USAID Memorial Wall

Walter Stanley Eltringham was born July 30, 1896, in Ashland, Pennsylvania. He was superintendent at various mines in Wheeling, West Virginia, and in Pennsylvania. He moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1942 to accept a position with the U.S. Bureau of Mines. He went to South Korea in 1949 to serve as an engineer for the Economic Co-operation Administration (ECA), a predecessor agency to USAID.

He was reported missing shortly after the invasion of South Korea by North Korean forces on June 25, 1950. Eltringham died on November 17, 1950, a prisoner of the North Korean Armed Forces at Ba Chang Ri. His fellow prisoners buried him on a nearby slope. He was 54 years old. His family was not informed of his death until six British civilians were released in April 1951 and reported that Eltringham had died of what is believed to have been a combination of malnutrition, overexposure to cold, and excessive fatigue, which resulted in pneumonia. Eltringham was survived by his wife, Marion. His remains were not recovered. There is a cenotaph in his memory at Christ Church Cemetery in Fountain Springs, Pennsylvania.

[Sources: “Continuing ‘Captive in Korea,” The Sunday Mail (Brisbane, Australia) 31 May 1953, Page 7, online at Newspapers.com; “More victims of the Death March,” Irish Independent (Dublin, Ireland) 12 Nov 1955, Page 2, online at Newspapers.com; “Mining Engineer Among 13 Civilians U.S. Demands Be Returned By Enemy,” The Times Leader (Wilkes-Bare, Pennsylvania) 10 April 1953, Page 17, online at Newspapers.com; “Walter Stanley Eltringham,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 44275194; Ancestry.com records.]

Dr. Henry Garland Bennett was born in Nevada County, Arkansas, on December 14, 1886. A prominent educational figure, he served as the president of both Southeastern Oklahoma State University and Oklahoma State University. In November 1950, Bennett was appointed by President Harry S Truman as the first Director of the Point Four Program, a technical assistance program for developing nations that later subsumed into the newly created USAID. Bennett is generally credited with the creation of the method of using specialists from American colleges and universities to teach people in other countries on how to improve food production, housing, health, and education with available resources. During his time with the program, he travelled to 33 nations, establishing around 105 projects.

Bennett died in a plane crash near Tehran, Iran, on December 22, 1951, while on an official visit to discuss U.S. technical aid with Iranian officials. His wife Vera Pearl Connell was with him and was killed in the crash. He was 65 years old. Secretary of State Dean Acheson spoke at a memorial event for him in Washington D.C. He is interred at Highland Cemetery, Durant, Oklahoma. The Bennett Memorial Chapel at Oklahoma State University serves as a memorial to him and his wife, and to the students of Oklahoma A&M College who were killed in World War I and World War II.

Note: His inscription on the USAID Memorial Wall does not list the country of death, but documentary evidence shows it was Iran.

[Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_G._Bennett; “Point Four Chief, 20 Others Killed in Iran Air Crash,” New York Times, December 24, 1951, Page 1.]

Dr. Ralph Brownlee Swain was born in Benton, Illinois, on October 20, 1912. An entomologist, Swain was working in Central America under the Point Four program, a technical assistance initiative that was a predecessor to USAID. Swain was killed October 4, 1953, on the Pan American Highway when he and his wife and two sons were flagged down 130 miles south of Mexico City by thieves while returning to his post in Managua, Nicaragua, after a weekend in Mexico City with his family. The gang of thieves shot Swain multiple times in the chest with a shotgun after he told them he was carrying travelers checks and could not give them the $230 in cash that they demanded. After the shooting, the bandits fled the scene. Swain was 40 years old. He was survived by his wife, Suzanne, and his sons Tommi and Ralph, who were 12 and 10 years old at the time, and two brothers.

[Sources: “Seven Admit Slaying of U.S. Diplomat,” The Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, Indiana) 7 October 1953, Page 2, online at Newspapers.com; “7 Bandits Confess Guilt in His Murder,” The Buffalo News (Buffalo, New York) 7 October 1953, Page 6, online at Newspapers.com]

Everette Dixie Reese was born in Houston, Texas on October 25, 1923. He attended the University of Houston and worked for the Houston Post before completing his education in Paris at the Sorbonne. Reese had served in Vietnam for four years as director of the USAID photo service before his death on April 29, 1955, when his plane was shot down near Saigon. Reese was 31 years old and was buried at Forest Park Cemetery in Houston, Texas. He was survived by his wife, Dorothy E. Reese, who served as a United States Public Health Service nurse for three years in Vietnam and a one year old son, Alan, in addition to his mother, a sister, and a brother. Many of his photos are preserved in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York.

[Sources: “Texan Who Took Photos of Persecuted Is Killed,” The Tablet, Brooklyn, New York, May 28, 1955, Page 21, online at Newspapers.com; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everette_Dixie_Reese; “Everette Dixie Reese,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 20978797; Ancestry.com records; Office of the Historian records.]

Kevin Mario Carroll was born on April 3, 1919, in Cobh, Ireland. Immigrating to Issaquah, Washington, he served as the International Cooperation Administration’s (a USAID predecessor agency) Provincial Director in Kerman, Iran. Carroll and his wife, Anita, both died of gunshot wounds on March 24, 1957, when they and several others were ambushed and killed. They were 37 and 35 years old. The Carrolls are buried at Sunset Hills Memorial Park in Bellevue, Washington.

Note: His inscription on the USAID Memorial Wall does not list the country of death, but documentary evidence shows it was Iran.

[Sources: Morristown Gazette Mail (Morristown, Pennsylvania) 31 March 1957, Page 1, online at Newpapers.com; The Tribune (Coshocton, Ohio) 02 April 1957, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; “Kevin Mario Carroll,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 6961053; Ancestry.com records.]

Dolph Brabham Owens was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 29, 1927, and lived in Tuscaloosa. He married Margaret Stallworth; they had two daughters, Donna and Krista. Owens served in the U.S. Army Special Forces before becoming a USAID public safety advisor at the American Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam. On November 5, 1960, Owens and his Vietnamese driver were killed in an early morning Viet Cong machine-gun ambush. His family was enroute to Vietnam to join him when they were notified of his death at the age of 33. He is buried at Memory Hill Gardens in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

[Sources: The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Indiana, November 7, 1960, Page 4, online at Newspapers.com; “Dolph Brabham Owens,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 159080272; Ancestry.com records, Office of the Historian records.]

Clyde Franklin Summers was born in Abilene, Texas on September 28, 1916. He was a construction engineer with a U.S. company building a new runway at the airport in Saigon. Summers and his local driver were shot in an ambush 12 miles northeast of Saigon on January 7, 1962. Summers was 45 years old. He is buried at Montecito Memorial Park in Colton, California.

[Sources: “U.S. Engineer Slain in Vietnam Ambush,” The Evening Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) 08 Jan 1962, Page 3, online at Newspapers.com; “Clyde Franklin Summers,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 28420518; Ancestry.com records.]

Oscar Curtis Holder was born August 7, 1911, in Mississippi. He obtained degrees from Harvard and Sanford. He married Jane Cooper and they had two children, William and Mary. He joined the Foreign Service in 1941, serving in Port Said, Suez, Vladivostok, Lisbon, Moscow, Salzburg, Cairo, and Frankfurt. He was serving as a program inspector with USAID in Washington, D.C., at the time of his death. Holder died along with his colleague, Sidney Jacques, in the crash of a Royal Nepal airlines plane in the Himalayas on August 1, 1962. Nepal’s ambassador to India was also killed in the crash. Holder was 50 years old. He is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

[Sources: “Nepal Reports Finding Plane,” Evening Star, Washington, D.C., August 13, 1962, Page 25, online at Newspapers.com; “Oscar Curtis Holder,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 200537007; Ancestry.com records; Office of the Historian records.]

Sidney Bennett Jacques was born January 27, 1911, in Providence, Rhode Island. He graduated from Yale and served in the Army. He married Jean McAllister; they had one daughter, Gail. Jacques joined the Foreign Service and served in Paris, Athens, and the Naval War College. He was assigned to Washington in 1960 as a program inspector with USAID. Jacques died along with his colleague, Oscar Holder, in the crash of a Royal Nepal airlines plane in the Himalayas on August 1, 1962. Nepal’s ambassador to India was also killed in the crash. Jacques is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He was 51 years old.

[Sources: “Nepal Reports Finding Plane,” Evening Star, Washington, D.C., August 13, 1962, Page 25, online at Newspapers.com; “Jacques, Sidney,” Evening Star, Washington, D.C., August 25, 1962, Page 6, online at Newspapers.com; “Sidney Bennett Jacques” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 6631347; Ancestry.com records; Office of the Historian records.]

Available information as of 2026 only identified him as a USAID contractor who died in an ambush in South Vietnam in 1963.

John Alfred Nuhn was born in Washington, D.C. and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander in the reserves after the war. He graduated from George Washington University in 1947. After working for the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Navy, he joined a predecessor agency to USAID in 1954 as a Foreign Service Reserve Officer. After his first tour in the foreign assistance mission at U.S. Embassy Athens, he transferred to U.S. Embassy Bangkok as USAID Deputy Assistance Director for Finance. He was killed on October 23, 1964, while returning to Bangkok from inspecting a USAID project site when the government jeep he was riding in was struck by a truck. His Thai driver was also killed, and two USAID American colleagues were injured. He died at age 45, leaving a wife and eight children aged 4 to 17.

[Source: USAID employee newspaper "Front Lines," Vol. 11, No. 24, October 30, 1964]

Joseph William Grainger was born on May 1, 1925, in Hartford, Connecticut. An Air Force veteran and graduate of Yale University, he was resident in Sumter, South Carolina and served as a USAID officer in Vietnam. Captured by the Viet Cong on August 8, 1964, along with a Filipino assistant and the Vietnamese manager of a sugar cane experiment station, he attempted escape and spent seven days making his way across a swamp, but was recaptured and killed after he refused to return to the prison camp on January 12, 1965. Grainger was the first civilian U.S. official captured in South Vietnam. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

The two individuals who shot him were executed themselves, as the Viet Cong was no longer able to collect USAID reward money in exchange for Grainger’s safe return. His Filipino assistant was released on December 10, 1964, and the Vietnamese sugar plantation director was also later freed. Grainger’s wife, Elizabeth, and four children were evacuated with other dependents from Vietnam to Thailand in February 1965 before returning to the United States.

