The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2019

68 JULY-AUGUST 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Mr. MacInnes worked as a photog- rapher at the Yale University Art Gal- lery in Connecticut and the Museum of International Folk Art in New Mexico prior to pursuing a master’s degree in Middle Eastern studies at the University of Arizona’s Department of Oriental Studies in 1973. He was awarded a grant to study Arabic for a year at the Center for Arabic Study Abroad at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Mr. MacInnes joined the U.S. Infor- mation Agency in 1984 through the mid- level recruitment program for speakers of Arabic. He was assigned to Doha, for his first overseas assignment as a public affairs officer. He went on to serve in Yemen (where his son, Robert, was born), Sri Lanka, Israel and Australia as a cultural affairs officer. He also served as a desk officer for the Near Eastern Affairs Office at USIA. As senior adviser and director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Mr. MacInnes supervised the State Department’s public diplomacy activities prior to and during the Iraq War. This was followed by a stint as direc- tor of the Foreign Press Centers in the Bureau of Public Affairs. In 2007 the Office of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy asked Mr. MacInnes to create and head a new interagency public diplomacy initiative to counter the ideology and messaging of overseas terrorist organizations. In his final assignment at the State Department, Mr. MacInnes served as the principal deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of International Information Programs from 2008 to 2011. Mr. MacInnes received the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Public Diplomacy in 2004 for his public affairs work during the Iraq War. In 2010 he was awarded the President’s Senior Distin- guished Foreign Service Award. During Mr. MacInnes’ 27-year career in the Foreign Service, he witnessed key events in the Middle East and South Asia, including the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, negotiations for the Oslo Accords in Jerusalem, and the civil war in Sri Lanka. The son of a naval officer, Mr. MacInnes had a lifelong interest in naval history and small boat building. He was an active whitewater kayaker and paddle boarder. A trained photographer, he used his love of travel and nature to compile a body of work that produced three one-man shows. His latest work was a study of the landscape in Death Valley at Zabriskie Point. Mr. MacInnes is survived by his spouse, Donna; his son, Robert; and his beloved dog, Kai, all of whom reside in Annapolis, Md.; and five siblings: David, Donald, Brian, Kathleen and Ian. n Gordon Wallace Murchie, 86, a retired Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Information Agency and the U.S. Agency for International Development, died on March 16. Mr. Murchie was born on Oct. 2, 1932, in San Diego, Calif. During a 35-year diplomatic career, he served overseas in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Costa Rica. He served throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. He received Superior Service awards from USIA and USAID and an award from the Order of the White Elephant from the Royal Thai government. During his 39-year post-retirement career, Mr. Murchie and his wife, Anita, joined delegations to the People’s Republic of China, South Africa and Australia. Mr. Murchie became active in the Virginia wine industry and served as the executive director of the National Wine Coalition and Virginia Wineries Asso- ciation and as president of the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association. He helped create the Congressional Wine Caucus and Mount Vernon’s wine festival series. He was honored with the American Wine Society’s Award of Merit and a Commemorative Bronze Bust of George Washington bestowed by Mount Vernon. The Virginia Wineries Associa- tion established the Gordon Murchie Lifetime Achievement Award in his honor. Mr. Murchie is survived by his wife of 63 years, Anita Murchie; children Scott Murchie and Tia Murchie-Beyma; son-in-law Eric Murchie-Beyma; and grandchildren Madeline and Megan Murchie-Beyma. n Mary V. Prosser, wife of retired Information Management Officer James F. Prosser, died on May 12 in Green Bay, Wis. Mrs. Prosser was born in Cataño, Puerto Rico, to a career U.S. Army officer. She worked at the Signal Corps Labo- ratories at Fort Monmouth, N.J., before joining the Foreign Service in 1995 as a communications clerk. After training in Washington, D.C., she was posted to the U.S. embassy in Bonn and the consulate in Munich. Following her marriage to fellow communicator James Prosser on Sept. 24, 1960, she moved with him to posts in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), Brussels, Moscow, Geneva, Nairobi, Rome and Washington, D.C. She worked for the Foreign Service in Leopoldville, Brussels and Nairobi.