The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2023

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2023 93 many, where he served as central cata- loging chief for 110 U.S. Army libraries across Europe. He returned to the U.S. to head up the Air Force base library in Mountain Home, Idaho, where in 1974 he learned he had been accepted into the U.S. Foreign Service. His first assignment was Karachi as an assistant cultural affairs officer with responsibility for five U.S. Information Service libraries in Pakistan and regional commitments for library and related information programs in Abu Dhabi, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sri Lanka. He returned to Washington, D.C., as chief of library programs, directing USIA’s worldwide system of 156 librar- ies and information centers. Subsequent postings include Taipei as the cultural affairs officer of the American Institute in Taiwan and Vienna as the field program librarian at U.S. Embassy Vienna. There, he coordinated 17 USIA- sponsored information centers and library-related programs covering Bulgaria, former Czechoslovakia, former East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Roma- nia, former USSR, and all six republics of former Yugoslavia. Mr. Steere was responsible as field program librarian at U.S. Embassy Bangkok for information distribution and programs for 16 USIA information posts throughout Burma, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. He was also selected for special cultural diplomatic missions in Ulaanbaatar (1990) and Vientiane (1991). He retired in 1991. His insatiable passion for learning, books, and adventure led him to Northern Marianas College on the island of Saipan, where he worked as director of library ser- vices, and then to the University of Guam as dean of learning resources. In 2000, he moved to Nairobi as field director for the Library of Congress—the pinnacle of all libraries. He finished his career in Heidelberg as regional librarian for 35 U.S. Army libraries across Europe. After 17 years with the Foreign Service and a total of 48 years of dedicated U.S. government and military service, Mr. Steere and his wife, Ying, settled in Seattle and, eventually, idyllic Semiah- moo, Blaine, on the northernmost border of Washington State. Their marriage spanned nearly 60 years of love and joy for all the gifts that life gave them, including family, friends, reading, wine, and travel. Mr. Steere is survived by his wife; two sons, John in Singapore (and spouse Rita) and Jason in Amsterdam (and spouse Caroline); and five grandchildren: Josie, Mya, Sasha, Nevan, and Tia. n Colette Stermer, 90, wife of a retired Foreign Service officer, passed away peacefully on March 4, 2023, in La Grange Park, Ill. Born on July 17, 1932, in Paris, France, she was the second of two children of Rita Sciaky and Peppo Benveniste. Ms. Stermer arrived in Chicago in the sum- mer of 1941 with her family and cousins. She attended the Laboratory School in Hyde Park, finishing high school in only two years by passing an entrance exam to the University of Chicago. Three years later, she graduated from that university. In 1951, she entered the Art Institute of Chicago to pursue a bachelor’s degree in interior design. On June 20, 1954, she married Charles Lester “Les” Stermer at Thorndike Hilton Memorial Chapel on the University of Chicago campus. Ms. Stermer worked as an interior designer for several years, but when her husband joined the State Department in early 1957, she moved with him to Northern Virginia, where they started their family. The Stermers lived overseas in Seoul and Rangoon, during Mr. Stermer’s career as a diplomat. In 1973 the couple returned to Northern Virginia. In 1981 the couple relocated to Chicago, where Mr. Stermer accepted a position as executive director of the International House at the University of Chicago. Ms. Stermer ran the gift shop at the I-House, as it was known, from 1981 until 1994. The pair then moved to Kiawah Island, S.C., in 2001 for fourteen years of ten- nis, painting, oyster roasts, and potluck dinners with friends before returning to Chicago in 2015 to live at Plymouth Place. To her friends and family, Ms. Stermer was known for her interests in painting, tennis, and bridge. She and her husband loved to travel, and she will always be remembered for her generosity and devotion to her family, as well as her world-famous chocolate chip cookies. Ms. Stermer was preceded in death by her older brother, Samuel, and by Les Stermer, her husband of 63 years. She is survived by three sons: Marc (and wife Judy) Stermer of Burton, Ohio, Dean (and wife Rowena) Stermer of Hinsdale, Ill., and Todd (and wife Lisa) Stermer of Saudi Arabia; and five grand- sons: Cooper, Griffin, Jackson, Mitchell, and Davis. n If you would like us to include an obituary in In Memory, please send text to journal@afsa.org . Be sure to include the date, place, and cause of death, as well as details of the individual’s Foreign Service career. Please place the name of the AFSA member to be memorialized in the subject line of your email.