The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2020

92 JULY-AUGUST 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL In retirement, Mrs. Cross continued to teach and write, and learn about and serve within her communities in Seattle and Bellingham, Wash. She and her husband taught on three voyages on the Semester at Sea program, spanning the planet. She made dear friends among her neighbors, in her church and within her writing community. Visits with fam- ily and friends anchored her. Mrs. Cross was predeceased by her husband, Charles, in 2008. She is survived by her children, Ann (Pug) Edmonds of Bellingham, Wash., Kathy (Bob) Leutner of Iowa City, Iowa, and Richard (Anne) of Marblemount, Wash.; seven grandchildren and their spouses; and 17 great-grandchildren. n Robert Ray Gibbons , 84, a retired Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Information Agency, died at his home in Mesa, Ariz., on March 19, soon after a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Mr. Gibbons was born on May 5, 1935, in rural St. Johns, Ariz., to Marion Vinson Gibbons and Mary Jane Hatch. In 1955 he served on a mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) to Montevideo, Uruguay. On returning from South America, he married Yvonne Mills, a close college friend from Show Low, Ariz. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Arizona State University. In 1966 he began his Foreign Service career in Baghdad as a binational grantee. In 1967 he and his wife were evacuated with their two young children to Tehran during the Six-Day War. The next 30 years saw the Gibbonses and their five children growing and benefiting from assignments to Latin America. In Caracas, Mr. Gibbons served as the director of courses at the Bi-National Center. In Lima, he was director of the Insti- tuto Cultural Peruano-Norteamericano. While there, he was commissioned as a Foreign Service information officer and served as the assistant cultural affairs officer. In Montevideo, he served as a cultural affairs officer. After an assignment in Washington, D.C., as country affairs officer for fran- cophone Central Africa, Mr. Gibbons returned to overseas assignments. In Kaduna, Nigeria, he served as branch public affairs officer in the consulate. In Lahore, Pakistan, he was the branch public affairs officer. Mr. Gibbons concluded his career with three assignments to Latin America: as cultural attaché in Guatemala City and in Monterrey, Mexico; and as deputy public affairs officer in Mexico City. His retirement from public service in 1994 was short-lived. He and Mrs. Gib- bons undertook LDS church mission- ary assignments to the Family History Centers in Mesa, Ariz., and Bogotá, followed by service in a new LDS temple in Villahermosa, Mexico. In 2002 Mr. Gibbons locked up his dog-eared passport in his worn-out attaché case. He served in the Mesa LDS temple for the next 20 years until his death. Mr. Gibbons is survived by his wife of 61 years, Yvonne Mills; five children, Michael, Robert (aka Bryn), Kevin, Christopher and Caryn; 24 grandchil- dren; and three great-grandchildren. n Simon Henshaw , 59, a Senior Foreign Service officer serving as U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Guinea, died unexpectedly on June 9 in Conakry. Born in England, Mr. Henshaw and his family immigrated to the United States in 1965, settling in Harvard, Mass. He graduated from the Bromfield School in 1978 and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts– Amherst. He worked as a reporter for the Harvard Post before joining the Foreign Service in 1985. Mr. Henshaw was confirmed as U.S. ambassador to Guinea in January 2019. Prior to that he served as a senior adviser to the Health Initiative Task Force at the State Department, coordinating efforts to respond to a series of health and security incidents affecting U.S. diplomats in Cuba and China. From 2013 to 2018, Mr. Henshaw served as principal deputy assistant secretary and, starting in 2017, as acting assistant secretary of the Bureau of Popu- lation, Refugees, and Migration. Before that he served as director of the Office of Andean Affairs (2011-2013) and deputy chief of mission at Embassy Tegu- cigalpa (2008-2011). Earlier he served at five other posts. President Alpha Condé of the Repub- lic of Guinea posthumously nominated Amb. Henshaw as a Commander in the National Order of Merit for his exceptional service and contribution to strengthening friendship and coop- eration between the United States and Guinea. Mr. Henshaw is survived by his wife, Jackie; his adult children, Maddie and Sandy; his mother, Pam Henshaw of Har- vard; his sister, Sarah, and brother-in-law, Ken Johnson; and their sons, Sam, Mick and Jack Johnson. n Wilbur Wilkins “Bill” Hitchcock , 97, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on May 11 at his Longhorn Village Retire- ment Community home in Austin, Texas. Mr. Hitchcock was born on July 31, 1922, in Camden, N.J., and raised in Woodlynne, N.J. He graduated from Collingswood (N.J.) High School in 1939,