The Foreign Service Journal, November 2016

68 NOVEMBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL n James Perrin, 86, a retired Senior Foreign Service officer, died on Sept. 17 in Falmouth, Maine. Mr. Perrin was born in Boston, Mass., on Jan. 27, 1930, to Hugh and Helen Perrin. He was raised in Dedham, Mass., and was a graduate of the Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College. From childhood on, Mr. Perrin’s first love was singing. After college he made performing his career, and at age 20 he became a member of Equity, the profes- sional actors’ union. At 21, he was singing on the cruise ships that ran between New York City and Buenos Aires, and the following year he had a role in a musical revue starring Maurice Chevalier in Paris. He then spent several years performing in nightclubs in North America, appeared extensively on television and joined CBS Television in New York as a production assistant and then stage manager. Nostalgic for the time he had spent in France, Mr. Perrin won a two-year Fulbright Fellowship to study at the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques in Paris. During this second stay in Paris, he marriedMartha Bodel, a CBS produc- tion coordinator whomhe hadmet and courted in New York. He also served as stage manager for an Ed Sullivan Show taped at Paris’ Cirque d’Hiver, and headed a CBS operation in Paris that expedited videotape shipments of the 1960 Rome Olympics to New York. On returning to the United States, Mr. Perrin spent several years as an associate producer in the documentary division of CBS News, and then became executive producer for cultural programming at National Educational Television, the fore- runner of the Public Broadcasting System. But he found that the higher he rose in executive ranks, the further removed he was from the elements that had drawn himfirst to performing and then to televi- sion. He also knew he enjoyed living and working overseas. Thus, in 1966, Mr. Perrin joined the Foreign Service of the U.S. Infor- mation Agency. His first diplomatic assignment was as press attaché in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the turbulent days fol- lowing General Mobutu Sese Seko’s acces- sion to power. Assignments in Fort Lamy (nowN’Djamena), Jakarta and Abidjan followed. The succession of tropical posts had an increasingly adverse effect on his wife’s health, and the couple spent the next seven years inWashington before obtain- ing medical clearance to return overseas. During this time, Mr. Perrin attended the National War College (now the National Defense University) and served as deputy director and then acting director of the USIA Television and Film Service. In 1982, he was assigned toMadrid, where he also served on the jury of the 1985 Monte Carlo International FilmFesti- val, and in 1986 he was posted to Paris. Following his retirement in 1990, the Perrins moved back toMadrid, where for several years he worked in concert and dance management with Luis “Luisillo” Davila, a leading Spanish Flamenco dancer. Following his wife’s death, Mr. Per- rinmoved fromMadrid to Brunswick, Maine, in 2001. There he was president of the Angels, a volunteer support group for the Maine State MusicTheatre. He also appeared in several minor roles and served on the theater’s advisory board of trustees. Otherwise, his main interests were bridge, photography and fishing. Mr. Perrin was particularly proud of the Perrin Fellowship he established in 2006 at the Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H. It offers a year of independent travel and study for a graduating senior before he or she continues their formal studies. Mr. Perrin was predeceased by his sister, Gail Perrin, and by two wives, Martha Bodel Perrin and Mary Define Perrin. He is survived by his brother, Mark Perrin, and his former wife, Val- erie Hobson Perrin. Contributions inMr. Perrin’s memory can be made to the Perrin Fund at Phillips Exeter Academy. n John Page Shumate, 81, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on Aug. 15 in Pittsboro, N.C. Mr. Shumate was born on Sept. 18, 1934, in El Paso, Texas. A graduate of Santa Monica High School, he earned a B.S. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and anM.A. in Latin American studies from the University of Southern California. After working as an engineer for Doug- las Aircraft and for General Telephone, he joined the Foreign Service in 1957. His overseas postings included Lima, Can- berra and Quito. InWashington, D.C., his assignments included the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the Foreign Service Institute (management studies), the Bureau of European Affairs (United Kingdom), the Bureau of Cultural Affairs and the Office of the Under Secretary for Management. He also served as executive director in the Bureau of Administration. After retiring in 1985, Mr. Shumate became executive director of the Secre- tary of State’s Advisory Panel on Overseas Security (known as the Inman Panel). Later, he was executive vice president and CEO of the American Foreign Service Protective Association. In 1988, Mr. Shumate founded the Senior Living Foundation of the American Foreign Service, a charitable organization that provides assistance to retired Foreign