[Sources: “Search for Aide Seized by Reds Pushed,” The Los Angeles Times, August 11, 1964, Page 7, online at Newspapers.com; The Kansas City Star, Kansas City, Missouri, April 13, 1965, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; “Joseph William Grainger,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 128414448; Ancestry.com records.]

John B. Cone, Jr. was born on April 3, 1937, in Arkansas. He attended the University of Arkansas, where he received a degree in engineering. Cone was working for Hydrotechnic Corp. as a contractor for a USAID project to build a water treatment plant in Vietnam. He died on April 19, 1965, when he and a Vietnamese colleague were stopped at a Viet Cong roadblock a mile north of Saigon, where assailants wearing South Vietnamese uniforms shot them and an escorting police officer. Cone was 28 years old. He was survived by his parents and four siblings. He is buried at Parkdale Cemeteries in Parkdale, Arkansas.

[Sources: “John B. Cone Jr.,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 11535693; Ancestry.com records]

Rodrigo Santa Anna was a Filipino working as a USAID contractor teaching English as a second language in a rural village in Vietnam. Members of the Viet Cong attacked the village and captured and shot Santa Anna in May 1965.

[Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_USAID_personnel_who_died_while_serving_abroad]

Jerry Allen Rose was born on December 16, 1933, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in Gloversville, New York. He was a freelance correspondent for Time Magazine, Newsweek, and the American Broadcasting Company when he met his wife, Kay, who worked at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. The two were married in Hong Kong in 1962. He returned to Vietnam as a freelance writer and civilian adviser to the South Vietnamese government for the United States Operations mission. He died on September 16, 1965, in a plane crash at Quang Ngai airfield that resulted from sabotage, killing all 39 people on the plane, including the South Vietnamese minister of rural pacification. Rose was 31 years old. He is buried at Knesseth Israel Cemetery in Gloversville, New York. He was survived by his wife, a young daughter, his parents, and two sisters.

[Sources: “Writer Killed in Viet Crash,” The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri) 16 September 1965, Page 24, online at Newspapers.com; “Jerry A. Rose,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 142444947; Ancestry.com records.]

Justin Gerard Mahony was born on September 10, 1919, in Dashwood, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States in 1948, where he flew as a pilot for Eastern Airlines, and became a U.S. citizen in 1953. He worked as a co-pilot for Air America, Inc. on a contract with USAID in Vietnam when he died in a plane crash under small arms fire on approach to land at Bau Trai airstrip on September 27, 1965. Also killed in the same crash were John L. Oyer and Jack J. Wells. Mahony was 46 years old. He was survived by a wife and a daughter, Margaret. He is buried at Forest Park Westheimer Cemetery in Houston, Texas.

Note: His name is inscribed on the USAID Memorial Wall as Justin B. Mahoney, but other records list him as Justin G. Mahony.

[Sources: “Justin Gerard Mahony,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 194676532; Ancestry.com records.]

John Lerdo Oyer was born on May 15, 1926, in Kansas City, Missouri. He joined the U.S. Navy at age 17, was later commissioned and earned the rank of captain. He attended Cornell University and later graduated from Purdue University. Oyer was a commercial aircraft pilot working for Air America, Inc. as a contractor for USAID in Vietnam, where he died in a plane crash under small arms fire on approach to land at Bau Trai airstrip on September 27, 1965. Also killed in the same crash were Justin Mahony and Jack J. Wells. Oyer was 39 years old. Oyer was survived by a wife, three children, and his mother and stepfather. He is buried at Grand Prairie Cemetery in Cairo, Missouri.

[Sources: “Cpt John Lerdo ‘Jack’ Oyer,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 70395016; Ancestry.com records.]

Jack Junior Wells was born in New Boston, Ohio on June 23, 1926, and grew up in Minford, Ohio. He enlisted in the U.S. Army soon after graduating high school, served in two World War II campaigns in the South Pacific, worked as a military advisor in South Vietnam and retired as a major having earned a Bronze Star. Wells married Betty McGraw; they had one daughter and two sons. Wells joined USAID after retiring from the Army. He died when his plane crashed under small arms fire on September 27, 1965, on approach to land at Bau Trai airstrip. He was 39 years old. He is buried at Marietta National Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia.

[Sources: “Jack Junior Wells,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 3958452; Ancestry.com records.]

Peter Morse Hunting was born in Arlington, Massachusetts, in June 1941. A graduate of Government Studies at Wesleyan University who spoke Chinese and French, he served as a regional leader with the International Voluntary Service (IVS) in Vietnam on a contract mission with USAID. He was killed in a Viet Cong ambush on November 12, 1965, while driving between Vinh Long and Can Tho. It was believed that he was led to his death by two Vietnamese companions, who posed as friends and were missing when his body was found by military troops. Hunting was 24 years old. His body was not recovered until 1973. In 1968, a library known as the Peter Hunting Memorial Library was built in Phan Rang, Vietnam, where he had worked during his first tour with IVS. His sister, Jill Hunting, is the author of a book about him called Finding Pete (c. 2009). He is buried at East Side Burying Ground in Woodbridge, Connecticut.

[Sources: “U.S. Planes Hit Open Viet Zone,” The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) 13 November 1965, Page 2, online at Newspapers.com; “Peter Morse Hunting,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 9175466; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_USAID_personnel_who_died_while_serving_abroad; Ancestry.com records.]

William Ward Smith III was born in Searcy, Arkansas, on January 15, 1934. Joining the Air Force, he rose through the ranks to the grade of captain. On July 23, 1966, he was serving with the 505th Tactical Air Continuity Group as a passenger in a Cessna Bird Dog Observation Aircraft on a forward air control mission controlling a flight of F-4B aircraft when, at the completion of the airstrike, his O-1E collided with a Marine helicopter at 2500 feet. He was 32 years old. His remains were not recovered, and there is a cenotaph in his memory at Honolulu Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Note: His name is inscribed on the USAID Memorial Wall and the AFSA Memorial Plaque as William D. Smith III, having died in 1966 in Vietnam. However, a records search in 2025 found only Air Force Captain William W. Smith III dying in Vietnam in 1966 as described above, with no mention of him being detailed to USAID.

[Sources: https://www.virtualwall.org/ds/SmithWW01a.htm; “Capt. William Ward Smith,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 137016430 and 228385657; Foreign Service Journal, May 1971, page 57; Foreign Service Journal, November 1972, page 38; Ancestry.com records.]

Norman Lee Clowers was born in Tacoma, Washington, on September 11, 1915. He married Harriette Monroe, and they had a daughter and a son. Prior to joining USAID as a public safety advisor in South Vietnam, Clowers was a police officer in Tacoma, Washington and chief of police training in Laramie, Wyoming. He also ran a successful private investigation business. Clowers was killed by the Viet Cong during an ambush after delivering building materials to a small village near his post on July 25, 1966. He was 50 years old. He is buried at Mountain View Memorial Park in Tacoma, Washington.

[Sources: “AID Volunteers Carry on Humane ‘War’ in Viet Nam,” The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, August 31, 1966, Page 10, online at Newspapers.com; “Norman L. Clowers,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 114192872; Ancestry.com records.]

Don Myron Sjostrom was born in Bothell, Washington, on April 20, 1940. He earned a degree in philosophy from the University of Washington and served in Thailand with the Peace Corps and in Laos as a USAID operations officer. On January 8, 1967, he died of a head injury when a mortar shell exploded during a conflict in the town of Nakhang, where he had gone to help refugees fleeing from Communist forces. Sjostrom was survived by his parents, two sisters, and a brother. He was 26 years old. He is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Everett, Washington.

[Sources: “Shell Burst Takes Life of Volunteer,” The Daily Herald, Everett, Washington, January 7, 1967, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; “Don M. Sjostrom,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 16832266; Ancestry.com records.]

Francis John “Bud” Savage was born in Olean, New York, on June 26, 1925. He served in the U.S. Navy during the tail end of WWII and joined the State Department in 1950, serving in Iceland, Greece, France, Trinidad, and Libya.

In 1960, Savage joined USAID where he worked as a general services officer in Mogadishu, Somalia, and a provincial representative in Vietnam. He died on March 17, 1967, from complications of malaria and liver surgery to repair an abscess that resulted from severe wounds suffered two years earlier during a bombing at the My Cahn Café, a floating restaurant in Saigon. He was 42. Savage was survived by his wife, Doreen, two children, and his mother. Savage was posthumously awarded the Secretary’s Award by President Lyndon B. Johnson. He is buried at Saint Bonaventure Cemetery in Allegany, New York.

[Sources: “Posthumous Award Given to Family of Olean Man,” The Buffalo News, Buffalo, New York, August 16, 1967, Page 47, online at Newspapers.com; “Francis J. ‘Bud’ Savage,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 19505681; Ancestry.com records.]

Robert Russell LaFollette was born December 5, 1894, in Clay City, Indiana. He studied at Indiana State University, earned an MA from the University of Wisconsin in 1917 and his PhD at the George Washington University in 1931. He joined Ball State University in 1931 to teach history and head the department of social sciences. After retirement in 1961, he and his wife went to Ethiopia for two years on a State Department assignment to teach at Haile Selassie 1 University. In Vietnam, he worked as an advisor on higher education with USAID in Saigon, Hue, and Dalat. He died on March 23, 1967, in an Air America plane crash between Danang and Hue. He was 72 years old. LaFollette is buried at Santa Fe National Cemetery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was survived by his wife and two sons.

