THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2024 83 IN MEMORY n Ibrahim S. Ahmad, 58, a Foreign Service spouse and a retired Foreign Service National, died on April 25, 2024, in Salt Lake City, Utah, of pancreatic cancer. On Dec. 19, 1965, Mr. Ahmad was born in Bethlehem, in what was then Jordan. He was not even 2 years old when he and his family fled in 1967 due to the war and eventually reached Amman, where he lived as a child with his parents and four siblings. Mr. Ahmad worked for the U.S. embassy in Jordan, first as a Foreign Service National (now called locally employed staff) for the United States Information Service, from 1986 to 1988, and later for USAID in Amman. Mr. Ahmad was with USAID as a GSO assistant from 1989 to 1999. In January 1999, he married Foreign Service Human Resources Officer Sharon Nichols and accompanied her to Riyadh (1999-2002), where he worked in several positions at the embassy. The couple then transferred to Nairobi (2002-2004), where he worked as a refugee assistant, logistics assistant, and residential security coordinator, and Brussels (2004-2007), where he was a technical logistician in the regional security office. In 2007 Mr. Ahmad and Ms. Nichols retired to Salt Lake City, where he worked in landscape construction and then as a medical courier. He enjoyed meeting people (and made new friends easily), traveling, and experiencing new cultures. Remembered as a beautiful soul with many friends, Mr. Ahmad was outgoing and gregarious. He spoke fluent Arabic and English and could converse in Swahili, French, Spanish, Circassian, and Turkish. Mr. Ahmad was predeceased by both of his parents. He is survived by his wife of 26 years, a sister in Jordan, a brother in Michigan, a sister in Virginia, and half-brothers and half-sisters in Lebanon whom he only discovered in 2012 when they were found via Facebook. He is also survived by nieces and nephews in the United States, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. n Jo Ann Hardee Collinge, 85, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on June 15, 2024, at an assisted living community in Shoreline, Wash., after a long illness. Ms. Collinge was born in Detroit, Mich., on Aug. 14, 1938. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in English in 1960. From 1960 to 1967, she worked as a Detroit News reporter, moving from the women’s department to the city room and then to Vietnam, where she was assigned in 1966 to write a weekly column. While in South Vietnam, she met Robert A. Collinge, a USIA officer serving in the public affairs office in Saigon. They married in April 1967, after which Ms. Collinge resigned from her position. From 1967 to 1975, she accompanied Mr. Collinge to assignments in Kolkata, New Delhi, Johannesburg, and Washington, D.C. Ms. Collinge aspired to become an FSO but was thwarted until the barriers keeping women from remaining in the Service after marriage were dropped. She was commissioned in 1976 and became part of a first wave of tandem couples. Her first assignment was to the Bureau of Public Affairs (PA). She next served as a vice consul in Bridgetown from 1978 to 1980 in tandem with her husband. Ms. Collinge was awarded an Una Chapman Cox Fellowship to study the nuclear freeze movement in the Pacific Northwest. From 1983 to 1984, she conducted research in Seattle, where she lived with her spouse and their daughter, Lee. In 1984 Ms. Collinge returned to the PA Bureau, working in the Office of Opinion Analysis and Plans closely with Office Director Bernard “Bernie” Roshco, whom she considered a professional mentor. In 1986 she received State’s Superior Honor Award. At this point in her career, Ms. Collinge began to seek assignments that could accommodate the medical needs of her husband, and in 1988 she was advised to take a foreign assignment, convert to Civil Service, or resign. Offered a posting to Wellington as the labor officer, she made the difficult decision to resign. Ms. Collinge and her family moved to Bellingham, Wash., where she became the assistant director of the Office of Communications at Western Washington University. Upon retiring from Western in 2003, Ms. Collinge dove into community work, serving on the board of the YWCA and playing an active role in the League of Women Voters. In 2020 her failing health and a desire to be nearer to family compelled her move into assisted living in Seattle. Ms. Collinge was predeceased by her husband, Rob, in 1998; her daughter-inlaw, retired Senior FSO Zandra Flemister, in 2023; and her beloved niece, retired Senior FSO Barbara Aycock, in 2017. She is survived by her brother, retired Major James Hardee; daughter Lee Collinge; John and Deborah Collinge, her children by her husband’s first marriage; granddaughters Rachel Ruder and Olivia Sinclair; grandson Samuel Collinge; two great-granddaughters; and a great-grandson.
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