The Foreign Service Journal, July/August 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2018 95 Southern Methodist University in Dallas. While a graduate student at the University of Texas in Austin, he was selected for the Foreign Service. Mr. Ikels served for 31 years at overseas posts that included El Salvador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil and Greece. Mr. Ikels is survived by his spouse, Judy Ikels, of Bethesda; daughter Catherine Celestino and her husband, Carlos; son David Ikels; and grandsons Benjamin and Samuel Celestino. Contributions in his name can be made to the Educational Theatre Com- pany, the Kennedy Center for the Per- forming Arts, the Foreign Service Senior Living Foundation of the American For- eign Service or the Sophienburg Museum in New Braunfels, Texas. n Herbert Kaiser, 94, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on March 30 at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1923, Mr. Kaiser’s early years were marked by the plunge from prosperity to poverty that so many Americans experienced after 1929. After attending the Yeshiva Ohel Moshe and James Madison High School, Mr. Kaiser worked briefly in the Brook- lyn Navy Yard building the battleships Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before joining the U.S. Navy in January 1942. A submariner, Mr. Kaiser served on the USS Dragonet (SS-293), and completed two combat patrols. In August 1945, Mr. Kaiser and his ship- mates were in the Sea of Japan on lifeguard duty just offshore fromHiroshima and Nagasaki when the United States dropped the atombombs there. Apart from the avi- ators involved, the Dragonet was perhaps the nearest U.S. unit to those events. Following the war, and thanks to the G.I. Bill, Mr. Kaiser attended Swarthmore College, where he earned a bachelor’s