[Sources: “Ex-BSU Educators Die in Plane Crash,” Muncie Evening Press (Muncie, Indiana) 24 March 1967, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; “Robert LaFollette,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 268575701; Ancestry.com records.]

Frederic “Rick” Dudley Cheydleur was born August 9, 1946, in Washington, D.C. He was a Quaker and a pacifist and worked in Laos for the International Volunteer Service (IVS) on rural development project with USAID. He and his Lao assistant Chantai were assassinated by gunfire on March 25, 1967. Cheydleur was 20 years old. On his application for IVS, he reportedly wrote, “I want to face the problems that face the world, and I want personal harmony with that spark of good that is in each of us.” He was survived by his parents and four siblings.

Note: His name is inscribed on the USAID Memorial Wall as Frederick, but other records list him as Frederic.

[Source: Ancestry.com records.]

Robert Kenneth Franzblau was born April 8, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York. A graduate of the University of Florida, former high school teacher, and an Army veteran who had served a tour in Vietnam, he joined USAID to return to the country, where he taught and worked with children. He died on June 7, 1967, of a gunshot sustained during a Viet Cong attack on the house in which he was staying in the town of Bien Son, 15 miles east of Saigon. Franzblau was 26 years old. He was survived by his parents and a sister, and is buried at Lakeside Memorial Park in Doral, Florida.

[Sources: “Ex-Miami Teacher Dies,” The Miami News (Miami, Florida), 8 June 1967, Page 23, online at Newspapers.com; “Robert Kenneth Franzblau, Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 215780736; Ancestry.com records]

James Alexander Wallwork was born on November 22, 1939, in Newton, Massachusetts. He graduated from Boston College and served as a financial auditor for the USAID mission in Cairo. He died of peritonitis resulting from a perforated ulcer on June 10, 1967, at the University Hospital in Alexandria, where he had been evacuated along with other Americans after unrest in Cairo. He was 28 years old. Wallwork was survived by his wife, his two and a half year old son, his mother, and five siblings.

[Sources: “Stricken U.S. Attache’s Wife Home,” The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) 14 June 1967, Page 10, online at Newspapers.com; Ancestry.com records]

Marilyn Lourdes Allan was born September 26, 1931, in Albany, New York. She was a nurse working as an adviser to a U.S. civilian surgical team with the U.S. Public Health Service working with USAID at a South Vietnamese hospital when she was murdered by gunshot by a U.S. Army captain who she previously dated on August 16, 1967, at the Roberts Compound in Nha Trang, Vietnam. The perpetrator then died by suicide. Allan was 35 years old. She is buried at St. Agnes Cemetery in Menands, New York.

[Sources: “Marilyn Lourdes Allan,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 184234203; Ancestry.com records]

Dwight Hall Owen, Jr., was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on February 9, 1946. He worked as a freelance newspaper correspondent before joining the U.S. Agency for International Development at the age of 19 while a student at Stanford University. Owen had first served with USAID in Vietnam while on sabbatical from his studies in 1965 and returned to Vietnam for a second time in 1967 after turning down an opportunity to enroll at Stanford’s campus in Germany. Owen died of a gunshot wound near Chu Lai, Vietnam on August 30, 1967, while saving other Vietnamese and American officials from an ambush. He was 21 years old. Owen was survived by his parents and two brothers. He is buried at Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island.

[Sources: “Stanford Student Will Never Return,” The Napa Valley Register, Napa, California, October 26, 1967, Page 6, online at Newspapers.com; “Dwight Hall Owen, Jr.,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 66149673; Ancestry.com records]

Gustav Crane Hertz was born in Queens, New York, on May 10, 1918. He married Nellie “Solange” Strong; they had five children. He was a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C.

Hertz served with USAID in Vietnam as the chief of public service administration. On February 2, 1965, he was captured by the Viet Cong northeast of Saigon while driving a motorcycle on a highway. He spent the next two and a half years as a prisoner of war, eventually succumbing to malaria, on or about September 24, 1967. He was 49 years old. Hertz is buried at Saint John the Apostle Catholic Cemetery in Leesburg, Virginia.

[Sources: “Viet Reds Threaten Kidnaped Yankee,” Independent, Long Beach, California, April 8, 1965, Page 5, online at Newspapers.com; “Seek Body of Kidnaped Aide,” The Kansas City Times, Kansas City, Missouri, November 8, 1967, Page 15, online at Newspapers.com; “Gustav Crane Hertz,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 35195613; Ancestry.com records]

Donald Vern Freeman was born on August 8, 1935, in Oklahoma. He rose to the rank of captain in the U.S. Army and was killed October 3, 1967, in Vietnam while serving with USAID. He was 32 years old. He was survived by his wife, Rose Baxter Freeman, four children, and his mother and sister.

[Sources: Great Bend Tribune, Great Bend, Kansas, October 17, 1967, Page 2, online at Newspapers.com; https://www.virtualwall.org/df/FreemanDV01a.htm; “Donald V. Freeman,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 668814; Ancestry.com records]

Carrol Hugh Pender was born in Jefferson County, Indiana, on December 30, 1921. He served with the Canadian Army in Europe during World War II – a result of being too young to join the U.S. Army – and in late 1944, briefly became a POW, imprisoned at Stalag IV-B at Mühlberg, near Dresden, Germany. After returning to the United States, Pender entered the U.S. Army. He fought in the Korean War and served in the Vietnam War as a senior enlisted advisor to the South Vietnamese 25th Infantry Division. Pender retired a command sergeant major in 1966.

Pender joined USAID immediately after retirement as a hospital administration specialist and member of an American-Swiss surgical team. He was killed by a landmine on December 27, 1967, after rushing to the scene of a nearby attack to aid the wounded. He was 45 years old. Pender was survived by his wife, two sons, his mother, and six siblings.

[Sources: “Dearborn Kin, War Casualty, In Last Rites,” The Lawrenceburg Press, Lawrenceburg, Indiana, January 11, 1968, Page 2, online at Newspapers.com; “Carrol Hugh Pender,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 113636063; https://www.vvmf.org/Honor-Roll/1452/CarrrolHughPenderSr; Ancestry.com records]

Frederick John Abramson was born in Bellevue, Washington on October 15, 1941. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and a master’s degree from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Abramson was the youngest American deputy province advisor with the U.S. Agency for International Development in the Mekong Delta and died along with four American soldiers when the Viet Cong attacked a military convoy in the Vinh Long Province on January 6, 1968. He was survived by his parents and two brothers.

[Sources: “VC Ambush Kills Adviser,” The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, January 6, 1968, Page 4, online at Newspapers.com; Ancestry.com records]

David Lane Gitelson was born January 20, 1942, in California. He studied soils science at the University of California and was a medical specialist in the army. He served as an International Voluntary Service (IVS) volunteer working with USAID. During his service, he was known in the community as the “poor American,” as he carried only a few possessions around with him in a sack. He was taken prisoner and shot near Hue Doc village in An Giang Province, Vietnam on January 26, 1968, during the Tet Offensive. He is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.

[Sources: “Former Student at UCD Killed by Viet Cong,” David Enterprise (Davis, California) 29 January 1968, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; “David Lane Gitelson,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 130663968; Ancestry.com records]

Kermit Joseph “Tom” Krause was born in Waterloo, Wisconsin, on September 8, 1919. A World War II Signal Corps veteran who also served in the Korean War, Krause served with the U.S. Agency for International Development as an assistant supply advisor and was killed by the Viet Cong at his residence in Hue, Vietnam, during the Tet Offensive on January 30, 1968. Krause was survived by his wife, Edith, three children, and one grandchild. He is buried at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California.

[Sources: “Army Eases Ruling to Permit Vet’s Burial in SF Cemetery,” The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California, February 19, 1968, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; “Kermit Joseph Krause,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 3597806; Ancestry.com records]

John Thomas McCarthy was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 31, 1909. He retired from the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department in 1959 after 21 years of service, joining USAID in 1966 as a police liaison officer. On January 30, 1968, McCarthy was killed by sniper fire at his post in Nha Trang during the Tet Offensive. He was 58 years old. McCarthy was survived by his wife, a daughter, a stepson, and two sisters. He is buried at Columbia Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

[Sources: “John T. McCarthy,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 136220907; Ancestry.com records]

Robert Walker Hubbard was born in Auburn, Alabama on November 26, 1940. He served as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps and, at the time of his death, an advisor with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Vietnam.

During a Viet Cong attack on the city of Hue during the Tet Offensive, Hubbard aided a small group of American civilians and soldiers by moving from shelter to shelter, foraging for food, tending to the wounded and returning enemy fire. Although he was shot and killed during this operation on February 4, 1968, he made possible the safe escape of his companions. Hubbard was 27 years old. He was survived by his parents. He is buried in Auburn Memorial Park Cemetery in Auburn, Alabama.

[Sources: Lau, Raymond R., “The 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam and the Seizure of Hue,” Studies in Intelligence (Vol. 61, No. 4; Extracts, December 2017); https://www.virtualwall.org/dh/HubbardRW01a.htm; “Capt. Robert Walker Hubbard,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 12619319; Ancestry.com records]

Thomas Malcolm Gompertz was born in Alameda, California, on February 12, 1941. He graduated from Stanford University in 1962 and had served for three years with USAID as assistant representative in Hue, Vietnam, when the Tet Offensive began. Gompertz was killed on February 7, 1968, just one week before the end of his tour and his scheduled return to California to attend graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley. He was 26 years old and was survived by his parents, a sister, and grandparents.

[Sources: Lau, Raymond R., “The 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam and the Seizure of Hue,” Studies in Intelligence (Vol. 61, No. 4; Extracts, December 2017); “Red Offensive Claims Cousin of Modestan,” The Modesto Bee, Modesto, California, February 9, 1968, Page 2, online at Newspapers.com; “Thomas Gompertz,” The Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, February 28, 1968, Page 22, online at Newspapers.com; “Thomas Gomperts,” Contra Costa Times, Contra Costa, California, March 1, 1968, Page 5, online at Newspapers.com; Ancestry.com records]

Jeffrey Steven Lundstedt was born in Centerport, New York, on May 23, 1942. He served with the Peace Corps in Ecuador and Puerto Rico after his graduation from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, where he worked as a creative artist.

