The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2017

68 JULY-AUGUST 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL In 1976 President Gerald Ford named him assistant secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scien- tific Affairs, and in 1977 President Jimmy Carter appointed himU.S. ambassador to Jamaica. Ambassador Irving always acknowl- edged his wife Dorothy’s critical, if unpaid, role in forging andmaintaining personal and professional ties that supported U.S. interests at home and abroad. Amb. Irving retired from the Foreign Service in 1978 and joined the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard Univer- sity. He often spoke to schools and civic organizations about his experience as a prisoner of war, his efforts in the U.S. For- eign Service to promote practical peaceful solutions to disagreements, and the need for all Americans to ensure that the free- doms, justice and prosperity we enjoy are available equally to all people inside and outside U.S. borders. His memoir, Mr. President, Do You Think I Have Rocks in My Head?—Expe- riences of Frederick Irving, American Diplomat, was published in 2015. His oral history is archived in the Association of Diplomatic Studies and Training collec- tion, in the Brown and Fletcher alumni magazines, and in the Yiddish Book Cen- ter. In 2017 the National War College post- humously awarded Ambassador Irving its first Distinguished Alumni Award. Amb. Irving’s beloved wife, Dorothy, predeceased him in 2010. He is survived by three children: Susan, Rick and Barbara; their families; andmany treasured friends and admirers. n Rachel Karp, 99, a former Foreign Service officer and the wife of retired FSO Samuel Karp, died in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Jan. 28. Born Rachel Lou Keil in Genoa Bluff, Iowa, Mrs. Karp graduated from the University of Iowa in 1943 with a degree in hospital dietetics. She joined the Women’s Army Corps the same year and served with General Eisenhower’s headquarters during World War II as a cryptographer in Algiers; she also served in Caserta, Italy. Mrs. Karp was honor- ably discharged from the Women’s Army Corps in 1946. After the war, Mrs. Karp joined the U.S. Foreign Service. She was assigned to Ath- ens, where she met her future husband, who was also working at the embassy. With their marriage in 1949, Mrs. Karp resigned from the Foreign Service in compliance with the rules of that time. The couple had four children. Mrs. Karp served alongside her hus- band throughout the rest of his Foreign Service career. During the next 30 years, they were posted in Budapest, London (twice), Montreal, Kingston, Ciudad Juarez, La Paz, Panama City, Managua, Hong Kong and Mexico City, as well as Washington, D.C. Mr. Karp retired in 1978, and the cou- ple moved to San Marcos, Calif., where they lived for 17 years. They relocated to Walnut Creek in 2005. Mrs. Karp was an avid gardener, reader, cook and bridge player. She is survived by Samuel Karp, her husband of 68 years; her four children— Daniel, Susan, Larry and Marylou—and their spouses; and many grandchildren and great- grandchildren. Mr. Karp would welcome hearing from anyone who knew his wife in the Wom- en’s Army Corps or the Foreign Service at samuelkarp1@gmail.com. n Donor M. Lion, 92, a retired FSO and distinguished Career Minister in the Senior Foreign Service of the U.S. Agency for International Development, died peacefully inMcLean, Va., with his wife by his side on April 22. Mr. Lion was born onMay 3, 1924, in New York City, the eldest of three sons. His parents gave himhis unusual name because they wanted him to be a giver. He grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduated fromErasmus Hall High School as presi- dent of the senior class. He earned his B. A. and Ph.D. fromHarvard University and his M.A. from the University of Buffalo, all in economics. Mr. Lion’s first foray into U.S. foreign assistance programs was in 1952 in Oslo, where he helped to implement the Mar- shall Plan. Two years later, he joined the private sector as an economic consultant, spending three years at Robert R. Nathan Associates inWashington, D.C., and five years at Booz Allen Hamilton in Chicago. In 1962, a former Marshall Plan col- league recruited him to join USAID, fulfilling his parents’ hopes and dreams. He began his career in Brazil in support of the Alliance for Progress, starting out in Rio de Janeiro for two years and then serving for five years in Recife. He was the first person to hold dual roles as director of USAID’s Northeast Brazil Mission and the U.S. embassy’s consul general. Mr. Lion’s mandate was to help develop Brazil’s most impoverished region by providing assis- tance in education, agriculture, health and infrastructure. In 1971 he returned toWashington, D.C., to attend the yearlong Senior Semi- nar. Mr. Lion spent the next five years in several senior positions in Washington in the Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, ultimately rising to the posi- tion of acting assistant administrator. In 1977, Mr. Lion moved to Jamaica, again serving in a dual capacity as USAID mission director and the embassy’s eco- nomic counselor. Here he concentrated on economic policy, health, family plan-