The Foreign Service Journal, September 2011

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 61 Edward West Burgess , 91, a re- tired Foreign Service officer, died on May 7 from complications of Parkin- son’s disease. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and then joined the Foreign Service in 1947. His assignments included Syria, Egypt, South Africa, Burma, Yugoslavia, France and Czechoslovakia. He retired in 1976 to become assis- tant director of world affairs at the Uni- versity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He loved riding his motorcycle and play- ing tennis, bridge, chess and a rousing game of hearts with his family. Robert Lawrence Dance , 68, a retired Senior Foreign Service officer, died on Jan. 2 following a battle with systemic scleroderma and pancreatic cancer. Mr. Dance was born in Lexington, Ky., to Anna Corinne Rice and Sher- man Dance. He entered government service as an enlisted soldier in the U.S. Army and attended the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City, grad- uating in 1968 with a B.S. in general engineering. He is one of only four Americans, and also the last American, to graduate from that academy. Upon graduation, Mr. Dance was commissioned in the U.S. Army and served in various capacities at Fort Knox, Ky., and in Vietnam. He quali- fied as a parachutist, a military instruc- tor, a civil affairs officer and a foreign area officer with a specialization in Southeast Asia. Mr. Dance retired from the mili- tary in 1986, and later that year he joined the Foreign Service. A Span- ish speaker by training, he served in public diplomacy positions in Port of Spain, Caracas, San Salvador and Bo- gota, and also served in Lilongwe. His last overseas assignment, in 2002, was as deputy chief of mission in Mba- bane. In Washington, Mr. Dance served as the director of career development and training and as the deputy direc- tor of public diplomacy and public af- fairs in the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs. He retired from the Foreign Service in 2007. During the course of his military and diplomatic careers, Mr. Dance earned several higher degrees: anM.A. in English and literature from Indiana University, an MBA from Embry-Rid- dle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., and anM.S. in national se- curity from the National War College in Washington, D.C. He also com- pleted the Flag Officers Joint Forces Maritime Component Commander Course at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I. He taught at the U.S. Military Academy, the Philippine Military Academy, the University of the Philip- pines, the University of Kentucky, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Northern Virginia Community College. In the diplomatic arena, Mr. Dance was recognized for his achievements in the area of international public out- reach. But he was also a music afi- cionado, amassing 6,000 CDs repre- senting artists from Miles Davis to Hugh Masekela; a connoisseur of South African wines; and an avid col- lector of arts and crafts from around the world. He always loved to enter- tain people at his home, colleagues re- call. Among Mr. Dance’s avocations, his favorite was broadcasting: he worked as a radio disc jockey in the U.S., Philippines, El Salvador and Colom- bia, promoting the American genres of jazz and R&B. He loved traveling and working around the world, interacting with people from different cultures and giving to local and international charities. But his favorite pastime was spending time with his family. Mr. Dance is survived by his wife, Claris Xiomara Dance, a native of Caracas who now resides in Spring- field, Va.; three sons, Robert II (and his wife, Missy) of Cincinnati, Ohio; Adrian of Washington, D.C.; and Kristoffer (and his wife, Michelle) of Baguio City, Philippines; and two grandchildren, Robert III and Sarah Dance of Cincin- nati. I N M EMORY