The Foreign Service Journal, September 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2021 77 If you would like us to include an obituary in In Memory, please send text to journal@afsa.org. Be sure to include the date, place and cause of death, as well as details of the individual’s Foreign Service career. Please place the name of the AFSA member to be memorialized in the subject line of your email. During 18 months in Pleiku Province in the Central Highlands he worked as a civilian with the indigenous Mon- tagnards—allies of the United States in the war against North Vietnam. His last assignment was as an adviser to the deputy district chief. His time in Vietnam—and his work as a refugee adviser—had a tremendous impact on his life. He was one of only five recipients of a medal for the develop- ment of minority ethnic groups from the Republic of Vietnam. Later, when the Montagnards began entering the United States as refugees in the 1980s, he became involved with the resettlement process, once again making lifelong friends. Subsequently, Mr. Shepard had a varied and interesting career, ending with 10 years as an economic developer in the North Carolina Department of Commerce. Friends and colleagues remember him for his generosity and inimitable good-humored fellowship. Mr. Shepard is survived by his wife, Sharon Sullivan Mújica, also of Chapel Hill; two sons, Erik (and his wife, Laura) of North Carolina, and Adam (and his wife, Ivana) of California; a nephew, Reid Chisholm; stepchildren Marco and Samantha Marquez of California, and Jeff and Tanya Keenan of New Jersey; step-grandchildren Elle and Sofia; and cat Bela. Donations may be made in his memory to the Montagnard American Organization, 611 Summit Avenue #10, Greensboro NC 27405. n Dan A. Zachary , 97, a retired Foreign Service officer, died in Bethesda, Md., on March 26. Mr. Zachary was a native of Chicago and graduated from Northwestern Uni- versity. He received a master’s degree in European history from Harvard Univer- sity, as well as a master’s degree from Stanford University. He also attended the Sorbonne University and was a graduate of the Air War College in Montgomery, Ala. At the start of World War II, Mr. Zach- ary, then 18, worked at a Martin Marietta aircraft plant. He then enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving on a destroyer escort, the USS Le Hardy , convoying troop and cargo vessels in the western Pacific. With the end of hostilities, his ship participated in the surrender ceremonies on Wake Island and was decommissioned, after which he served at the Naval Air Station in Pearl Harbor. In 1953 Mr. Zachary began his Foreign Service career and was assigned to Munich as a consular officer. Postings in Copenhagen and Paris as an economic- commercial officer followed. He later had three assignments in African affairs, in Ethiopia, Congo and the State Depart- ment’s Bureau of African Affairs. The nexus of Mr. Zachary’s career was Greece. Following Greek-language and area training at the Foreign Service Insti- tute (1960-1961), he had three different assignments in economic, commercial and political affairs in Athens and Thes- saloniki. After the Greek military junta took over in 1967 and began using Greek intelligence services to harass Greek democratic leaders, Mr. Zachary created the primary link to bolster these lead- ers. In his last assignment, he served as consul general inThessaloniki from 1977 to 1981. Following his retirement, Mr. Zachary was employed by the Foreign Service Board of Examiners and covered Greek affairs in the Bureau of Intelligence and in special task forces, including one formed during the Cyprus crisis. He also served as an escort for international visitors abroad under the Arts America program. He later served in State’s Freedom of Information Unit. Mr. Zachary’s years of retirement were full of adventure. He was an expert scuba diver, exploring the Aegean and the Red Sea, and bicycled extensively. Well into his 80s, he could be found on the bicycle trails of Mississippi and Arizona, as well as in the Washington, D.C., area. He was also an accomplished linguist, fluent in Greek, French and German. He loved contemporary American culture and was an avid jazz fan. Possessing a great and often irreverent sense of humor, he particularly enjoyed comic book characters such as Bugs Bunny and the bumbling octogenarian, Mr. Magoo. Mr. Zachary was a member of DACOR, the American Foreign Service Association, the Modern Greek Studies Association, the Society for the Protec- tion of the Greek Heritage, River Road Unitarian Church and the Destroyer Escort Association. His marriage to Carol Wenzel Zachary ended in divorce. Survivors include his companion for many years, Anne Overlin Severy; two children, Pamela Jean Zachary and Dan William Zachary; and one granddaughter, Alica Janine Zachary-Erickson. n