Lundstedt worked for USAID in Hue, Vietnam, where he was assigned when the Tet Offensive broke out in January 1968. He was killed on February 7, 1968, in his residence at Hue by the Viet Cong. A posthumous exhibit of his artwork was displayed at the Heckscher Museum in Huntington, New York, after his death and some of his works are still housed there.

[Sources: Lau, Raymond R., “The 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam and the Seizure of Hue,” Studies in Intelligence (Vol. 61, No. 4; Extracts, December 2017); Newsday (Suffolk Edition), Melville, New York, February 10, 1968, Page 11, online at Newspapers.com; “Work of Artist Killed in Vietnam on Exhibit,” Newsday (Suffolk Edition), Melville, New York, November 19, 1968, Page 77, online at Newspapers.com; Ancestry.com records]

Robert Roy Little was born in New York on June 26, 1938. He served with USAID at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon and was killed on February 7, 1968, in Hue during the Tet Offensive. He was survived by his parents and two brothers. He was 29 years old.

[Sources: “Robert Roy Little,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 234782694; Ancestry.com records]

Hugh Ingram Calkins Lobit was born in Houston, Texas, on February 11, 1933, and raised in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. He married June Christensen in 1956; they had one daughter. He served with USAID. On February 9, 1968, he was shot and killed by a sniper while escorting U.S. news correspondent in Vinh Long Province, Vietnam. He was 34 years old.

[Sources: “Death Waited in Pacified Hamlet,” Newsday (Nassau Edition), Hempstead, New York, February 13, 1968, Page 5, online at Newspapers.com; Ancestry.com records]

Albert Alexander Farkas was born on March 31, 1913, in Conneaut, Ohio, and attended Franklin and Marshall College. He joined the Lancaster, Pennsylvania police department in 1937 before taking a leave of absence in 1943 to join the Navy. After World War II, Farkas returned to the Lancaster Police Department, where he eventually became Chief of Police.

He retired in 1966 and served as a U.S. Agency for International Development civilian advisor to the police department in Vinh Long Province, Vietnam. He was wounded by sniper fire on February 10, 1968, and died on February 15 from a blood clot at the age of 54. Farkas is buried in Conestoga Memorial Park in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was survived by his mother and a brother; however, his mother died of shock just a few days after learning of her son’s death.

[Sources: “Al Farkas Dies in Saigon,” Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, February 16, 1968, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; “Albert A. Farkas,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 187014945; Ancestry.com records]

Robert Wilson Brown, Jr., was born in Easton, Maryland, on September 4, 1941. A U.S. Marine Corps captain, he served with the U.S. Agency for International Development and died of a gunshot wound on February 26, 1968, while on a resupply and inspection mission at the Truong Son hamlet in Darla Province. He was 26 years old. Brown was survived by his wife, Mary Brown, three sons, and his parents and a brother. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

[Sources: “Cpt. Robert Wilson Brown Jr.,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 228462973 and 154026418; https://www.virtualwall.org/db/BrownRW02a.htm; Ancestry.com records]

Richard Andrew Schenk was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on December 29, 1939. He served with USAID and died on March 2, 1968, in a landmine explosion in Quang Ngai, Vietnam. He was 28 years old. He was survived by his parents and is buried at Calvary Cemetery and Mausoleum in St. Louis, Missouri.

[Sources: “Richard Andrew Schenk,” Findagrave.com; Memorial ID 47159695; Ancestry.com records]

Michael Murphy was born in Cork City, Ireland, on February 9, 1928. He served in World War II with the Royal Air Force Police and worked as a London “Bobby” before becoming a lieutenant in the Malayan Constabulary. Murphy emigrated to the United States in 1954 and later joined the Alaska State Troopers, surviving the 1964 Seward earthquake while on patrol.

He served with USAID as a police advisor with the Office of Public Safety in Vietnam. On May 23, 1968, he was killed by a missile during a Viet Cong patrol ambush in Cu Chi, Phu Cuong Province. Murphy was survived by his wife, Alice, and a sister. He is buried at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California. The Michael Murphy Memorial Scholarship for Alaskan college students pursuing a career in law or law enforcement was established in his honor.

[Sources: “Viets Kill U.S. Aide,” The Times, San Mateo, California, May 29, 1968, Page 34, online at Newspapers.com; Capra, Doug, “Night Patrol: The Saga of Alaska State Trooper Mike Murphy,” 2014; Ancestry.com records]

Donald Seiso Kobayashi was born on May 30, 1935, in Whittier, California. He graduated from Cal Poly College, San Luis Obispo, where he earned a degree in agricultural science. He served in Laos for three years as an irrigation engineer with USAID. He died with nineteen other people in the crash of an Air America transport plane on November 25, 1968, in Savannakhet, Laos. He was 33 years old. Kobayashi was survived by his mother and four siblings. He is buried at Cypress Hill Memorial Park in Petaluma, California.

Note: The year of death inscribed on the USAID Memorial Wall is 1969, but other records say 1968.

[Sources: “Petaluman Among Crash Dead, Daily Independent Journal (San Rafael, California) 29 November 1968, Page 23, online at Newspapers.com; The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California), 3 December 1968, Page 3, online at Newspapers.com; Petaluma Argus-Courier (Petaluma, California) 02 December 1968, Page 10, online at Newspapers.com; “Donald Seiso Kobayashi,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 125026433; Ancestry.com records]

Donald J. Parenteau, a USAID construction specialist, died with nineteen other people in the crash of an Air America transport plane on November 25, 1968, in Savannakhet, Laos. He had served in Laos for the previous five years. He was 40 years old. Parenteau was survived by his wife and seven children, ages 4 to 13.

[Source: “Former St. Paul Man Is Victim of Laos Crash,” The Minneapolis Star, November 28, 1968, Page 57, online at Newspapers.com]

Harold Ormal Sealock was born June 16, 1924, in Austin, Indiana. A World War II veteran, Sealock graduated from Hanover College and received his master’s degree at Indiana University. A schoolteacher in Hastings, Nebraska, and later in Richmond, Indiana, he became an assistant professor at Central Michigan College in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. Sealock signed up for a tour of duty in South Vietnam with USAID, where he served as assistant director of education and culture prior to being transferred to Laos. He died with nineteen other people in the crash of an Air America transport plane on November 25, 1968, in Savannakhet, Laos. He was 44 years old. He is buried at Rest Haven Cemetery in Edinburgh, Indiana. He was survived by his wife, two daughters, and his father.

[Sources: “Harold Sealock is crash victim,” The Daily Journal, (Franklin, Indiana) 29 November 1968, Page 16, online at Newspapers.com; “Harold O. Sealock,” Findagrave.com; Memorial ID 121053263; Ancestry.com records]

Thomas Weldon Ragsdale was born in Shelina, Missouri, on June 25, 1935. He studied at the University of Missouri at Columbia, graduated from the University of Maryland in 1959, after which he worked as a grain marketing specialist in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Ragsdale worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, serving as a civilian agricultural specialist with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Vietnam. He was captured by Communist forces in Hue during the Tet Offensive in February 1968 and died during imprisonment, the exact date unknown. His remains were recovered in July 1969 about 30 miles southwest of Hue.

[Sources: “40 Americans Are Missing in S. Vietnam,” Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, August 6, 1969, Page 43, online at Newspapers.com; Ancestry.com records]

George B. Gaines was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 16, 1922. He served with USAID as a civilian logistics officer in Quang Ngai Province and died of fragment wounds from a bomb at his residence in Quang Ngai City on February 23, 1969. He was 47 years old. He was survived by a sister.

[Sources: Pacification Officials Killed in Red Attacks,” Morning World (Monroe, Louisiana), 24 February 1969, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; Ancestry.com records]

Chandler Scott Edwards was born on September 13, 1945, in Tennessee. He attended East Tennessee State University for pre-med studies. He served in Laos with the International Voluntary Service (IVS) working with USAID in rural communities in crop and livestock production and construction of farm buildings, schools, and airstrips. He was about a month from completing his service when he was killed on April 24, 1969, in a rocket attack in an ambush by the Pathet Lao that killed Edwards and four Laotian colleagues. He was 23 years old. He is buried at Edwards Cemetery in Johnson City, Tennessee. He was survived by his parents and four siblings.

[Sources: “Peace Worker Eulogized,” Johnson City Press (Johnson City, Tennessee) 16 May 1969, Page 9, online at Newspapers.com; “Chandler Scott Edwards,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 52374781; Ancestry.com records]

Dennis Lynn Mummert was born December 18, 1945, in Macomb, Illinois. He was a 1968 graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana and left in 1968 for Laos with the International Voluntary Service (IVS), working with USAID. On August 5, 1969, he, Arthur Stillman, and two Lao veterinarians were killed by a rocket fired into their Jeep by the Pathet Lao while traveling from Vientiane to Paksane. He was 23 years old. He was survived by his parents, a brother, and a sister. Mummert is buried at Summum Cemetery in Summum, Illinois.

[Sources: “Dennis Lynn Mummert,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 88160508; Ancestry.com records]

Arthur Daniel Stillman was born on June 14, 1942, in Ohio. He his B.A. from Harvard and his M.A. from Yale in Southeast Asian Studies. He spent two years in Thailand with the Peace Corps, and served as a Peace Corps Training Officer. He was the International Voluntary Service (IVS) Associate Chief of Party in Laos, working with USAID on August 5, 1969, when he, Dennis Mummert, and two Lao veterinarians were killed by a rocket fired into their Jeep by the Pathet Lao while driving from Vientiane to Paksane. He was 27 years old. Stillman was survived by his wife, daughter, and parents, and two sisters. He is buried at Bet Olam Cemetery in Beachwood, Ohio.

