The Foreign Service Journal, November 2011

62 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 1 I N M EMORY Virginia T. Babin , 76, a retired Foreign Service officer and the wife of retired FSO Joe (Anthony J.) Babin, died peacefully on Sept. 2 in Alexan- dria, Va. Mrs. Babin joined the Foreign Serv- ice in 1961 and served in Rome and Aden before meeting andmarrying her husband in 1967. After resigning in ac- cordance with regulations at the time, she accompanied her husband to La- hore, where their daughter Catherine was born (with a cat in the delivery room at United Christian Hospital), and Aden (again). At the couple’s next posting, Kuwait City, their daughter Susan was born in a private clinic. They were then assigned to Palo Alto, Calif., for a school year, thereafter serving in Prague, Cairo, Tegucigalpa and Beijing. Following her husband’s retire- ment in 1986, Mrs. Babin rejoined the Foreign Service and served in Dhah- ran and Guatemala City before retir- ing. Following her retirement, she volunteered at the Capitol Caring Thrift Store. Virginia Babin is survived by her husband of 44 years, Joe, of Alexandria; and her daughters, Susan, a Foreign Service specialist serving in Istanbul, and Catherine, who resides in Munic with her husband, Michael Tierney, and son, Aidan. She is also survived by sisters Eleanor andMartha Ann and by sister-in-law Teddy Tanksley, as well as by numerous loving friends and family in the Washington, D.C., area and throughout the world. Condolences may be sent to the family at 501 Slaters Lane, #1103, Alexandria VA 22314. In lieu of flow- ers, donations may be made to Capital Caring, 4715 15th St N, Arlington VA 22205. Constance Alling Hoffacker , 85, the former wife of retired FSO and for- mer ambassador Lewis Hoffacker, died on Sept. 15 at Hospice Atlanta. Mrs. Hoffacker was born in Beirut in 1926, the daughter of the late For- eign Service officer and former ambas- sador Paul Alling and Mrs. Alling. She accompanied her parents to Baghdad, Tangier, Washington, D.C., and Kar- achi, where her father was the first U.S. ambassador to the newly independent Pakistan. A graduate of Wellesley Col- lege, she was a collector and marketer of antiques. In 1951, she married FSO Lewis Hoffacker, and accompanied him on overseas postings to Tehran, Istanbul, Oxford University, Paris, Elisabethville, Leopoldville, Algiers and Yaounde. The couple also spent time in Wash- ington, D.C., when Mr. Hoffacker at- tended the National War College and during several assignments at the State Department. The couple later di- vorced. Mrs. Hoffacker leaves her former husband, Lewis, of Austin, Texas; two daughters, Anne Bradley of Boise, Idaho, and Rebekah Hoffacker of Tucker, Ga.; and a sister, Anne Long of Myersville, Md. Lewis Renz Macfarlane , 72, a re- tired Foreign Service officer, died April 24 in Seattle, Wash., of acute leukemia. Lewis Macfarlane was born on Sept. 10, 1938, in Seattle. In high school he was co-discoverer of a comet and was featured in a Time magazine article about the discovery. After graduating fromStanford University in 1960 with a degree in political science, he joined the Foreign Service. During Mr. Macfarlane’s first as- signment overseas, to the Congo, he and three colleagues were shot out of their jeep by militants of the Simba Re- bellion. Their disappearance became a focus of national concern, but his Swahili skills and local expertise helped bring all safely back to post. The De- partment of State presented Mr. Mac- farlane with the Award for Heroism “for bravery in the face of rebel attack in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, August 19-22, 1964.” Mr. Macfarlane served four tours in