The Foreign Service Journal, December 2007

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 51 ichard Curtis Scissors, 71, a retired Foreign Service officer, former AFSA Governing Board member and tire- less advocate for equitable employ- ment practices for Foreign Service officers, Foreign Service National employees and their families, died at his home in Chevy Chase, Md., on Sept. 1. With his passing, AFSA and the Foreign Service lost a great friend and advocate. Recogni- zing this, the Governing Board has named AFSA’s new legal defense fund in his honor. Mr. Scissors was born on Oct. 23, 1935, in St. Louis, Mo., the only child of Jack and Irma Scissors. His father had emi- grated from the Ukraine at age 10, one of nine children in a Jewish family. Irma was the eldest of six children in a Catholic family. Both had had to drop out of school after eighth grade in order to help support their families during tough times. They wanted their son to have all the opportunities offered by a good public school education and access to the many cultural opportunities available in the St. Louis area. After graduation from Clayton High School — where he was a good student who came to love film and music, espe- cially classical, show tunes, jazz and anything by Stevie Wonder — Scissors headed off to Harvard, where he majored in government, graduating in 1957. At Harvard, he thrived on exposure to the finest minds of the times. He managed the squash courts to earn spending money and despised the rainy, dreary Cambridge weather, but he made lifelong friendships and never stopped marveling at the chances he had been given. This past June, he went back for his 50th reunion and relished wandering the campus, staying in a dorm and reminiscing with old friends. Following enlistment in the U.S. Army for a two-year stint, his dream of being accepted into the Foreign Service came true in 1960, and he spent the next 36 years as an FSO. He married and became the father of two sons, Derek and Curtis. He traveled extensively, serving in Stuttgart as a vice consul, and in Lahore, Karachi and Cape Town as an eco- nomic officer. Later overseas postings took him to Bucharest and back to Cape Town where, as consul general in the late 1980s, he reported on the collapse of apartheid. Assignments at home included various economic policy positions, director of maritime affairs and land transport and, finally, political adviser to the com- mandant of the Coast Guard. Scissors was a dedicated diplomat who, as his wife, Patricia Scissors, notes, “was involved in Foreign Service matters until the end.” Following retirement in 1996, he put his FS background, and in particular his experience in the area of human resources, to work advancing AFSA’s goals. As the association’s labor management specialist, he was active on behalf of office management specialists and was instrumen- tal in the revamping of the Language Incentive Pay Program, among many other accomplishments. “Dick deeply cared about the Foreign Service, the rights and responsibilities of its members and ensuring that they received fair treatment,” recalls Tex Harris, a former AFSA president and current secretary. “Getting justice for all was his passion,” Harris adds. “He helped so many members with his smarts, experience and abiding dedication to fair- ness. He represents the best of AFSA.” AFSA General Counsel Sharon Papp elaborates: “Dick R “T HE B EST OF AFSA”: A N A PPRECIATION R ICHARD C URTIS S CISSORS 1935 – 2007 B Y S USAN M AITRA “Getting justice for all was his passion.” — F.A. “Tex” Harris Susan Maitra is the Journal ’s senior editor.