The Foreign Service Journal, November 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2020 89 He earned a master’s degree in com- munications at Syracuse University and then began his 28-year career with the U.S. Information Agency. Mr. Ronan’s first overseas assign- ment was to Caracas, Venezuela. There he met the love of his life, Clemencia, and they married in 1979. Together they completed assignments in Guatemala and in India before returning to the United States. After retiring from USIA, he contin- ued audiovisual work on smaller gov- ernment contracts in Moldova, Puerto Rico and in various American cities. Mr. Ronan fought a quiet and coura- geous battle against Parkinson’s disease for about 10 years but kept the cheerful, positive attitude and the ready smile and wit that endeared him to so many. He was proud of his Irish heri- tage, loved his family and friends and maintained interest in their lives and those of his many nieces and nephews, family members recall. He believed in the goodness of the United States and was proud to have served in the federal government to promote its message to others abroad. A high point in Mr. Ronan’s life, only one year ago, was an 80th birthday celebration held in his beloved Chicago at the Chicago Highlands Club and attended by about 80 friends and rela- tives, many of whom had traveled long distances to be with him. Mr. Ronan was preceded in death by his parents; a sister, Margaret Healy; a brother, John; and nephews John D. Ronan and James Ronan IV. He is survived by his wife, Clem- encia, with whom he shared 40 happy years; his brother, James (and his wife, Lucy); sister-in-law Martha Sud (and her spouse, Krishen); Amalia Kerr (and her husband, Gary); brother-in-law Manuel Santaella (and his wife, Karen); and nieces and nephews: Thomas Healy; Vikran and Sivan Sud; Mary Ronan Hills; Catherine Ronan Karrels; Grace Ronan; Susan Lynch; Patricia Corry; Stephen, Michael and James Healy; Timothy, Christopher, Kevin and Terry Ronan; Haakon, Karsten and Thoren Santaella; and Kristian Kerr. In lieu of flowers, memorial contri- butions may be made to Sibley Memo- rial Hospital Foundation, 5525 Lough- boro Road NW, Washington DC 20016. n Gilbert H. Sheinbaum , 91, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on Aug. 22 in Vienna, Va. Mr. Sheinbaum was born and raised in New York City, and was a 1950 gradu- ate of New York University in history and political science. He first worked on Wall Street but then served in the Army during the Korean War. He then entered the Foreign Service in 1957. Mr. Sheinbaum began his diplo- matic career of 30 years in Asia, with an assignment as finance officer in Vientiane, Laos. He next went to Paris from 1959 to 1961 as civil air attaché. He reported in detail on French progress and problems in building a supersonic airliner, a report that persuaded Presi- dent John F. Kennedy not to go ahead with funding an American counterpart. In Washington, he worked on European regional economic issues for two years until he was sent to Vietnam, where he was first an adviser to the U.S. Marines in his area. This was followed by a move to Saigon as staff assistant to Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker from 1967 to 1968. In 1968, while political affairs officer in Copenhagen, he suffered an accident requiring hospitalization, during which he was cared for by a Danish nurse, Inger Thomsen, who would become his wife in 1971. Subsequent Foreign Service assign- ments together included Washington, D.C., where he dealt with Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg; an assignment as chargé d’affaires in Madagascar; and posting as deputy chief of mission in Malawi. From 1979 to 1983, he served as the American consul in Cebu, the Philip- pines. The consular district spanned the central and southern Philippines, includ- ing Muslim-dominated Mindanao, where an insurgency was smoldering. In Cebu, a classified report Mr. Sheinbaum wrote on the economic issues in Mindanao that were exacer- bated by poor government policies and exploitation by cronies of President Ferdinand Marcos was somehow leaked to the press, causing an outcry. An angry Marcos tried to have him removed, but the pressure was eased by First Lady Imelda Marcos, whose family home was in the central Philippines. She had come to know the Sheinbaums well and persuaded her husband to drop the issue. Mr. Sheinbaum rounded out his career with an assignment as political counselor in Geneva before retiring from the Foreign Service in 1986. After retirement, Mr. Sheinbaum continued to work on matters for the U.S. government, including five years of traveling to Asia as U.S. director of the multilateral Colombo Plan. In Washing- ton, D.C., he assisted the Pentagon to establish the National Security Educa- tion Program. He became a consultant to the State Department on a new initiative promot- ing cooperation among the then unstable Balkan countries. In the later years of his retirement, he worked part time for