The Foreign Service Journal, November 2020

90 NOVEMBER 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 14 years on the declassification of State Department archives to facilitate access by scholars and the media. Apart from government, Mr. Shein- baum maintained an active interest in the theater and moonlighted as stage manager for the American Light Opera Company for two years. In retirement he lectured on many cruise ships and air tours around the world. He served as treasurer of DACOR from 1994 until 2000 and as a member of AFSA’s Governing Board from 2003 to 2007. Mr. Sheinbaum is survived by his wife of 49 years, Inger F. Thomsen Sheinbaum of Vienna, Va.; two sons, Neil Sheinbaum of Oakton, Va., and Vincent Doisy of Lyon, France; daughter Britt Sheinbaum Carter of Wilmington, N.C.; and five grandchildren. n Joseph Aaron Silberstein , 101, a retired Foreign Service officer, died peace- fully on July 11 in Greenwich, Conn. Mr. Silberstein was born in New York City in 1918 to Charles and Dora (née Dombrow) Silberstein. Following the death of his father, he lived with his mother and maternal grandparents in the Bronx for most of his early years. At 15, he graduated from Morris High School, and at 19 from the City College of New York. When Mr. Silberstein was 17, he met Sheila Wright, and it was a love affair to the end. They married in 1941 and cel- ebrated their 79th wedding anniversary on June 22. They were partners in everything: through his World War II military service as a first lieutenant in the Army, over decades in the U.S. Foreign Service, and in retirement, first in Bethesda, Md., and, finally, at the Osborn’s Sterling Park in Rye, N.Y. Into his 102nd year, he and Sheila walked arm- in-arm wherever they went. Mr. Silberstein’s Foreign Service career included tours in Colombia, El Salvador, Chile, Austria and Argen- tina. His last posting, in 1970, was as chief of the Division of Aviation Programs and Policies in the Bureau of Economic Affairs. In retirement, he volunteered for decades helping seniors prepare their tax returns and with the Washington Ear radio service, recording a weekly financial program. He and Sheila traveled the world and made lifelong friends wherever they went. Foremost, though, Mr. Silberstein was a family man. He will be terribly missed by his three children, Ellen S. Friedell, Judith A. Silberstein and Charles A. Silberstein; two sons-in-law, Steven F. Friedell and Fred (Ned) W. Benton; five grandchildren, Fred (Nicky) W. Ben- ton, Deborah K. Friedell, Elizabeth L. Benton, David J. Friedell and Jonathan C. Benton; three in-law grandchildren, Rachel A. Hudelson, William E. Dornbos and Christine H. Monahan; and five great-grandchildren, Jonah P. Benton, Talia M. Dornbos, Micah J. Benton, Sanna Q. Dornbos and Elise C. Benton. n Hans N. “Tom” Tuch , 95, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on Sept. 7 at his residence in Bethesda, Md., from complications following a recent fall. He was a distinguished, longtime advocate of public diplomacy. Mr. Tuch was born to a prominent Jewish family in Berlin, Germany, on Oct. 15, 1924, and immigrated to the United States in 1938. He graduated from Southwest High School in Kansas City in 1942. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas City in 1947, and a master’s degree from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in 1948. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the Univer- sity of Missouri in 1986. During World War II, Mr. Tuch was a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Divi- sion in Europe, jumping on D-Day in Normandy and at Eindhoven, Holland, during Operation Market Garden. He was awarded a Bronze Star and a Com- bat Infantry Badge. After graduate school, Mr. Tuch went to work for Chase Bank, where he was trained and sent to Germany. He mar- ried Ruth “Mimi” Lord in Wiesbaden in 1949; the two had met while students at SAIS. He joined the Foreign Service in 1949. During his first post as a Foreign Service officer, in Frankfurt, Mr. Tuch became interested in public diplomacy. He served as director of the America House (U.S. Information and Cultural Center), where he contributed to U.S. efforts to foster democracy in postwar Germany. From 1958 to 1961, he was the first postwar press and cultural attaché at U.S. Embassy Moscow, and he par- ticipated in implementation of the first U.S.-Soviet cultural agreement, fostering exchanges of students and academics, as well as the promotion of American exhibitions, publications and the per- forming arts in the Soviet Union. He witnessed the Kitchen Debate between Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, and subsequently became part of Vice President Nixon’s “Kitchen Cabinet.” In 1961 Mr. Tuch became assis- tant director for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at the U.S. Information Agency, under Edward R. Murrow’s