The Foreign Service Journal, September 2015

86 SEPTEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Guinea, where he served until 1980. On retiring from the Foreign Service in 1980, Ambassador and Mrs. Crosby settled in Hancock Point, Maine, in the home where Amb. Crosby had been a summer resident since the age of 2. He was a co-founder of the French- man Bay Conservancy and served on its board for many years. He worked energetically for the purchase of Tidal Falls, now a public park in Hancock. He founded a summer school scholarship program for local children to encourage them to consider a college education, and helped set up a club for teenagers. Amb. Crosby was predeceased by his first wife of 52 years, Eleanor, and his younger son, Hunter. He is survived by his second wife of 10 years, Beryl; a son, Michael Crosby (and his wife, Carol); a daughter, Jane Giles (and her husband, David); a daughter-in-law, Linda Crosby McDowell; grandchildren Julie, Sarah, Gareth, Nicki and Mackenzie; and a great-grandson, Noah. n Jay Phillip Freres , 81, a retired FSO, died on June 19, outside his home in Clearwater, Fla., when he was struck by lightning. Mr. Freres was born in Peoria, Ill., in 1933 to Glenn and Olive Freres. After graduating from the local high school, Spaulding Institute (1951), he received a B.A. (1954) and M.A. (1956) from Bradley University and a BSFS from the George- town University School of Foreign Service (1955). He was fluent in Arabic, Persian/ Dari, Hebrew, German and Spanish, proficient in Turkish and knowledgeable in Bengali. In 1956, Mr. Freres enlisted in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany with the U.S. counterintelligence corps. There he met the love of his life, Maria Kauer, a native of the former Czechoslovakia, and the couple married on July 4, 1960. Also in 1960, Mr. Freres joined the U.S. Foreign Service. His first overseas assign- ment, to Afghanistan as general services officer and consular officer (1960-1962), was followed by postings as an eco- nomic-commercial officer to Guatemala (1963-1965) and Germany (1967). He served in Israel as a political officer (1967-1971), in Egypt as polit- ical-economic officer (1971-1972), in Bangladesh as an economic-commercial officer (1972-1974) and in Nicaragua (1976-1978). Mr. Freres then returned to Afghanistan as chief of the economic- commercial section (1978-1980). Following a temporary duty assign- ment as consul general in India (1980), Mr. Freres was posted to Turkey as chief of the political section (1989-1991), then to Saudi Arabia as consul general (1986- 1989) and, finally, to Bahrain as deputy chief of mission (1989-1991). Assignments in Washington, D.C., included Arabic-language training at the Foreign Service Institute (1965-1967), service as an analyst with the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (1974-1976) and a year at the National War College (1980-1981). Mr. Freres’ many hardship assign- ments included an evacuation of his fam- ily from Beirut during the Six Day War, participation in negotiations after the kidnapping of U.S. Ambassador Adolph Dubs in Afghanistan and service in the Arabian Gulf during the first Gulf War. Everywhere he served, Mr. Freres immersed himself in the local customs, history and culture. He received several Meritorious Service Awards, as well as a Superior Honor Award. On retiring in 1991, Mr. Freres and his wife settled in Clearwater. He worked on an intermittent basis for the State Department’s Freedom of Information Act Office in Washington, D.C., and from 2002 to 2007 he had a contract at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., as a liaison for the State Department. He was also very active in his parish, Saint Cath- erine of Sienna. On June 19, as he did almost every day, Mr. Freres donned his floppy cap and sturdy sneakers for a walk in his neigh- borhood, stopping to chat with neighbors. Family and friends remember his outgo- ing nature and warm personality. Mr. Freres is survived by his wife, Maria; four children, Phillip of Yorktown, Va., Chris of Madrid, Spain, Monica of Wash- ington, D.C., and Anita of Vienna, Va.; their spouses; and seven grandchildren. Memorial donations in Mr. Freres’ name may be made to Americans United for Life or Catholic Relief Services. n Charles Jones Jr. , 75, a retired FSO, died in his sleep on May 8. Mr. Jones was born in Memphis, Tenn., and raised in Detroit, Mich., where he attended Mumford High School and participated in the school orchestra and All-City Band as a trumpet player. After graduating from high school, he served a five-year enlistment in the Air Force before joining the State Department. Mr. Jones, whose 30-year Foreign Service career began in communications, served as a consular officer and general services officer in many of the world’s hot spots: Egypt during the Six Day War, Germany during the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Saigon as it fell in April 1975, Antigua during the Grenada invasion and Dakar during the Senegal- Mauritania border conflict. He was also posted to Zaire, Papua New Guinea, France, Canada and Ireland. In 1979, Mr. Jones, then a communi- cations specialist at Embassy Tehran, was taken hostage along with 51 colleagues.