THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2025 77 IN MEMORY n Michael Hayden Armacost, 87, a retired Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, died on March 8, 2025, at his home near San Francisco, Calif. Mr. Armacost was born on April 15, 1937, in Cleveland, Ohio. He was the son of George H. Armacost and Verda Gay Armacost. He earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Carleton College in 1958 and went on to receive a master’s in 1961 and a PhD in 1965 from Columbia University. Before joining the State Department, Mr. Armacost taught government at Pomona College from 1962 to 1968. He served as a visiting professor of international relations at the International Christian University in Tokyo from 1968 to 1969, later lecturing at Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University. In 1969 Mr. Armacost became a White House fellow and began his career in public service. He held a range of senior roles shaping U.S. policy in Asia, including with the Department of State’s Policy Planning Staff (1969-1972, 1974-1977), as special assistant to the ambassador in Tokyo (1972-1974), member of the National Security Council (1977-1978), deputy assistant secretary of Defense (1978-1980), and deputy assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs (1980-1982). In 1982 President Ronald Reagan appointed him as U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, where he negotiated a fiveyear extension of the Military Bases Agreement. Ambassador Armacost then served as under secretary of State for political affairs from 1984 to 1989 under Secretary George Shultz. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed him to be U.S. ambassador to Japan. His service earned him the President’s Distinguished Service Award, the Defense Department’s Distinguished Civilian Service Award, and the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award. In 2007 Japan honored him with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun. After retiring from diplomatic service, Amb. Armacost served as president of the Brookings Institution from 1995 to 2002. He later joined Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center as a fellow. Amb. Armacost served on several corporate boards, including TRW Inc., AFLAC Inc., Applied Materials Inc., USEC Inc., and Cargill Inc., and on a number of nonprofit boards. He chaired the boards of Carleton College and the Asia Foundation and was an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations for 48 years. He also authored four books. Amb. Armacost is remembered by his family and friends as kind, humble, and devoted to his loved ones. He was known for his wit, intellect, and curiosity. Amb. Armacost is survived by his wife of 66 years, Roberta “Bonny” Armacost; their three children, Scott (and spouse Miho), Tim (and spouse Niki), and Chris (and spouse Becky); six grandchildren, Samantha, Zachary, Grace, Colson, Audrey, and Lily; and his siblings, Peter Armacost (and spouse Mary Linda), Samuel Armacost (and spouse Mary Jane), and Mary Hulst (and spouse Jack). n Gary Steven Basek, 84, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on April 6, 2025, in Bethesda, Md. Mr. Basek was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, to Vladimir O. Basek and Tilda (Schick) Basek, and grew up in Prague, London, and Poughkeepsie, N.Y. After graduating from Yale University in 1963, including a gap year at the Sorbonne, Mr. Basek served as an officer in the U.S. Army Transportation Corps until 1965. He went on to complete a master’s degree in political science at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and began his federal career with the Civil Service Commission. Mr. Basek joined the U.S. Foreign Service with an initial assignment in Madagascar, followed by 25 years of service in Vietnam, Brussels (NATO), Stockholm, Bern/Geneva, and Montreal, with the latter three posts focused primarily on consular work. Following his retirement in 1993, Mr. Basek continued to support U.S. missions abroad for another 10 years, backstopping embassies and consulates in China, Latvia, Senegal, and, most often, the Czech Republic. Mr. Basek was fluent in French, Czech, and German. Mr. Basek was a dedicated cinephile and took his love of film wherever he was stationed. While in Madagascar, he organized the first-ever Madagascar Film Festival with assistance from the U.S. Information Agency (USIA). Mr. Basek repeated this success in subsequent postings, supporting the Montreal Film Festival and helping organize several festivals in Prague after the fall of communism. While serving in Saigon in the early 1970s, Mr. Basek housed more than two dozen Vietnamese orphans, helping place each in adoptive homes around the world. Many of them stayed in touch with him well into adulthood. Friends and family remember Mr. Basek as a good man with a deep intellect and a lively sense of humor. He is survived by his sister, Miriam Worthing, of Rockville, Md., and brother John Basek of Memphis, Tenn. n Joanne Elizabeth Bradford, 98, spouse of the late retired Foreign Service officer and former Ambassador William G. Bradford, died peacefully on
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