[Sources: “Arthur Daniel Stillman,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 32131478; Ancestry.com records]

Robert Dixon Handy was born March 6, 1941, in Lansing, Michigan and lived in Eau Claire, Michigan. After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and attended Michigan State University. A USAID employee, he was shot in a Viet Cong ambush in Song Be, Phuoc Long Province, Vietnam on August 27, 1969. He was 28 years old. He was survived by his father, a former state representative in Michigan, and a sister, Ruth. He is buried at Caldwell Cemetery in Eau Claire, Michigan.

[Sources: The Herald-Palladium (Benton Harbor, Michigan) 8 June 1960, Page 35, online at Newspapers.com; “Robert Dixon Handy,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 107328039; Ancestry.com records]

Daniel Anthony Mitrione was born in Italy on August 4, 1920. After his family emigrated to the U.S., he served as a police officer in Richmond, Indiana, rising to the position of Chief of Police. In 1960, he joined the International Cooperation Administration to teach counterinsurgency techniques and provide weapons and training for police officers and military officials in South American nations. After ICA was replaced by USAID, Mitrione served with USAID in Brazil and then, starting in 1969, in Uruguay where he oversaw the Office of Public Safety.

On July 31, 1970, Mitrione was kidnapped by Tupamaros rebels, who interrogated him and demanded the freedom of 150 political prisoners. After the refusal of the Uruguayan government, Mitrione was shot in the chest and died in the early morning of August 10, 1970, and left in an abandoned vehicle in Montevideo. He was 50 years old. The group also kidnapped another American, a Brazilian consul, the British Ambassador, and several prominent local businessmen. Mitrione was survived by his wife Henrietta and nine children.

[Sources: “White House Condemns Uruguay Execution,” The Daily Freeman, Kingston, New York, August 10, 1970, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Mitrione; “Daniel Anthony ‘Dan’ Mitrione,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 126576551]

Joseph Brooks Smith was born in New York in 1942 and was raised in White Plains. He graduated from Iona College with a bachelor’s degree in economics and served the U.S. Marine Corps rising to the rank of captain. After leaving the military, he served with USAID as an assistant area development officer in Vietnam. On August 30, 1970, Smith was killed by a landmine explosion while visiting a new refugee resettlement center on Go Noi Island, Quang-Nam Province. He was 27 years old. He was survived by his wife, Marilyn, his parents, and a brother and two sisters. He is buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

[Sources: “Mine in Vietnam Kills Mamaroneck Veteran,” Mount Vernon Argus (White Plains, New York), 2 September 1970, Page 2; online at Newspapers.com, The Daily Item (Port Chester, New York), 11 September 1970, Page 6, online at Newspapers.com; “Joseph B. Smith,” Calvary and Allied Cemeteries, calvaryandalliedcemeteries.com/burial-search; Ancestry.com records]

James Alton Hyde was born on May 20, 1923, in Trumbull, Ohio. A USAID employee, he died in a plane crash on March 17, 1971, at Can Tho Airfield in Can Tho, Vietnam. He was 47 years old. Hyde is buried at Hillside Cemetery in West Farmington, Ohio. He was survived by his wife, parents, and a brother.

[Sources: “James Alton Hyde,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 38644222; Ancestry.com records]

David Andrew Bush was born September 3, 1942. A 1964 graduate of Edinboro State College, he served with the Peace Corps from 1964 to 1966 and joined USAID in Vietnam from 1968 to 1971. He died in Phú Yên, Vietnam on April 19, 1971, of acute gastrointestinal bleeding due to ulcers. He was 28 years old. He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Bush was survived by his parents three brothers, and extended family.

[Sources: “Services Slated for David Bush,” The News-Herald (Franklin, Pennsylvania), 27 April 1971, Page 20, online at Newspapers.com; “David A Bush,” Fndagrave.com, Memorial ID 181342056; Ancestry.com records]

Note: The year of death inscribed on the USAID Memorial Wall is 1970, but other records say 1971.

Eugene Francis Sullivan was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, on July 12, 1924. He served in the U.S. Navy in World War II after attending the Navy College Training Program at Tufts University. The Navy later sent him to the University of Colorado Navy Chinese Language School after recognizing his linguistic talents. Sullivan began work at the Navy Department in Washington, D.C. as a Chinese translator. He graduated from The George Washington University with a degree in chemical engineering in 1949 and later worked for the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency in Seoul.

Sullivan returned to Seoul with USAID predecessor agencies OEC and U.S. Operations Mission working as a chemical engineer. He then worked for USAID in Taiwan and Manila as an industry officer, in Thailand as a private development officer and in Ethiopia as a private enterprise officer. He caught a rare form of malaria, black water fever, at the latter post. He died of the disease in a hospital in Asmara, Eritrea, on January 21, 1972, at the age of 47. He was fluent in 13 languages. Sullivan was survived by his wife and three sons. He is buried at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.

[Sources: “Eugene Francis Sullivan,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 3793579; Ancestry.com records]

John Paul Vann was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on July 2, 1924. He served in the Army Air Corps during WWII and later as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, working in Korea and Japan as a logistics officer and later leading the transportation of the 25th Infantry Division to Korea, where he and his unit guarded the Pusan Perimeter. Vann later received an M.B.A. from Syracuse University and returned to the Army as a civilian advisor in South Vietnam, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross for his bravery.

He returned to Vietnam with USAID in 1965, becoming a deputy for Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS). He helped to train and encourage the Army of the Republic of Vietnam soldiers. Later, as a senior American advisor in the II Corps Military Region, he became the first U.S. civilian to command U.S. regular troops in combat.

Vann died during a helicopter crash on June 9, 1972. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Distinguished Service Cross (the only civilian so honored in the Vietnam War). He was survived by five children. Journalist Neil Sheehan wrote the book “A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam in 1988, which received a Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction. The book was adapted to a 1998 film.

[Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Vann; “John Paul Van: Portrait of an Activist,” Lacy Wright, Foreign Service Journal, March 1973, Pages 15–16, 30–32; Ancestry.com records; “Col John Paul Vann,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 7500964]

Rudolph Kaiser was born on September 17, 1919, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A World War II U.S. Army veteran, he served as a U.S. Agency for International Development senior advisor in Go Cong Province, Vietnam, and died on July 27, 1972, in a Viet Cong ambush while accompanying South Vietnamese militia forces in the Mekong Delta. He was 52 years old. Kaiser was survived by his wife, five children, two grandchildren, and four siblings. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

[Sources: “Kaiser Rites Here Friday,” The Sheboygan Press, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, August 2, 1972, Page 10, online at Newspapers.com; The Reporter, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, July 29, 1972, Page 16, online at Newspapers.com; “Maj Rudolph Kaiser,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 48767113; Ancestry.com records]

Edward George Hines was born in Newark, New Jersey on May 15, 1918. A retired Army captain and World War II veteran from Colorado Springs, Colorado, he served as a procurement officer in Vietnam with USAID. He died on September 23, 1972, when his Air Vietnam flight from Vientiane to Saigon crashed 27 miles north of Saigon. He was 54 years old. Hines was survived by his wife, Eva, and two daughters, Jean and Patti, two brothers, and three sisters.

[Sources: “Official Dies in Viet Crash,” The Morning Union (Springfield, Massachusetts) 25 September 1972, Page 2, online at Newspapers.com; “Edward George Hines,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 268293666; Ancestry.com records]

Luther Alexander McLendon, Jr., was born in Sumter, South Carolina, on January 12, 1919. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps, rising to the rank of captain. Serving with USAID as a relief and rehabilitation advisor in Vietnam, he died on December 1, 1972, while returning from a refugee camp aboard a plane that crashed 500 yards short of the runway at Tuy Hoa Air Base, 235 miles northeast of Saigon. Killed in the same crash was Bruce O. Bailey, with three additional Americans injured. McLendon was 53 years old. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

[Sources: “Crash Kills Viet Brass, Americans,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati, Ohio, December 2, 1972, Page 2, online at Newspapers.com; Ancestry.com records]

Bruce Oliver Bailey was born in Seattle, Washington, on March 20, 1929. Bailey served in the U.S. Air Force from 1950 to 1953 and was discharged as a captain. He was a teacher at the American Independent School in Iran from 1956–1957, and worked as an assistant director of the International House at the University of California at Berkeley, serving as a counselor and foreign student advisor. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the same institution in 1959.

After his time in Berkeley, he served as USAID social welfare advisor and died on December 1, 1972, while returning from a refugee camp aboard a plane that crashed 500 yards short of the runway at Tuy Hoa Air Base, 235 miles northeast of Saigon. Killed in the same crash was Luther A. McLendon Jr., with three additional Americans injured. He was 43 years old. He was survived by a sister. Bailey is buried at El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego, California.

[Sources: “Ex-UC Official Killed,” The Berkeley Gazette, Berkeley, California, December 16, 1972, Page 17, online at Newspapers.com; “Crash Kills Viet Brass, Americans,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati, Ohio, December 2, 1972, Page 2, online at Newspapers.com; “Bruce O. Bailey,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 25700256; Ancestry.com records]

Thomas Franklin Olmsted Jr. was born on April 17, 1929, in New York. He served in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1954 and then received degrees from Syracuse University and Harvard University. He joined the State Department Foreign Service in 1955, serving in Rangoon, Seoul, and Washington. While serving as USAID deputy director in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, he died in Bangkok, Thailand, on February 8, 1975, of a sudden attack of acute pancreatitis. He was 45. Olmsted is buried in Garfield Cemetery in Stephentown, New York. He was survived by his wife, his parents, and two siblings.

[Sources: “Thomas F. Olmsted, U.S. AID official,” The Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, March 8, 1975, Page 9, online at Newspapers.com; State Department Biographic Register, July 1974; “Thomas Franklin Olmsted Jr,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 54713726; Ancestry.com records, Department of State Office of the Historian records]

Garnett Allan Zimmerly was born in Hope, Arkansas, on December 21, 1928. He served with the U.S. Navy in WWII and attended the University of Missouri. He joined the USAID’s precursor agency International Cooperation Administration in 1958. Zimmerly served in USAID missions in East Asia in the early 1970s.

