THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2026 93 long passion as an artist. In Washington, D.C., she studied with Morris Louis, a leading member of the Washington Color School Painters. In 1956 the Smiths began their Foreign Service life. Early posts included Maracaibo, London, Bogotá, Brussels, and Lima. Their daughter, Pamela, was born in Washington, D.C., in 1969. As a diplomatic wife, Ms. Smith combined intelligence, adaptability, curiosity, grace, and a natural excellence in connecting with the new people and cultures. She embraced each post as an opportunity to learn. After Mr. Smith retired in 1997, the couple returned to Gainesville. Ms. Smith devoted many years to volunteering at the Retirement Home for Horses there, her work reconnecting her with the joy of her youth. She found deep fulfillment in the simple, enduring bond she shared with the animals she understood so well. As family members recall, she and her daughter had a knack for spotting the more absurd aspects of life, sharing these with each other, and having a good giggle about it. They were lifelong best friends. Cognizant and oriented through her final days, Ms. Smith told her daughter that she had had a wonderful life and was grateful to have always been surrounded by kind, loving, and amazing people. Ms. Smith leaves behind a legacy shaped by thoughtful exploration and by a deep respect for the people, places, and beings she loved. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 60 years, Jackson, in 2015. Ms. Smith is survived by her daughter, Pamela Lynn Smith, a senior clinical social worker in Gainesville; two nephews, Richard Henrichsen Sollner of Tampa, Fla., and Gerhard Sollner of Lincoln, Mass.; and a niece, Diana Padrone of Atlanta, Ga. Donations in Ms. Smith’s memory may be made to the Retirement Home for Horses at Mill Creek Farm in Alachua, Fla. n Rose P. Wong, 102, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on August 1, 2026, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Ms. Wong was born in Hawaii on September 29, 1923. From 1942 to 1952, she worked in Washington, D.C., as a clerk in the Treasury Department. She moved to the Social Security Board as fiscal accounting clerk from 1952 to 1958 and then served as deputy chief of the Federal Aviation Agency from 1958 to 1959. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Benjamin Franklin University in 1957. Ms. Wong entered the Foreign Service in 1959 and was assigned to Djakarta (now Jakarta) as a disbursing officer. Next, in 1962, she was posted to Seoul as a budget-fiscal officer and in 1967 transferred to Bangkok. Assignments to Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Rabat, and Kathmandu followed. Ms. Wong also had TDY assignments to San Salvador and Washington, D.C., where she served on a selection panel. Ms. Wong is survived by many nieces and nephews, grandnieces and a grandnephew, and great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews who remember her fondly. 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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