The Foreign Service Journal, October 2006

Saigon assignment, he was detailed to the White House to continue as Taylor’s secretary in the latter’s new capacity as chairman of the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and president of the Institute of Defense Analysis. From 1969 to 1973, Mr. Jones was posted to The Hague as secretary to Ambassador William Middendorf. Mr. Jones was then scheduled to return to Khartoum as secretary to the new ambassador, Cleo Noel, with whom he had worked earlier. While en route to post, however, Noel was assassinated by the Black September element of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Mr. Jones was delayed in Cairo until Noel’s body arrived, and he accompanied it to the U.S., remain- ing friends for years with the widowed Lucille Noel. Unexpectedly available again for assignment, Mr. Jones was chosen to assist veteran Ambassador David Bruce in opening the embassy in Beijing. He finished his career where it had begun, in Berlin, as secretary to the chief of the U.S. mission in the late 1970s. In retirement, Mr. Jones settled in Washington, D.C. He worked for a time at the Middendorf-Lane Gallery, as well as with other art and antique dealers. He spent his final years sur- rounded by the art work and memen- tos of his life abroad. Mr. Jones is survived by a sister, Dorothy Lee of Rensselaer, Ind., and several nieces and nephews. John H. Kean , 84, a retired Foreign Service officer with USAID, died on May 25 at the Brooke Grove Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Sandy Spring, Md. He had suf- fered a stroke in April. Born to American parents in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, where he grew up, Mr. Kean came to Washington, D.C., at age 16. He attended Wilson Teachers College in the District, and graduated from The George Washington University in 1943. He received a master’s degree in economics from GWU in 1947. Mr. Kean’s career in international economic affairs and development spanned some 28 years with USAID and its predecessor agencies. In 1950 he joined the Department of Commerce, where he worked on the formation of the General Agreement for Trade and Tariffs, on issues relat- ed to access to strategic materials and on France and the French Overseas Territories during the last days of the Marshall Plan. On transfer to the State Depart- ment in 1952, he was assigned to the Office of Northeast Asian Affairs where he was concerned with the rehabilitation of the Japanese econo- my and Japan’s support during the Korean War. In 1953, Mr. Kean transferred to the Mutual Security Administration, where he served as desk officer for India in the Office of South Asian Affairs and, later, as desk officer for Israel. Mr. Kean became a Foreign Service officer in 1956, and was assigned to Ankara as a program offi- cer. After two years, he returned to Washington as the desk officer for Egypt, Syria and Sudan. He subse- quently served as assistant director for programs in Egypt (1961-1964), with intermittent assignments in Jordan and Pakistan. His assignment to Afghanistan from 1966 to 1968 involved him in one of USAID’s largest development programs, noted at that time for being on the front lines during the Cold War. After a year as special assistant to the assistant administrator for Near East and South Asia, Mr. Kean was named program officer for the Technical Assistance Bureau, USAID’s central division for research and field mis- sion support on development issues. In 1972, he joined the USAID mission in Ghana, spending four years as assistant director for pro- grams. His last assignment, in 1976, was as regional development officer for the Southern Africa region, with primary responsibility for programs in Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. Following retirement in 1978, Mr. Kean settled in Bethesda, Md., where he lived for many years before moving to Leisure World in Silver Spring, Md. For a decade he was involved in overseas consulting with Devres, Inc., specializing in the Caribbean and Middle East. He also served as a volunteer with the Community Ministry of Montgom- ery County, and assisted in its Thanksgiving hunger relief drive and Friends in Action program. He was a mentor in the Montgomery County Interages literacy program, and vol- unteered at the Capital Area Com- munity Food Bank and at Shepherd’s Table, a Silver Spring charity for the homeless. He was also a mentor of undergraduate students at GWU, and taught English as a second lan- guage to adults. Mr. Kean held several offices at Leisure World, was elected to the board of directors and was a member of the ballroom dance club. He was a member at various times of Pres- byterian, Methodist and Congrega- tional churches in the area and served as deacon, elder and director of missionary projects. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Ruth McDougald Kean of Silver Spring, Md.; five children, Ronald Kean, Robert Kean, Richard Kean, Marla Hensley and Beverly Smith; and nine grandchildren. 90 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 6 I N M E M O R Y