His final assignment was as USAID mission director in the Philippines, where he arrived in August 1975. On September 13, 1976, his plane crashed near Manila during a tropical storm enroute to inspect the Bicol River basin project in Naga City. He and seven others were found dead on September 24. He was 47 years old. He is buried at Winchester National Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia.

[Sources: “Garnett Zimmerly is Believed Lost in Philippine Air Crash,” The Belleville Telescope, Belleville, Kansas, September 16, 1976, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; State Department Biographic Register, July 1974; “Garnett R. Zimmerly,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 130399409; Ancestry.com records]

Richard Lyall Aitken Jr. was born on April 29, 1934, in Denver, Colorado. After graduating from East High School in Wichita, Kansas, in 1952, Aitken spent seven years in the Marine Corps. After his discharge, he earned a degree in business administration from Wichita University in 1965 and a master’s degree in 1966. He then joined USAID and served in Vietnam from 1966 to 1969, returning to Washington for two years and then went back to Vietnam in 1971. He served subsequent tours in Taiwan and Cairo. He served for a total of 15 years with USAID, and was among the last evacuated from Saigon before its fall in 1975.

Serving in Sudan, he was in charge of a commodity import program that brought agricultural products and machinery to Sudan. He died in Khartoum on March 25, 1981, of injuries during a March 18 automobile accident in Rahad, Sudan, that also killed a Sudanese driver and injured another USAID employee. Aitken was 46 years old. Aitken was survived by his wife, a daughter, and his mother. He is buried at White Chapel Memorial Gardens in Wichita, Kansas.

[Sources: “Former Wichitan Killed in Sudan Auto Accident,” The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, Kansas, March 20, 1981, Page 33, online at Newspapers.com; “Richard Lyall Aitken,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 110779832; Ancestry.com records]

Thomas Raymond Blacka was born in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, on December 10, 1923. He graduated from the Universities of Miami and Denver and served with the U.S. military in England during World War II. He later joined USAID and traveled worldwide until his retirement, serving in Ceylon, Iceland, Spain, Pakistan, Laos, Thailand, and Washington. Blacka returned to USAID in 1982 to serve at U.S. Embassy Beirut as the USAID mission controller.

On April 18, 1983, he was one of 63 people (17 Americans, 32 Lebanese, and 14 visitors and passers-by) killed at U.S. Embassy Beirut when a van carrying a 2,000 pound bomb broke through an outbuilding, crashed through the lobby door, and exploded there. The Islamic Jihad Organization, which later became part of Hizballah, claimed responsibility. He was 59 years old. Blacka is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He was survived by his wife and two children.

[Sources: “Connellsville Native Killed in Beirut Embassy Bombing,” The Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 20, 1983, Page 8, online at Newspapers.com; Ssgt Thomas R. Blacka, Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 34235953; Ancestry.com records]

William Reynolds McIntyre was born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 15,1931. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from the University of Michigan and served with USAID in India and Pakistan. McIntyre’s final post was as deputy director of USAID at U.S. Embassy Beirut.

On April 18, 1983, he was one of 63 people (17 Americans, 32 Lebanese, and 14 visitors and passers-by) killed at U.S. Embassy Beirut when a van carrying a 2,000 pound bomb broke through an outbuilding, crashed through the lobby door, and exploded there. The Islamic Jihad Organization, which later became part of Hizballah, claimed responsibility. He was 52 years old. McIntyre’s wife, Mary, was injured in the explosion. He is buried in Westminster Cemetery at Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

[Sources: The Morning Call, Allentown, Pennsylvania, April 20, 1983, Page 2, online at Newspapers.com; “William R. McIntyre,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 245621240; Ancestry.com records]

Albert Nicholson Votaw was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, on August 16, 1925. He graduated from Deep Springs College and earned master’s degrees in economics and anthropology from the University of Chicago. Votaw worked briefly as a reporter for the Chicago Sun Times before joining USAID as an expert in urban housing serving in Abidjan, Tunis, Bangkok, and Beirut.

On April 18, 1983, he was one of 63 people (17 Americans, 32 Lebanese, and 14 visitors and passers-by) killed at U.S. Embassy Beirut when a van carrying a 2,000 pound bomb broke through an outbuilding, crashed through the lobby door, and exploded there. The Islamic Jihad Organization, which later became part of Hizballah, claimed responsibility. He was 57 years old. Votaw had only arrived in Lebanon 12 days before the bombing. He is buried in Lebanon.

[Sources: “Albert Votaw Services Set,” Public Opinion, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, April 25, 1983, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; “Albert Votaw,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 5994152; Ancestry.com records]

Charles “Chuck” Floyd Hegna was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, on August 6, 1934. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin and served in the U.S. Navy 1954 to 1959. He joined USAID in 1967 with postings including Vietnam and Ghana. In 1984, he was an auditor with USAID in Pakistan.

On December 3, 1984, four terrorists hijacked Kuwait Airways Flight 221 on which Hegna was a passenger and forced the pilot to fly to Tehran. The terrorists demanded the release of the “Kuwait 17,” a group of terrorists arrested for simultaneously bombing six foreign and Kuwaiti installations, in exchange for the release of the passengers. Hegna and his colleague Willam Stanford were shot and their bodies dumped on the tarmac, and the remaining passengers were threatened and tortured for six days until Iranian security forces stormed the plane and successfully released them. Hegna was 50 years old. He was survived by his wife, four children, four siblings, and his parents.

Note: The location inscribed on the USAID Memorial Wall is his country of assignment Pakistan, but he died in Iran.

[Sources: Department of State Biographic Register, July 1974; “Hijack Victim’s Funeral Set,” Chippewa Herald-Telegram, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, December 13, 1984, Page 7, online at Newspapers.com; “Charles Floyd Hegna,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 34238122; Ancestry.com records]

William Laurence Stanford was born March 5, 1932, and was from Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from De Paul University and served in the U.S. Marine Corps 1953 to 1955. He joined USAID in 1961 with postings including Pakistan and Turkey. In 1984, he was an auditor with USAID in Pakistan.

On December 3, 1984, four terrorists hijacked Kuwait Airways Flight 221 on which Stanford was a passenger and forced the pilot to fly to Tehran. The terrorists demanded the release of the “Kuwait 17,” a group of terrorists arrested for simultaneously bombing six foreign and Kuwaiti installations, in exchange for the release of the passengers. On December 6, 1984, Stanford and his colleague Charles Hegna were shot and their bodies dumped on the tarmac, and the remaining passengers were threatened and tortured for six days until Iranian security forces stormed the plane and successfully released them. He was 52 years old. He was survived by his wife and four children. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Note: The location inscribed on the USAID Memorial Wall is his country of assignment Pakistan, but he died in Iran.

[Sources: Department of State Biographic Register, July 1974; The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, December 9, 1984, Page 15, online at Newspapers.com; “William Stanford,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 49353257; Ancestry.com records]

Frank Louis Fairchild, Jr. was born on January 16, 1946, in Los Angeles, California. He received a bachelor’s degree from Washington and Lee University, a master’s degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a second master’s degree from the University of Florida in Gainesville, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. After serving in the Peace Corps in India and a Columbia University program in Afghanistan, Fairchild joined USAID serving in Guatemala, where he developed a training program to reintroduce former rebels into society and give them new job skills.

He was transferred to Pakistan, and after concluding that tour and being reassigned to Washington, D.C., returned to Guatemala on vacation. While on that trip, he traveled up country near the Mexican border on or about June 1, 1989, to meet some of his former contacts, some of whom were living in Mexico. While in Mexico, he was killed and his body was found floating in the ocean near Puerto Arista on June 5. He was 43 years old. It was never determined what the motive behind his killing was or who the killers were. Fairchild was survived by his parents and three siblings. He is buried at Floral Garden Memorial Park in High Point, North Carolina.

Note: The location inscribed on the USAID Memorial Wall is his country of assignment Pakistan, but he died in Mexico.

[Sources: News and Record (Greensboro, North Carolina) 13 July 1989, Page 4, online at Newspapers.com; The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Interview with Paul E. White, 30 May 2006, ADST.org; “Frank Louis Fairchild Jr.,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 203820958; Ancestry.com records]

Debebe Agonafer was the senior locally employed agricultural economist at the USAID mission in Addis Ababa. He joined the Mission in 1985. On August 7, 1989, Agonafer was one of 16 people killed in a plane crash in Ethiopia while traveling with the Congressional delegation of U.S. Representative Mickey Leland (Democrat from Texas). While enroute to a refugee camp, their plane crashed into a mountain and fell into a ravine. There were no survivors.

[Sources: “Plane Hit Hillside in Africa,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas, August 14, 1989, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; “Former Marylander Killed With Leland,” The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, August 15, 1989, Page 8, online at Newspapers.com; “No Survivors Found in Plane Wreck,” Tallahassee Democrat, Tallahassee, Florida, August 14, 1989, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; Foreign Service Journal, October 1989, Page 47]

Gladys D. Gilbert was born in 1948. Originally from Los Angeles, she was a 1968 graduate of the University of Maryland, spent two years in India with the Peace Corps, and earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of Pittsburgh. She then worked as a research assistant at the World Bank from 1976 to 1977 before joining USAID in 1977. She returned to India with USAID and also served in Afghanistan. At the time of her death, she was helping USAID distribute food aid to famine victims in Ethiopia.

On August 7, 1989, Gilbert was one of 16 people killed in a plane crash in Ethiopia while traveling with the Congressional delegation of U.S. Representative Mickey Leland (Democrat from Texas). While enroute to a refugee camp, their plane crashed into a mountain and fell into a ravine. There were no survivors. Gilbert was 43 years old. She was survived by her husband, Michael Cairney, and her mother.

