The Foreign Service Journal, October 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2022 49 Today we chose our tombstone Though not ready to move in Selecting plot and marker Seems a good way to begin A pleasant place is Rock Creek We’ll settle in quite well there A grassy slope and lovely trees Nothing of death or despair Instead the names of old friends A Foreign Service nest Ones who once were lively Have now found peaceful rest The stone’s design is simple Rough sides and a smooth face Our names are there and date of birth For the last death there’s a space Hope I’ll be the first to go Bill will be all right alone I couldn’t bear his absence So dependent I have grown I’ll have a small dog statue To keep me company I’ll need him if I’m the first To meet eternity Let us live atop this ground As long as we are sane And when we do depart The memory will here remain —Ann Delavan Harrop ROCK CREEK CEMETERY the Foreign Service encompassed many aspects of Foreign Service work and life, from foreign policy formulation and the conduct of diplomacy to stewardship of the Department of State and the Foreign Service as a distinct institution and ethos, to the encouragement and empowerment of others working in these fields inside and outside the State Department. Ann Delavan Harrop was a quintessential Foreign Service spouse, mother, and partner. She served her country and the Foreign Service along with her husband, William C. Harrop, with intelligence and generosity for seven decades in a remarkable number of ways, without fanfare but with great impact. Ann and Bill are stellar exemplars of the “once Foreign Service, always Foreign Service” mindset and life. As we approach the 2024 centenary of the Foreign Service, may its spirit be rekindled and strengthened. n Ann with her dog, Ben, in Israel in the early 1990s. COURTESYOFBILLHARROP dissent by a Foreign Service specialist; the American Academy of Diplomacy’s books First Line of Defense and Commercial Diplo- macy and the National Interest ; several reports with the Henry Stimson Center on the professional education of diplomats and on the challenge of balancing the security of personnel with effective diplomacy; several Una Chapman Cox Foundation studies of the conduct of American diplomacy, with specific recommendations; DACOR Bacon House’s accessible entrance; ADST’s Foreign Affairs Oral History program, including oral histories of AFSA presidents; and a significant donation to the ongoing National Museumof American Diplomacy project. We all owe the Harrops somuch. The Foreign Service did not interrupt Ann’s lifelong love of, devotion to, and dependence on her dogs to cheer, comfort, and inspire her. She appreciated and benefited from their loyal com- panionship and the endless, fresh joy they contributed to home and family. They include: Thunder, who escorted her to elemen- tary school; Jeannette, the basset hound; Lady and Sheena, the Irish setters in Australia; sweet Barney in Kenya; Shaba and Kivu, the ridgebacks in Zaire; Sophie in Israel; and Ben and Charles, who helped raise her grandchildren. Her bond with dogs and their contribution to her own happiness is beautifully representa- tive of the enduring tradition of Foreign Service dogs. Nor did the Foreign Service inhibit Ann’s talent for poetry, instead apparently nourishing and inspiring it. I couldn’t possibly do justice to it, so instead will just say that her verses are gems. Please discover them for yourself if you have not already. Ann’s death was not sudden, and the poems she wrote in anticipation of it revealed her inner peace, as well as her wry sense of humor and quick wit. Ann lived her long and rich life well in the best sense of that word—with jest, curiosity, intelligence, generosity, persistence, humility, a love of dogs and all animals, unassuming courage, and quiet poise. She met life’s setbacks, changes, and challenges with equanimity, persistence, humor, and grace. Her remarkable individuality shone through it all. Ann and Bill’s lifelong direct and creative engagement with