign Service (two with the U.S. Information Agency and 29 at State), I embarked on the second of my three careers: international fundraising. That was eventually followed by university teaching and administra- tion in London and Paris. I quickly learned the value of putting together an effective résumé, a task I had never had to perform during my time in the Service. On a happier note, I discovered that there are a lot of Foreign Service alumni out there who are eager to help you find a job, particularly in think-tanks and academia. Nor do you need to be a superstar or have the title of ambassador (which several universities unilaterally bestowed on me anyway) for such positions. Following up on a tip from a retired FSO I didn’t previously know, and with the recommendation of former ambassador and Fletcher School Dean Ed Gullion, I was selected to estab- lish a pioneer American university fundraising effort abroad at Brown University (not my alma mater). They preferred some- one who knew his way around the world rather than any of the 250 other applicants with domestic fundraising experience. George Lambrakis (front, second from left) with his wife, Claude (front, right), at a dinner with the Brown University Club of South Korea in Seoul while on a fundraising trip. COURTESYOFGEORGELAMBRAKIS