84 SEPTEMBER 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL n Stephen Martin Ecton, 85, a retired State Department Senior Foreign Service officer, died in Washington, D.C., on June 5, 2024, surrounded by his family. Mr. Ecton was born in Lexington, Ky., on March 22, 1939, the son of Evelyn Martin Alvis and stepson of Thomas Lucian Alvis. He attended a one-room schoolhouse through the third grade. His family moved to Bowling Green, Ky., when he was 12, and he graduated from Bowling Green High School, where he was president of the class of 1957. Mr. Ecton briefly attended Western Kentucky University before graduating in 1961 from Southern Methodist University, where he majored in English. While a student at Western, he served as minister at the Rockfield Methodist Church. For his noteworthy accomplishments and service to his community, Mr. Ecton was recognized by the governor of Kentucky as a member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels. In 1963 Mr. Ecton joined the Army and was assigned to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., for 64 weeks of Mandarin Chinese. He was then posted to Okinawa, where he developed a lifelong interest in foreign policy and the country of Japan. Following his discharge from the Army, Mr. Ecton settled in New York City and worked part-time as a youth counselor for the New York City Youth Board. While in New York, and for the remainder of his life, he wrote numerous short stories and novels. There, he also met his future wife, Catharine Hollister, whom he married in 1966. That same year he joined the Foreign Service and embarked on a 35-year career, advancing to the rank of Minister Counselor in the Senior Foreign Service. Mr. Ecton’s first assignment was to Bogotá. After two years in Colombia, he returned to Washington, D.C., for Japanese language training and then spent the next two years in the economic section of U.S. Embassy Tokyo. He then completed a year of intensive Japanese language study in Yokohama, in preparation for what turned out to be the main focus of his career. After, he served as consul general in Sapporo, where he was a recipient of the Superior Honor and Meritorious Honor Awards. Upon his return to the United States, Mr. Ecton took additional language training, this time in French, and was assigned to the U.S. delegation at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. Next serving as consul general in Perth, he was part of the activities for the famous America’s Cup Race in 1986. He returned to Washington, D.C., first as country director for Australia and New Zealand and then as director of the Office of Finance and Economic Development in the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. In 1990 Mr. Ecton returned to the U.S. delegation to the OECD as deputy chief of mission. During his three-year assignment in Paris, he managed the delegation and contributed to U.S. initiatives to bring Central European countries that had been part of the Soviet bloc into the OECD. He then served in Washington, D.C., as country director for Japan, followed by assignments in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. In 2000, Mr. Ecton retired, and he and his spouse moved to New Orleans to be close to their daughter and her family. While there, he served on the board of the Tennessee Williams Festival and the Loyola University Library. He also pursued his passion for writing. His published works are included in The Kansas Quarterly, The Phoenix, and The Little Magazine. Mr. Ecton often expressed his appreciation for the adventures, professional contacts, experiences, and lifelong friendships that came with being in the Foreign Service. Mr. Ecton is survived by Catharine, his wife of 58 years; daughter Rebecca O’Reilly (and spouse Brian); son Thomas Lucian Ecton (and spouse Donna); and grandchildren Tyler Winstead, Thomas Lucian Ecton Jr., Garrett Hollister Ecton, Juliet Catharine O’Reilly, Tappan Louise O’Reilly, Sisson Marie O’Reilly, and Marshall Patrick O’Reilly. He is also survived by his brother, Henry Glenmore Ecton (and spouse Barbara), and his sister, Kathryn Louise Hall. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Senior Living Foundation at https://www.slfoundation.org/ support.cfm or to the Tennessee Williams and New Orleans Literary Festival at https://tennesseewilliams.net. n David Warren Larson, 71, a Foreign Service spouse, passed away at home in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on June 27, 2024. Mr. Larson was born on May 22, 1953, to Warren Phillip Larson and Joan Louise (Ohlrich) Larson in Rockford, Ill., the third of four sons. He earned a BS in geology at the University of Illinois in 1975 and an MS in geology at the University of Wisconsin in 1977. He also completed graduate studies at Yale. His early teaching career
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