The Foreign Service Journal, November 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2022 77 Hitchcock Brendler, and Violet Ballou Hitchcock Brendler. n Jerry Powell Lanier, 70, a retired Foreign Service officer and former ambas- sador, passed away on Aug. 16, 2022, in Charleston, S.C., following a courageous struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. Mr. Lanier grew up in Chadbourn, N.C., and excelled at sports, especially baseball. He was recruited to pitch on the farm team for the Philadelphia Phillies but turned down the offer to focus on his studies, intending to become a university professor. History was his passion; he earned a bachelor’s degree in the subject from Pembroke University, as well as a master’s degree, also in history, from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. After a brief teaching stint at UNC- Charlotte, he began a long and distin- guished career with the State Department as a Foreign Service officer, eventually serving as ambassador to Uganda (2009- 2012) and chargé d’affaires in Sudan (2014-2016). He also served in the Philippines, Thailand, Kenya, Bosnia, Ghana, and Germany, in addition to multiple assign- ments in Washington, D.C. Mr. Lanier worked with the military as a political adviser (POLAD) in Bosnia and later contributed to the planning for Africa Command, then serving as its first POLAD in Stuttgart, Germany, from 2007 to 2009. Among his many assignments in Washington, he was especially shaped by his work as special assistant to then– Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Herman “Hank” Cohen. During his first year as chief of mis- sion in Uganda, Ambassador Lanier dealt with an al-Shabaab terrorist attack on a World Cup viewing party in Kam- pala that killed 74 people, spurring an international investigation and media frenzy. He later led an intensive inter- agency effort to locate Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army. However, he was most proud of lead- ing Embassy Kampala’s efforts to block the passage of a law that would have made homosexuality punishable by death. Perhaps his single greatest contribu- tion was in Sudan, when the embassy secured the release of a Sudanese woman who gave birth while imprisoned for apostasy. The embassy provided sanctu- ary for her and her family for a month until they could be safely evacuated in a secret nighttime operation to Rome, where the Pope had requested to meet her. Ambassador Lanier retired from the Foreign Service in 2016. Always a good storyteller with a keen sense of humor, he liked to joke that he took the Foreign Service Officer Test because it was free. He thought coming from a small Southern town was ideal preparation for being a diplomat: Do your best to get along with people, and don’t burn any bridges. Those who knew him will remember him as someone who always wanted to be helpful to others and who believed deeply in the power of diplomacy to deescalate conflict and avoid war. Amb. Lanier was predeceased by his parents, Buell Lanier and Helen Lanier (Giard) of Chadbourn, and a brother, Buell Edward (Eddie) Lanier, also of Chadbourn. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Cath- erine Kannenberg, of Charleston, S.C.; children Julianne Hollingsworth (and husband Robert) of Burlington, N.C., Peter Lanier (and wife Emily Freedner) of Silver Spring, Md., Claire Lanier of Charleston, S.C., and Jordan Lanier (and wife Erin) of Charleston, S.C.; brothers Terry Lanier (and wife Ann) of White- ville, N.C., and Gary Wayne Lanier (and wife Becky) of Angier, N.C.; and former spouse, Jackie Lanier of Charleston, S.C. Amb. Lanier is also remembered as a loving grandfather to Sierra, Anna, Lucy, Penny, Henry, and Nora. n John Roy Oleson, 91, a retired Senior Foreign Service officer and devel- opment adviser, died on July 6, 2022, in Towson, Md., of complications related to dementia. He was born on Oct. 12, 1930, in Waukesha, Wis., to Emil Oleson, a dairy- man, and Arline Oleson (née Wittig), and was raised with a sister, Monica Steger. After the family moved to New Jersey, he attended public schools in Elizabeth and Cranford. Mr. Oleson went on to attend Harvard College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated with high honors in economics in 1952. After attending the University of Copenhagen in Denmark for a year on a Fulbright fellowship, he entered Harvard Law School. There he was elected to the Board of Student Advisors and graduated with honors in 1956. He was admitted to the Illinois bar and became an associate at a major Chicago law firm. While in law school, he met Mary Elizabeth Russell of Saco, Maine, then attending Wellesley College, and they married in 1957. In 1958 he joined the Foreign Service of the Department of State. He had assign- ments in the Bureau of Economic Affairs in Washington, D.C., and in its overseas missions in Bilbao and Mexico City. In 1965 Mr. Oleson transferred to the U.S. Agency for International Develop- ment. Initially working as an attorney adviser to the Bureau of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs, he became the