The Foreign Service Journal - November 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2017 75 Gara Malesky was born on Dec. 4, 1940, in Lee County, Miss. Following gradua- tion fromBlue Mountain College in Blue Mountain, Miss., in 1962, she joined the Peace Corps and served in one of the first Peace Corps classes in Cameroon. On return to the United States, she addressed various groups on her experi- ences overseas, including attending tea with “Lady Bird” Johnson at the White House. In the mid-1960s she worked as a public school teacher in Charlotte, N.C. After her marriage to LannMalesky, a Foreign Service officer with the State Department, she and her family lived inmany locations around the world for nearly 20 years: Algiers, Geneva, London, Bamako, Istanbul andManama. While valuing her travels and the considerable time she spent overseas, Mrs. Malesky welcomed the opportunity to establish roots in one place during the latter part of her life. She was a 33-year resident of Fairfax City, living in the same house the entire time. Both of her children graduated fromFairfax High School and George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. Mrs. Malesky is survived by her two sons, AlvinMalesky of Asheville, N.C., and Lowell Malesky of Fairfax, Va.; Lowell’s wife, Katy, and their three children, Ken- dall, Kelsey and Joshua; and her younger sister, Brenda Hare of Tupelo, Miss., and her husband, Billy. Family members recall that she valued education highly and instilled that value in her children. In lieu of flowers, her wish would be to simply plant a tree in her memory, or contributions may be made to the Envi- ronmental Defense Fund (www.edf.org ). Q Robert Herbert Marston , 89, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on Dec. 24, 2016, at the Broad Creek Care Center on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. Born onMay 12, 1927, in Hempstead, N.Y., Mr. Marston was a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Maryland. He served as a U.S. Army sergeant in Germany and Southern France before returning home to New York. Mr. Marston began his Foreign Service career in Berlin during the 1948 blockade. On Sept. 19, 1953, he marriedMary Francis Price while both were serving in U.S. gov- ernment posts in Bonn. During a 39-year diplomatic career he served in 11 different countries, from India to the Middle East, Africa and Europe. In 1987 he retired to Hilton Head Island Plantation. A lover of music and small theater acting, Mr. Marston played such roles as Felix Unger in “The Odd Couple” while stationed in NewDelhi. He was a member of the Hilton Head Island Barber Shoppers and a long-time choir member at All Saints Episcopal Church. He was also a 32nd-Degree Mason and a founding member of Dolphin Head Golf Course. Friends and family members recall that Mr. Marston touchedmany lives with his easy smile, kind eyes and beautiful tenor voice. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Mary, of Hilton Head, S.C.; two sons, Bob and John, and a daughter, Elizabeth; a daughter-in-law, Karen; six grandchildren; and a sister, JeanWeisensee. Q Arlene J. (Erickson) Mitchell, 82, a retiredmember of the Foreign Service with USAID, died onMay 17 in North Palm Beach, Fla., surrounded by her family. The daughter of Lenora Olson Erickson and Lewis E. Erickson, a minister, Mrs. Mitchell was born on the family farm in Maryfield, Saskatchewan, Canada, where they raised cattle and grewwheat. After graduation fromMaryfield High