The Foreign Service Journal, October 2012

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2012 73 was, Mrs. Richardson traveled even more extensively on her own in North and West Africa, China, India and South America. Following retirement, the Richardsons settled in Washington, D.C., and took advantage of its rich cultural life. Mrs. Richardson leaves behind her husband of 56 years, Cecil; two brothers, Jack Rachlin of Washington, D.C., and Marvin Rachlin of West Palm Beach, Fla., and their families. n John F. Rieger , 95, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on June 9 in Arling- ton, Va. Born on April 23, 1917, in New York City to parents who had emigrated from Hungary and lived in a tenement on the Lower East Side, Mr. Rieger followed high school with a one-year stint bellhopping on Grace Line passenger ships. He then attended Mount Saint Mary’s University, graduating magna cum laude with a degree in Elizabethan English literature. In 1941, he joined the Army and served with the Horse Cavalry and then with the 3rd Army, 45th Infantry Division in the European theater. He participated in four “D-Day” landings at Anzio in southern France, Salerno and Sicily, where he was awarded the Bronze Star. In 1945 he married his “fascinat- ing redhead,” Mary Ahearn, of Cliffside Park, N.J. After working for the Opinion Research Company for a year, he was hired by the Department of State and assigned to Berlin. His wife, their baby daughter Patricia, and Mrs. Rieger’s mother, joined him. Over the next 30 years, their posts included Frankfurt, Bonn, Rio de Janeiro, Salzburg, Tel Aviv, Khartoum, New Delhi and Bangkok, as well as Washington, D.C. In the mid-1950s, Mr. Rieger worked in the Refugee Relief Program and designed a program for refugees of the Hungarian Revolution, for which he was personally recognized by President Dwight Eisenhower. The Riegers were both active in com- munity theater throughout their time abroad. At every post, they were famous for their fabulous St. Patrick’s Day parties, including one in New Delhi that included