The Foreign Service Journal, November 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2022 79 many nieces, nephews, and their fami- lies, as well as treasured cousins. She was predeceased by her parents, her brother, Michael, and her former brother-in-law, Bruce Daniel. n Elizabeth Raspolic, 83, a retired Senior Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, died on May 26, 2022, fol- lowing a brief illness. Born in Wilkinsburg, Penn., in 1939, Ms. Raspolic graduated from Bennington College in 1960. She went on to attend Arizona State University and the Univer- sidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She began her career as a Peace Corps staff member in Lahore, Pakistan, fol- lowed by more senior Peace Corps posi- tions inThailand and Tunisia. The work exposed her to U.S. embassy operations in those countries and inspired her to pursue a Foreign Service career. After passing the Foreign Service entrance exam, Ms. Raspolic joined the Department of State in August 1973 as one of only four women in an entering class of 25. She excelled in training and received a highly sought-after assignment in Lyon, where she was the only consular officer at a two-person post. She learned by doing. Her next assignment was in Seoul, where she was one of many consular officers and learned a broad range of skills that served her well throughout her career. She then moved on to Addis Ababa, then in the midst of the brutal oppres- sion and mass killings known as the Red Terror. She recalled dinners interrupted by gunfire and American residents caught up in the violence who sought the embassy’s help. She returned to Washington, D.C., in 1981 for a position on the Executive Secretariat. After two years of Mandarin language training, Ms. Raspolic oversaw a busy consular section at the consulate in Guangzhou from 1983 to 1986 in the early years after the normalization of U.S.- China relations. Working conditions were awful; in an interview with the Association for Diplo- matic Studies and Training, she recalled the fleas in the carpeting and the rats and cats that fought in the ceiling, occasion- ally falling through onto a workspace. But the job was worthwhile and fulfilling, and she was rewarded with a promotion to the role of consul general in Beijing. In 1991 Ms. Raspolic returned to Africa as deputy chief of mission in Oua- gadougou, where she served as chargé d’affaires for several months in 1993. She was then selected to attend the yearlong Foreign Service Senior Seminar in 1995, and arrived in Gabon as ambassador in 1996. She returned to Washington in 1998 to head the Office of Senior Assignments, but took leave without pay to spend time with her seriously ill brother, Anthony (known to the family as “Sonny”), until his death in 2000. Ms. Raspolic retired from the State Department in 2001 and relocated to Tucson, Ariz., but was recalled in 2008 to be chargé d’affaires in Conakry at a tumultuous time. She was commended for her unflappable presence and her support of embassy staff during the crisis. In retirement, she divided her time between Phoenix, Ariz., and Santa Fe, N.M. She was a lifelong avid reader and a supporter of education and the arts, spending her final years collecting art and Native American jewelry, going to exhibits, and volunteering at local museums. She always made time for the Santa Fe Opera, which she looked forward to attending each year to keep in touch with friends and former colleagues. Ms. Raspolic always found time to visit her family in Pittsburgh, New York, and Cleveland. She also provided love and affection to a succession of cats she shared her home with. Relatives fondly remember her for family gatherings growing up and the detailed repository she kept of the family’s history. She is survived by her cousins Cath- erine Jelkovac (Raspolic), Lillian Carrara (Raspolic), Norman Raspolic, Judy Burch, and their families. She was preceded in death by her father, Anton Raspolic, her mother, Mildred Raynovich Raspolic, and her brother, Anthony “Sonny” Raspolic. n Wilma Lewis Scerback, 99, wife of retired Foreign Service Officer Clement Godfrey Scerback, passed away at the Delaware Hospice in Milford, Del., on June 27, 2022, following a short illness. She was one month shy of her 100th birthday. Ms. Scerback was born on July 29, 1922, in Columbus, Ohio, to Mary Shaub Lewis and WilliamThomas Lewis and graduated from Reynoldsburg High School in 1940. She met her husband when the two worked together at a movie palace in Columbus, and they married in 1944 while he was a pilot flying B-24 bombers in the Army Air Force. They relocated to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1950. Mr. Scerback joined the U.S. Informa- tion Agency in 1955, and Ms. Scerback and Sharon, their daughter, joined him in Belgrade for a four-year tour. Later postings included Linz, Graz, Vienna, Washington, D.C., and Budapest. Ms. Scerback supported her husband in whatever way was needed throughout his career, from hosting near-weekly