The Foreign Service Journal, September 2021

72 SEPTEMBER 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL IN MEMORY n Geraldine “Gerry” Pollack Biller , 86, wife of retired Foreign Service Officer Joel Biller, died peacefully at home in Mequon, Wis., on May 14. Ms. Pollack grew up in Whitefish Bay, Wisc. Just a week after receiving her bachelor’s degree in interior design and fine arts at Northwestern University, she married Joel Biller and began 25 years of life around the world. The Billers’ postings included two years in France, three years in the Netherlands and a total of five years in Ecuador, Argentina and Chile. With each move, Ms. Biller became an active participant in the communities in which she lived. She learned to speak French and Spanish. Trained in the fine arts, she was active in local art circles. In France, she developed an art program at a home for troubled teenagers. In South America, she served on the boards of whichever local international school her children were attending. In Ecuador she and the musically trained wife of another embassy officer joined to create a program for the Quito Children’s Home for the Blind and Deaf; Ms. Biller developed an art component for the deaf children, and her colleague offered a music component for the blind children. In Washington, D.C., Ms. Biller pursued artistic studies at the Corcoran School of Art, and managed an exchange program between Georgetown University and the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in Iran. After Mr. Biller retired from the Foreign Service, the couple returned to Milwaukee and established their 14th home. Ms. Biller received a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and went to work at the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) as a curatorial assistant and co-curator of several exhibitions. In 1995 she conceptualized and curated her own exhibition, “Latin American Women Artists, 1905-1955,” and traveled to Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil to select works and negotiate loan agreements. The exhibition was a huge success. MAM adopted it as its chief exhibition of the mid-1990s, and it traveled to muse- ums in Miami, Denver, Phoenix and Washington, D.C. The bilingual catalog, part of which she wrote and all of which she edited, is still a highly regarded research resource. Ms. Biller undertook public service while in Milwaukee. She volunteered at the old Mount Sinai Hospital and was active in the women’s division of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. She also served on the board of Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun. She was espe- cially devoted to Jewish Family Services and served on the JFS board for many years, including a term as president, leading a $5.6 million capital campaign to purchase the building that is JFS’s home. She leaves her husband, Joel; daughter Sydney (partner Hana Mandlikova) and Hana’s twins, Elli and Mark; son Andrew and his wife, Karen Brehm Biller; and son Charles, his wife, Lena Chumachenko, and their son, Jordan. n Frances Wilma Breaux , 100, a retired diplomatic secretary, died on Feb. 3 at Prompt Succor Nursing Home in Opelousas, La. On graduation from business school in Texas, Ms. Breaux joined the United States Foreign Service as a secretary to a diplomat. On retirement she worked for Sandoz-Sandoz-Schiff Attorneys at Law and Lou Anna Foods. She resided at C’est La Vie in Opelou- sas and Courtyard Manor in Lafayette, La., and was a current resident of Our Lady of Prompt Succor Nursing Home. Ms. Breaux loved animals, especially her cat, Minou. She is survived by her niece, Maeva (Anthony) Vallet of New Roads, La.; a great-niece, Myra (Michael) Ortego of Opelousas; a host of great-great nieces and nephews; and great-great-great nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, Albert Pierre Breaux and Mary Lucia Hargroder Breaux; a brother, Emery Breaux; and sisters Marie Lillie Harmon, Marguerite Ella Savoy and Iris Mae Lemoine. n Jane Carswell Corrigan , 89, spouse of the late FSO and former ambassador Robert Foster Corrigan, of Coral Gables, Fla., died on June 20 at Baptist Hospital of Miami after a short illness. Ms. Carswell was born in Syracuse, N.Y., on Oct. 11, 1931, to Clara Hunt Carswell of Schuylerville, N.Y., and Earl Thomas Carswell of Fort Miller, N.Y. She grew up in Glens Falls, N.Y., where her father owned and managed Car- swell Motors, an International Harvester distributorship. She helped out at the dealership for much of her youth; as a result, she was known for her ability to drive anything on wheels and fix most things mechanical. A junior prom queen, she graduated fromGlens Falls High School in 1949 and then enrolled at Mount Holyoke College. While studying at the University of Geneva during her junior year, Ms. Carswell met her future husband, a Foreign Service officer with the State Department who was stationed in nearby Heidelberg, Germany. In 1952 she married Robert Foster Corrigan of Cleveland, Ohio, and spent the next 20 years living overseas in Dakar, Santiago, Guatemala City, the Panama Canal Zone, São Paulo and Kigali.