THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2025 107 agencies and the technical and specialized agencies such as WHO and the IAEA. This work proved ideal preparation for her next assignment, as principal deputy assistant administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Serving then-Administrator William Reilly, she helped launch a half-billion-dollar international program, establish the Regional Environmental Center in Budapest, and participate in the 1992 United Nations “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro. Following the detail to EPA, from 1992 to 1993, Ms. Vogelgesang served as a senior author of “STATE 2000,” a task force report to the Secretary of State defining new global priorities. Related to that work was her service as special adviser to the Administrator of the Agency for International Development (USAID). Her concluding assignment in the Foreign Service was as ambassador to the Kingdom of Nepal from 1994 to 1997. In retirement, Amb. Vogelgesang enjoyed writing and working on local community issues. She served on the board of several organizations, such as the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal Trust. She was a civic activist, serving as president of her local community association. She and her spouse enjoyed travel after both retired from the Foreign Service. Their travels ranged from Canada and the Caribbean, and much of South America, to Western and Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, China, Japan, Africa, and the Middle East. Amb. Vogelgesang is predeceased by her husband, Geoffrey Wolfe, and survived by their two children, Christopher Glenn Wolfe (and wife Kim and granddaughter Summer) and Carolyn Louise Wolfe (and husband Satchel Kornfeld, grandson Forrest, and granddaughter Thalia) in the Washington, D.C., area. She is also survived by brother Mark Wesley Vogelgesang (and wife Susan and children Christine Louise Oatey and James Vogelgesang) of Ohio. n Melissa Foelsch Wells, 92, a retired Foreign Service officer and ambassador with the rank of Minister Counselor, died peacefully at home in Potomac, Md., on July 12, 2025. Ms. Wells was born on November 18, 1932, in Tallinn, Estonia, daughter of opera singer and film actress Miliza Korjus. In 1936 she immigrated to the U.S. with her parents and lived in Los Angeles, where her mother starred in the MGM production The Great Waltz. In 1956 Ms. Wells received a bachelor’s degree cum laude in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. She joined the State Department in 1958 and started at the Austria desk. Her first foreign posting was in Port of Spain as political and consular officer (1961-1963). She then served as an economic officer at the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris (1964-1966) and as economic officer in London (1966-1970). From 1971 to 1975, Ms. Wells lived in Washington, D.C., where she held the following posts: chief of the business relations branch in the Bureau of Economic Affairs (1972-1973); personnel officer for the Board of Examiners at the State Department; and deputy director for major export projects at the Department of Commerce (1973-1975). In 1975-1976, Ms. Wells served as commercial counselor in Rio de Janeiro. Her first post as ambassador was to Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde from 1976 to 1977. She was then named representative to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations from 1977 to 1979. Ambassador Wells was seconded to the United Nations, first as resident representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Uganda and special representative for emergency relief operations related to famine in Uganda (1979-1981), and then as director of the IMPACT Program to prevent disabilities in Geneva (1982-1986). In 1986-1987, Amb. Wells lived in Washington when her nomination to be U.S. ambassador to Mozambique was held up a full year by Senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.). She served in Mozambique from 1987 until 1990, and then as ambassador to Zaire (now DRC) from 1991 to 1993. In 1993 she worked for the UN again, as undersecretary general for administration and management. And in 1994 she returned to the State Department as the special representative in Sudan. From 1995 to 1997, Amb. Wells was consul in São Paulo, and then from 1998 until the last day of her career, September 10, 2001, she was U.S. ambassador to her birth country of Estonia. After retiring in 2001, Amb. Wells lived with her husband, Alfred Washburn Wells, in the small town of Agulo, on the island of La Gomera, in the Canary Islands, Spain. He had been a State FSO from 1941 to 1966 and then an architect until his death in 2014. In 2021 she moved to Potomac, Md. Amb. Wells and her husband are survived by their two sons, Christopher and Gregory, and three grandchildren, Anthony, Emory, and Marlie. n To submit an obituary for In Memory, please send the complete text (up to 500 words) to InMemory@afsa.org. Be sure to include the date, place, and cause of death, and details of the individual's Foreign Service career. Submissions must come from, or be confirmed by, a next of kin or other family member.
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