THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2023 77 active in the League of Women Voters, the Possum Point Players, and the Sierra Club. She found her true voice and passion in protecting the estuaries, bays, and wetlands of coastal Delaware. She was a perennial presence at meetings of the Sussex County Council, keeping a skeptical eye on the council’s pro-sprawl proclivities. Her fierce, well-turned letters to the editor—stirring opposition to proposals threatening the coastal environment—were a favorite of the local press. Ms. Purnell helped found the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays— a private, nonprofit National Estuary Program dedicated to the restoration and preservation of these vulnerable local watersheds. In 2005 the Sierra Club recognized her dauntless advocacy with its National Special Services Award. At the time, the Cape Gazette wrote: “For the past 28 years, Purnell has been an environmental warrior champion who has worked fearlessly and tirelessly to protect Delaware’s Inland Bays from unbridled development pressures.” That year, the Delaware legislature voted to name the state’s 599-acre Angola Neck Nature Preserve in her honor. In 2006 the Purnells moved to Free Union, Va., to be near their daughter and family. Ms. Purnell took endless delight in the views of the Blue Ridge Mountains through her window and was a proud Free Union Homemaker. Ms. Purnell was predeceased by Skipper, her husband of 70 years. She is survived by her daughter, Alice Purnell Cannon (and husband Jon); three grandchildren, Ariel, Maia (and husband Jeremy Carr), and Ben (and wife Katie Goldman-McDonald); and five greatgrandchildren: Elizabeth Carr; Samuel, Ruth, and Nathan Wigotsky; and Lew Goldman-Cannon. n Herbert Rathner, 96, a retired Foreign Service officer, passed away on June 16, 2023. Mr. Rathner was born in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 14, 1927. He served with the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II and went on to obtain a degree in physical education from the University of Maryland in 1951. After graduating, he worked with the Washington, D.C., and Prince George’s County Recreation Departments as a recreation supervisor, and with the Departments of the Army and Air Forces in Europe as a civilian sports consultant and recreation supervisor for the U.S. Forces in Europe. In 1965, Mr. Rathner joined the U.S. Foreign Service. Over the course of his career, he served as a general services officer in Freetown, Seoul, and La Paz. He was also conference attaché at the U.S. Mission in Geneva, administrative counselor in Kingston, and had details to the U.S. Information Agency as the State Department representative to the U.S. Olympic Committee. He served as assistant to the mayor of Natchez, Miss., under the State Department’s Pearson Program, and had assignments in Washington, D.C., as an international narcotics officer, international conference officer, and as a deputy examiner with the Foreign Service Board of Examiners. He received a Superior Honor Award before retiring in 1990. After retirement, Mr. Rathner continued to work as a reemployed annuitant until 2007 as a Foreign Service examiner and recruiter with the bureaus of Personnel and Diplomatic Security. Mr. Rathner was predeceased by his wife of 52 years, Norma, on Sept. 29, 2008. He is survived by his three children: Kathryn (of Montana), James, and William (both of Nevada). He will be buried alongside his wife in Arlington National Cemetery. n George A. Trail III, 86, a retired Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, died on May 13, 2023, in Pinehurst, N.C., in the loving presence of his wife, family, and friends shortly after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Born on Oct. 16, 1936, in Chambersburg, Pa., the third of six children, Mr. Trail grew up in a house full of laughter and hard work, and was instilled with a love of music and sports. In high school, he excelled academically, acted in school plays, and wrote for the school newspaper. Accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology but without the funds to attend, Mr. Trail applied, with the help of a kind pastor who knew his potential, to a local college, Franklin and Marshall, where he received a scholarship. After graduation, he enlisted as an officer in the U.S. Navy, serving from 1959 to 1965. While stationed in Hawaii, he was known as the best ukulele player on Waikiki Beach. He then taught in the Navy ROTC program at Rice University in Houston, Texas, using his time there to earn a second degree, in economics. Joining the Foreign Service in 1965, Mr. Trail was first posted to Munich and Bonn (1966-1968), followed by a stint as political officer in Freetown in 1968. Returning to Washington, D.C., in 1970 as Liberia desk officer, he subsequently spent a year as a congressional fellow in the offices of Representative Lee Hamilton (R-Ind.) and Senator Lee Metcalf (D-Mont.). Mr. Trail served as consul general in Kaduna from 1973 to 1975 and as a political-military officer covering the Vietnam War from Bangkok from 1975 to 1978.
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