The Foreign Service Journal, September 2013

90 SEPTEMBER 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL and restoration of its operations. Later that year, he received State’s Award for Valor for his service there. President Ronald Reagan nominated Mr. Pugh to serve as U.S. ambassador to Mauritania (1985-1988), and then as U.S. ambassador to Chad (1988-1990). Ambassador Pugh completed his diplomatic career as dean of the Senior Seminar in National and International Affairs from 1990 to 1992. Besides the award for service in Beirut, Amb. Pugh received the Meritorious Honor Award in 1974 for his service in Athens and the Superior Honor Award in 1971 for his work in the Office of Turkish Affairs. His first wife, of 34 years, Bonnie, was killed on Sept. 19, 1989, by a ter- rorist bomb aboard UTA Flight 772 from Chad to Paris. The couple had two children, Malcolm and Anne. Malcolm died in 1992. Amb. Pugh married Thelma Jack- son in December 1990, and the couple settled in Columbus, Miss., in 1993. They moved to Woodstock, Vt., in 2006, returning to Columbus in 2009. Amb. Pugh was president of the Columbus- Lowndes Humane Society for many years and a member of the Rotary Club in Columbus and in Woodstock. He is survived by his wife, Thelma Jackson Pugh of Columbus, Miss.; his daughter, Anne Carey Maquire (and her husband, Kevin); two grandchildren, Douglas and Virginia Carey, all of Sara- toga Springs, N.Y. He is also survived by his brother, Edwin Sheets (and his wife, Melinda) of Gig Harbor, Wash.; and a niece, Corrie (and her husband, Brian) of Washington, D.C. Memorials may be made to the Baptist Memorial Hospice, P.O. Box 1307, Columbus MS 39703, or to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, 823 College Street, Columbus MS 39701. n Bertha “Bert” E. Putnam, 98, the widow of retired Foreign Service officer Robert Putnam, died in Sterling, Va., on April 10. Born in Vermont, “Bert” became an orphan at a very young age. She met and married her husband of 62 years, Bob, in 1937. He served first in the U.S. Coast Guard, retiring in 1960. He then joined the Foreign Service, serving in Amman, Saana, New Delhi, Ankara and Moscow, where Mrs. Putnam also worked at the embassy. After their second retirement in 1974, the couple settled in Falls Church, Va., later moving to Falcon’s Landing, Va. Mrs. Putnam was a tireless volun- teer worker in several local Northern Virginia communities, helping people and animals. Although the Putnams had no children of their own, Mrs. Putnam loved them and “adopted” a number of Foreign Service offspring over the years who became lifelong friends, including Tanya Corbin, David Newkirk, Suzanne Rudzinski and Stephen Prosser. Mrs. Putnam was predeceased by her husband in 1999. She is survived by five nieces and nephews (William, Robert and Edward Putnam, Susan McGuire and Joanne Welsh) and 11 great-nieces and great-nephews. Contributions in her memory may be made to the ASPCA, 424 East 92nd Street, New York NY 10128, or Doctors Without Borders–USA, P.O. Box 5030, Hagerstown MD 21741-5030. n James E. Stephenson, 93, a retired Foreign Service officer at the U.S. Agency for International Develop- ment, died on June 2 at his home in Rochelle, Va., of complications caused by a recent fall. Born in 1918 in a small town in Geor- gia, Mr. Stephenson came of age during the Great Depression, which, along with World War II, shaped his values, personality and moral compass. In 1943 Mr. Stephenson’s Georgia Tech class was matriculated early, and he joined the Navy. After being com- missioned as an officer, he helped form and train the first naval construction battalions—famously known as the Sea Bees—with which he served in the Philippines (1944-1945). Following the war, he worked briefly for the Atlantic Coastline Railroad before joining the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, where he was instrumental in the design and construction of the Savannah River dams system. Mr. Stephenson joined the Inter- national Cooperation Administration, the predecessor to USAID, in 1957, and served in India, Turkey, Vietnam and Washington, D.C. A renowned civil engineer and expert in the design and construction of hydroelectric dams and power plants, he worked for USAID in many countries until his retirement in 1975. He also mentored a generation of successful officers. In “retirement” he consulted for USAID, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, as well as in the pri- vate sector, for almost 20 years. Mr. Stephenson was predeceased by his wife of 67 years, Margaret Hughes Stephenson. He is survived by their children, Lynne Stephenson Lee, James Stephenson and Lisa Stephenson Gen- try, all of Virginia; six grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild. n Roscoe S. “Rocky” Suddarth , 77, a retired Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, died on June 29 at Georgetown University Hospital in