[Sources: “Plane Hit Hillside in Africa,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas, August 14, 1989, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; “Former Marylander Killed With Leland,” The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, August 15, 1989, Page 8, online at Newspapers.com; “No Survivors Found in Plane Wreck,” Tallahassee Democrat, Tallahassee, Florida, August 14, 1989, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; Foreign Service Journal, October 1989, Page 47; Ancestry.com records]

Roberta Radford Worrick was a Peace Corps Volunteer, novelist (under the name Maria Thomas), and translator who worked for USAID along with her husband, Tom Worrick. On August 7, 1989, the Worricks and 14 others were killed in a plane crash in Ethiopia while traveling with the Congressional delegation of U.S. Representative Mickey Leland (Democrat from Texas). While enroute to a refugee camp, their plane crashed into a mountain and fell into a ravine. There were no survivors. Worrick was 47 years old. The Worricks were survived by a son. They are buried in Vermont.

[Sources: “Remembering Maria Thomas,” Peace Corps Worldwide, https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/remember-maria-thomas/; “Plane Hit Hillside in Africa,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas), 14 August 1989, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; “Novelist Roberta Worrick Killed in Crash With Lawmaker,” Muncie Evening Press (Muncie, Indiana) 14 August 1989, Page 21, online at Newspapers.com; Ancestry.com records]

Thomas Jeffery Worrick was born October 3, 1940, in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Together with his wife, Roberta, he joined the Peace Corps in Ethiopia in 1971 and later served with USAID in Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Kenya. Worrick was the deputy USAID director in Ethiopia.

On August 7, 1989, Worrick, his wife Roberta, who worked as a translator, and 14 others were killed in a plane crash in Ethiopia while traveling with the Congressional delegation of U.S. Representative Mickey Leland (Democrat from Texas). While enroute to a refugee camp, their plane crashed into a mountain and fell into a ravine. There were no survivors. Worrick was 48 years old. The Worricks were survived by a son. They are buried in Vermont.

[Sources: “Plane Hit Hillside in Africa,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas), 14 August 1989, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; “Novelist Roberta Worrick Killed in Crash With Lawmaker,” Muncie Evening Press (Muncie, Indiana) 14 August 1989, Page 21, online at Newspapers.com; Ancestry.com records]

Rolando Barahona served with USAID as an auditor with USAID’s inspector general. On October 21, 1989, he died in the crash of TAN-SAHSA Flight 414 in Honduras, which killed 131 of the 146 people on board, including Barahona’s colleague Robert Hebb. Another USAID employee was seriously injured in the crash.

[Source: El Nuevo Herald (Miami, Florida) 22 Oct 1989, Page 5, online at Newspapers.com]

Robert Benjamin Hebb was born on May 13, 1946, in Annapolis, Maryland. After working in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Interstate Commerce Commission, he joined USAID in 1985. In 1989 he was in his third year as an auditor in USAID’s regional office in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. On October 21, 1989, he was flying back from an official trip to Costa Rica and died in the crash of TAN-SAHSA Flight 414 in Honduras, which killed 131 of the 146 people on board. Colleague Rolando Barahona also died in the crash and another USAID employee was seriously injured. He was 43 years old. Hebb was survived by his father and two siblings. He is buried in Hillcrest Memorial Gardens in Annapolis, Maryland.

[Sources: “Lawyer killed in crash worked on Managua Vote – Second area man is presumed dead,” The Washington Post, October 25, 1989; “Robert Franklin (sic) Hebb,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 230352867; Ancestry.com records]

Lina De La Cruz was among the 60 people attending a USAID financial management workshop at the Nevada Hotel in Baguio City on July 16, 1990, when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck, causing the upper floors of the hotel to collapse. De La Cruz, four other USAID employees, and 24 other participants died.

[Source: Cabreza, Vincent, “A poignant return to quake site for USAID,” 12 July 2011, Inquirer.net]

Susan Doria was among the 60 people attending a USAID financial management workshop at the Nevada Hotel in Baguio City on July 16, 1990, when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck, causing the upper floors of the hotel to collapse. Doria, four other USAID employees, and 24 other participants died.

[Source: Cabreza, Vincent, “A poignant return to quake site for USAID,” 12 July 2011, Inquirer.net]

USAID acting comptroller Richard Finley was among the 60 people attending a USAID financial management workshop at the Nevada Hotel in Baguio City on July 16, 1990, when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck, causing the upper floors of the hotel to collapse. Finely, four other USAID employees, and 24 other participants died.

[Source: Cabreza, Vincent, “A poignant return to quake site for USAID,” 12 July 2011, Inquirer.net]

Lisa Isidro was among the 60 people attending a USAID financial management workshop at the Nevada Hotel in Baguio City on July 16, 1990, when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck, causing the upper floors of the hotel to collapse. Isidro, four other USAID employees, and 24 other participants died.

[Source: Cabreza, Vincent, “A poignant return to quake site for USAID,” 12 July 2011, Inquirer.net]

Ed Plata was among the 60 people attending a USAID financial management workshop at the Nevada Hotel in Baguio City on July 16, 1990, when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck, causing the upper floors of the hotel to collapse. Plata, four other USAID employees, and 24 other participants died.

[Source: Cabreza, Vincent, “A poignant return to quake site for USAID,” 12 July 2011, Inquirer.net]

Juba-based locally employed USAID employees Andrew Tombe, Chaplain Lako, Dominic Morris, and Baudoin Tally were reportedly executed by a Sudanese military tribunal on or about September 13, 1992. The Sudanese government accused them of treason, alleging that they were aiding the Sudan People's Liberation Army during the Second Sudanese Civil War. The U.S. government rejected the allegations and strongly objected to the executions.

[Sources: “Monument Unveiled to Honor USAID Staff Killed Serving South Sudan,” June 6, 2023, Africa Press at www.africa-press.net/south-sudan/all-news/monument-unveiled-to-honor-usaid-staff-killed-serving-south-sudan; www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr54/030/1992/en/; and “U.S. Is Appalled by the Execution Of A.I.D. Employee in the Sudan,” New York Times, September 23, 1992, Page A6]

Juba-based locally employed USAID employees Andrew Tombe, Chaplain Lako, Dominic Morris, and Baudoin Tally were reportedly executed by a Sudanese military tribunal on or about September 13, 1992. The Sudanese government accused them of treason, alleging that they were aiding the Sudan People's Liberation Army during the Second Sudanese Civil War. The U.S. government rejected the allegations and strongly objected to the executions.

[Sources: “Monument Unveiled to Honor USAID Staff Killed Serving South Sudan,” June 6, 2023, Africa Press at www.africa-press.net/south-sudan/all-news/monument-unveiled-to-honor-usaid-staff-killed-serving-south-sudan; www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr54/030/1992/en/; and “U.S. Is Appalled by the Execution Of A.I.D. Employee in the Sudan,” New York Times, September 23, 1992, Page A6]

Juba-based locally employed USAID employees Andrew Tombe, Chaplain Lako, Dominic Morris, and Baudoin Tally were reportedly executed by a Sudanese military tribunal on or about September 13, 1992. The Sudanese government accused them of treason, alleging that they were aiding the Sudan People's Liberation Army during the Second Sudanese Civil War. The U.S. government rejected the allegations and strongly objected to the executions.

[Sources: “Monument Unveiled to Honor USAID Staff Killed Serving South Sudan,” June 6, 2023, Africa Press at www.africa-press.net/south-sudan/all-news/monument-unveiled-to-honor-usaid-staff-killed-serving-south-sudan; www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr54/030/1992/en/; and “U.S. Is Appalled by the Execution Of A.I.D. Employee in the Sudan,” New York Times, September 23, 1992, Page A6]

Juba-based locally employed USAID employees Andrew Tombe, Chaplain Lako, Dominic Morris, and Baudoin Tally were reportedly executed by a Sudanese military tribunal on or about September 13, 1992. The Sudanese government accused them of treason, alleging that they were aiding the Sudan People's Liberation Army during the Second Sudanese Civil War. The U.S. government rejected the allegations and strongly objected to the executions.

[Sources: “Monument Unveiled to Honor USAID Staff Killed Serving South Sudan,” June 6, 2023, Africa Press at www.africa-press.net/south-sudan/all-news/monument-unveiled-to-honor-usaid-staff-killed-serving-south-sudan; www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr54/030/1992/en/; and “U.S. Is Appalled by the Execution Of A.I.D. Employee in the Sudan,” New York Times, September 23, 1992, Page A6]

Nancy Ferebee Lewis was born on May 12, 1954, in Beirut, Lebanon, where her father ran a school. Her family relocated to Alexandria, Virginia, when she was six years old. She earned bachelor’s degrees in anthropology and art history and had master’s degrees in museum studies and business administration. Lewis joined USAID in 1986, worked for USAID on Capitol Hill, and was assigned to Tunisia in 1990, moving to U.S. Embassy Cairo, Egypt, in June 1991.

On December 21, 1993, an embassy contractor fumigated her embassy-leased apartment. She became very sick and died of pesticide poisoning in the embassy health clinic on Christmas Day 1993. She was 39 years old. She was survived by her husband, her parents, and two siblings.

An investigation determined that her apartment had been treated with a toxic pesticide that was illegal for residential use in the United States. Several weeks later, the State Department sent a cable to all posts worldwide ordering that the pesticide no longer be used inside residences and office buildings. Several months later, the State Department agreed to an AFSA request that occupants of overseas housing be given a detailed fact sheet prior to fumigations.

