78 JULY-AUGUST 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL March 31, 2025, in her hometown of Middletown, Conn. Ms. Bradford was born on Nov. 10, 1926, in Sioux City, Iowa, to Clarence Eugene Schwarz and Doris Lichtenstiger. She graduated in 1948 from the University of Indiana with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering. It was there that she met her husband, William G. Bradford. They were married on March 25, 1950, and began their Foreign Service journey in 1953. Together, they lived and served in Germany, Italy, Washington, D.C., Vietnam, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sierra Leone. Their final posting was in Chad, where Mr. Bradford served as the U.S. ambassador before retiring in 1979. Following retirement, the Bradfords settled in McLean, Va., where they lived until September 2023. In retirement, Ms. Bradford ran a successful import-export business specializing in couture buttons and trims. Ms. Bradford was predeceased by her husband in 2008. She is survived by their three children, Deborah Hornbake, Kate Fiala, and Bruce Bradford; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. Donations can be made to the Dementia Society of America at https:// dementiasociety.org. n Ruth A. Davis, 81, a retired Senior Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, died on May 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C., from pneumonia. Ms. Davis was born on May 28, 1943, to Anderson and Edith Mallet Davis in Phoenix, Ariz., where her father was on military assignment. She grew up in Atlanta, Ga., and graduated with honors from Booker T. Washington High School and summa cum laude from Spelman College. At Spelman, she was awarded the Merrill Scholarship, which financed 15 months of study and travel abroad in Europe. She earned a master’s degree in social welfare from the University of California, Berkeley, and held honorary doctorates from Spelman and Middlebury colleges. Ms. Davis entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1969 and retired in 2009. She specialized in American citizen services and visa issues, serving in Kinshasa, Nairobi, Tokyo, Naples, and in Barcelona, where she was U.S. consul general. She later served as U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Benin, from 1992 to 1995, where she championed girls’ education and helped develop democratic institutions. Ambassador Davis achieved a long list of firsts during her 40-year career. She was the first Black person to serve as director of the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), where she founded the School of Leadership and Management. FSI later named the director’s conference room in her honor. She was also the first Black senior watch officer in the Operations Center and the first Black woman Director General of the Foreign Service, overseeing a global workforce of more than 40,000. She was promoted to Career Ambassador and was the highest-ranking U.S. Foreign Service officer at the time of her retirement. Amb. Davis was widely known for her dedication to mentoring and for her leadership in diversity and inclusion initiatives. She was recognized as a compelling speaker and for her role in helping Atlanta secure the 1996 Olympic Games. After retirement from the Foreign Service in 2009, Amb. Davis was the first African American to receive the AFSA Award for Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy. She remained active in women’s empowerment issues as chair of the International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC); global co-chair of ACE Health Foundation’s ACE Global Leaders of Excellence Network; chair of the International Mission of Mercy USA (IMMUSA); and vice president of the Association of Black American Ambassadors (ABAA). She also served on the Board of Visitors of the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif.; on the Board of the Diplomacy Center Foundation; and was a member of the 16th and Decatur Church of Christ in Washington, D.C. Amb. Davis is survived by her sister, Dr. Eugenia Davis; her niece, Malaika Billups; her husband, Kenneth III; grandnieces Ava and Ivy Billups; her nephew, Austin Clements, his wife, Crystal, and their son, Chase; her aunt, Ida B. McCullough; several cousins; and many friends around the world. n Lino Gutiérrez, 74, a retired Senior Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, died on May 3, 2025, in Alexandria, Va. He was born on March 26, 1951, in Havana, Cuba, and came to the United States with his parents in 1962 at the age of 11. His family settled in Tuscaloosa, Ala., where his father was offered a professorship at the University of Alabama. Mr. Gutiérrez grew up a die-hard Alabama football fan and later attended both the University of Miami and the University of Alabama, where he received a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in Latin American studies. Mr. Gutiérrez began his career as a social studies teacher for the Dade County School System and the Urban League in Miami, Fla., before joining the State Department in 1977. Over the course of his 30-year diplomatic career, he served in Latin America and Europe, and in Washington, D.C., at the State Department and the National War College.
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