The Foreign Service Journal, October 2010

58 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 1 0 John V. Abidian , 85, a retired For- eign Service security specialist, died on June 24 in Brussels of an acute lung in- fection. Mr. Abidian was born on Feb. 6, 1925, in Chelsea, Mass. After military service in the Pacific (1943-1946), he studied at the University of Massachu- setts, receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1950. He earned a master’s degree at Middlebury College in 1951. Later that year, while studying at the Sor- bonne, Mr. Abidian was offered a posi- tion at the U.S. embassy in Paris, and thus began his career in the U.S. For- eign Service. From 1955 to 1960, Mr. Abidian served as a special agent with the Tech- nical Security Branch and then the Protective Security Division of the De- partment of State. In 1960, he was as- signed to Moscow as security adviser. From 1962 to 1964 he served as re- gional security officer in Rio de Janeiro, returning to Washington, where he was chief of the Latin Amer- ican Security Branch of the State De- partment from 1964 to 1966. In 1966, he was assigned to Paris as the RSO. Mr. Abidian then served as special assistant to the deputy assistant secre- tary for security (1967-1968) and as chief of the Foreign Operations Secu- rity Division (1968-1969). He culmi- nated his career with a nine-year secondment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as its director of security and principal adviser on secu- rity and counterintelligence matters to the secretary general (1969-1978). After retirement in 1978, Mr. Abid- ian and his wife, Madeleine (nee Greg- ory), divided their time between homes in Brussels and Venice, Fla., where they were engaged in profes- sional, charitable and athletic activities. Mr. Abidian was an active member of the American Society for Industrial Se- curity. He is survived by his wife, Made- leine. James E. Akins , 83, a retired FSO and former ambassador to Saudi Ara- bia, died on July 15 in Mitchellville, Md. Mr. Akins was born in 1926, the oldest of three sons of an Akron, Ohio, rubber plant worker. He attended the University of Akron, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in physics. Before graduating in 1947, he served for two years in the United States Navy. In 1954, he entered the Foreign Service, beginning a diplomatic career that spanned two decades with service in Naples, Paris, Strasbourg, Damas- cus, Beirut, Kuwait, Baghdad and Washington, D.C. In the fall of 1968, he was ap- pointed as director of fuels and energy, the State Department’s top energy post. In this position, he was one of the first analysts to see the approaching en- ergy crisis. His incisive analysis, in- cluding a landmark article in the April 1973 Foreign Affairs , won widespread recognition, which resulted in his being invited to write President Richard Nixon’s first energy report. Mr. Akins’ career in the Foreign Service reached its pinnacle in August 1973, when he was appointed U.S. am- bassador to Saudi Arabia, serving in that post until 1976. After leaving the State Department, Ambassador Akins became one of the world’s foremost Middle East experts and enjoyed being a consultant to multinational corporations on foreign policy and energy. A talented public speaker, he was invited to give the commencement addresses at many universities and schools across the country. He was also called to testify before various congressional commit- tees. He was a member of the Coun- cil on Foreign Relations, the American Archaeology Society, the Association of Political and Social Scientists and the American Foreign Service Association. Over the course of his diplomatic career, Mr. and Mrs. Akins amassed a substantial collection of original and reconstructed Old World/Near East artifacts. The couple donated a large I N M EMORY