The Foreign Service Journal, September 2007

and single-handedly through a rare and extremely difficult illness. He died in 1981. Mrs. O’Brien had a great love of animals. She belonged to The Japan- ese Christian Church of Philadelphia. Although in later years her activities were severely limited by osteoporosis, she never lost her interest in her friends, or her courage. She is survived by her husband’s cousins; by close Japanese friends in the Philadelphia area; and by Foreign Service and Peace Corps friends. Contributions in Midori O’Brien’s name may be made to Taylor Hos- pice, P.O. Box 147, Ridley Park PA 19078. James Malone Theodore Rent- schler , 74, a retired FSO with USIA and former ambassador, passed away in Paris during the first week of May after a long illness. Ambassador Rentschler was born in Rochester, Minn. He graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1955. In 1964, he received a degree from the University of Paris, and in 1966 earned anM.A. from Johns Hop- kins University. He spoke French, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian. Amb. Rentschler served in the U.S. Army Security Agency as a mili- tary linguist from 1955 to 1958. He was a mortgage/title examiner at Berks County Trust Co. in Reading, Pa., until 1959, when he entered the Foreign Service. With the United States Information Agency, he was posted as assistant cultural attaché in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. In 1961 he was assigned to Fez, serving until 1963, when he was assigned to Ouagadougou. From 1965 to 1966, he was detailed to the Johns Hopkins University’s European Center in Bologna, Amb. Rentschler was press attaché and acting public affairs coun- selor at USNATO in Paris and Brussels until 1971, when he trans- ferred to Bucharest. From 1974 to 1975, he was a mem- ber of the Senior Seminar in National and International Affairs at the S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 85 I N M E M O R Y