[Sources: “Pesticide-Linked Death of U.S. Worker in Cairo Raises Issue of Who’s Accountable,” The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., May 21, 1994, online at washingtonpost.com; Foreign Service Journal, October 1994, Page 2 of AFSA News section; Ancestry.com records]

Laurence Michael Foley, Sr. was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 5, 1942. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts and San Francisco State University and served with the Peace Corps as both a volunteer in India and an associate director in the Philippines. He worked for several years as a supervising probation officer for Contra Costa County, California

He joined the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1988 and served in Bolivia, Peru, and Zimbabwe. His final posting was at U.S. Embassy Amann, Jordan, as USAID supervisory executive officer. On October 28, 2002, Foley was killed outside his home in Amman by gunmen with terror connections as he walked to his car to go to the embassy. He was 60 years old. He was survived by his wife, two daughters, and a son.

[Sources: Foreign Service Journal, January 2003; Pages 61-62; Ancestry.com records]

Margaret Ruth Alexander was born in New York City on December 10, 1949, and grew up in Iowa. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College Pennsylvania in 1971 with a degree in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, performed graduate work at Columbia University’s Department of Art History and Archaeology, and earned a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1980. She then worked as a law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware and practiced law with a law firm in Washington, D.C.

Alexander joined USAID as a Foreign Service officer in 1987 working as a legal officer in the Office of the General Counsel. She later served as senior regional legal advisor in East and Central Africa, the Caribbean and Western and Central Africa; assistant general counsel for the Europe and Eurasia Bureau; and chief of the regional legal office in Southern Africa.

Alexander’s final post was as deputy USAID mission director in Kathmandu, Nepal. On September 23, 2006, she, USAID Program Development Specialist Dr. Bijnan Acharya, and 22 others died in a helicopter crash near Mount Kanchenjunga, the world’s third-highest peak, while returning from a ceremony marking the handing over of a World Wildlife Fund conservation area to the local community. She was 56 years old and was survived by her sister.

[Sources: Foreign Service Journal, December 2006, Page 80; U.S. Department of State Internet Archive at https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ei/pix/f/78708.htm; Ancestry.com records]

Note: One of the 108 inscribed tiles on the USAID Memorial Wall displays a star instead of a name and is labeled “2007, Iraq.” An Internet search in 2026 found no indication of the identity of that USAID employee or contractor. At the April 14, 2007, USAID annual ceremony at the Memorial Wall, a speaker cited three unnamed Foreign Service National employees who had recently died in the line of duty. The only FSN on the USAID Memorial Wall who died in the previous twelve months is Bijnan Acharya in September 2006. Thus, the unnamed tile might honor one or two FSNs who died in Iraq in early 2007, with their names withheld for unspecified security reasons.

[Source: FrontLines, October 2007, Page 13 at web.archive.org/web/20071213021953/www.usaid.gov/press/frontlines/Oct07_FrontLines.pdf]

Abdel Rahman Abbas Rahama was born in Juba, Sudan. He began his USAID career in 2004 as an original member of the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team for Darfur, Sudan. He was hired as a driver for the USAID Sudan mission in Khartoum in November 2005. On January 1, 2008, he and USAID Foreign Service officer John Michael Granville were killed by a gunman from the terrorist group Ansar al-Tawhid while driving Granville home after a new year’s party at the British Embassy in Khartoum. He was 39 years old and was survived by his wife, Fatima Mohamed Ali Osman, and young son, Mujtaba.

[Source: U.S. Department of State Internet Archive at https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/20092013clinton/rm/2009a/06/125378.htm]

John Michael Granville was born in Buffalo, New York, on September 25, 1974. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University and joined the Peace Corps in 1997 serving in Cameroon for two years. In 2003, he earned a master’s degree in international development from Clark University before studying in Africa as a Fulbright Fellow.

Granville became a democracy and governance Foreign Service officer with USAID in 2004 working first in Kenya and then in Sudan. During the latter assignment, he headed a program to give 75,000 solar-power radios to South Sudanese citizens. On January 1, 2008, Granville and his Foreign Service National driver Abdel Rahman Abbas Rahama were killed by a gunman from the terrorist group Ansar al-Tawhid while driving home after a new year’s party at the British Embassy in Khartoum. He was 33 years old and was survived by his mother and sister.

[Sources: Foreign Service Journal, March 2008, Page 73; Foreign Service Journal, June 2008, Page 60; Valley News, West Lebanon, New Hampshire, January 2, 2008, Page 9, online at Newspapers.com; “John Michael Granville,” Findagrave.com. Memorial ID 23703746; Ancestry.com records]

Dale Joseph Gredler was born in Bellevue, Washington, on August 9, 1967, and grew up in Wenatchee, Washington. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Eastern Washington University and a master’s degree in political science and public administration from Illinois State University before volunteering with the Peace Corps in the Philippines. A graduate of the Presidential Management Program, he served as an emergency management program specialist with the Federal Emergency Management Agency before joining USAID as a financial management specialist in 2001.

Gredler served as a contracting officer at U.S. Embassy Jakarta, Indonesia, where he helped with reconstruction efforts after a devastating tsunami. In 2009, he and his family transferred to USAID’s regional mission for Central Asia in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He died on January 27, 2010, of a heart attack while being medically evacuated from Almaty to London for treatment. He was 42 years old. He was survived by his wife, two daughters, his parents, a stepfather, and two siblings.

Note: The location inscribed on the USAID Memorial Wall is Indonesia, but his last post was Kazakhstan. He died in route from there to London for medical treatment.

[Sources: Foreign Service Journal, June 2013, Pages 50 and 57; Foreign Service Journal, June 2017, Page 53; “Dale Joseph Gredler, “Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 135607146; Ancestry.com records]

Ragaei Said Abdelfattah was born in Giza, Egypt, on July 8, 1969. After emigrating to the United States, he became a naturalized citizen and worked with the U.N. Development Program in Egypt and the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission. At the time of his death, he was pursuing a Ph.D. in planning, governance, and globalization at Virginia Technical University.

Abdelfattah joined USAID as a Foreign Service officer in 2011 and served two tours in Afghanistan on Provincial Reconstruction Teams as a field program officer in economic growth. There, he helped the Afghan government to develop an industrial park in Nangarhar province. Abdelfattah died on August 8, 2012, during a suicide bombing in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. He was 43 years old. He was survived by his wife and two teenage sons.

[Sources: Foreign Service Journal, October 2012, Page 66; “Ragaei Said Abdelfattah,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 204458315; Ancestry.com records]

Antoinette “Toni” Beaumont Tomasek was born in Manhattan Beach, California, on February 13, 1972. She earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo and a master’s degree in sociology from American University and volunteered with the Peace Corps in Paraguay.

Tomasek joined USAID in 2009 as a community health specialist focusing on water, sanitation, and education. She served as a development leadership officer in Indonesia, where she established a program to work with local organizations to prevent and treat tuberculosis, before becoming a health services team leader with USAID in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

On June 29, 2013, Tomasek was seriously injured in a car accident in Haiti while returning from a trip to deliver medication to a community health clinic two hours outside Port-au-Prince. While Tomasek’s condition initially seemed to improve, she died suddenly three days later. She was 41 years old. She was survived by her husband, two young children, and her mother.

[Sources: Foreign Service Journal, June 2014, Pages 43 and 49; Unger, Mike, “Life, Interrupted,” American University Magazine, November 2014; Ancestry.com records]

Michael Cameron Dempsey was born in Lansing, Michigan on May 26, 1980. He graduated from Plymouth-Canton High School and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He also obtained an MBA from Wayne State University. He worked as an Urban Planner for the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation and for RTI Corporation in Iraq, in the Ministry of Development for Abu Dhabi.

Joining USAID as a Foreign Service Limited employee, he served as the USAID leader of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Nangarhar, Afghanistan. Returning to the United States on medical leave, he died by suicide on August 11, 2013, in Michigan. He was 33 years old. He is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Plymouth, Michigan.

Note: His inscription on the USAID Memorial Wall was added in March 2026 after the U.S. Department of State took over management of the memorial.

[Sources: “Michael Cameron Dempsey,” Memorial ID 136528139 on www.findagrave.com; https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/09/06/a-death-in-the-family/]

Xulhaz Mannan was born on October 12, 1976, in Bangladesh. He was hired by Embassy Dhaka as a protocol specialist in 2007 and moved to work for USAID in 2015. A leading LGBT rights activist in his private capacity for which he received death threats, he was murdered in his apartment in a machete attack by a group of five to seven men from an Islamic extremist organization on April 25, 2016. He was 39 years old.

Note: His inscription on the USAID Memorial Wall was added in March 2026 after the U.S. Department of State took over possession of the memorial.

[Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xulhaz_Mannan]

Mark Andrew Mitchell was born on December 7, 1959, in Fresno, California. He earned a degree in business administration at California State University-Fresno. He joined the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of captain before returning to school to complete a master’s degree and a law degree at the University of South Carolina. He then worked for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Defense Intelligence Agency before joining USAID serving in Djibouti, Afghanistan, Brazil, and the Republic of Georgia.

Posted to Georgia in 2015, he died on May 6, 2018, in a vehicle crash in Tbilisi. A local citizen was charged with a vehicular crime for his role in the crash that caused Mitchell’s death. Mitchell was 58 years old. He was survived by his husband, Paulo Mendoca, parents, and sister.

[Sources: Foreign Service Journal, October 2018, Page 65; “Mark Andrew Mitchell,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 190833327; Ancestry.com records]

Tresja C. Denysenko was born on July 11, 1973. She lived in Minnesota and Valparaiso, Indiana. She joined USAID in 2005 as a disaster operations specialist. She served in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake and was deployed to West Africa to help partner countries contain and end the Ebola outbreak in 2014. She responded to the political crisis in Venezuela, the Civil War in South Sudan, and later the conflict and humanitarian disaster in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

While serving on USAID’s Disaster Assistance Response Team in Haiti following the devastating August 14, 2021, earthquake, she suffered a sudden medical emergency and was medevaced to Miami, Florida, where she died on August 19, 2021, of a cause that was not made public. She was 48 years old and was survived by her husband, Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko, daughter, mother, stepfather, brother and other extended family.

Note: Her inscription on the USAID Memorial Wall was the last approved by career USAID officials under criteria specified in USAID Automated Directives Service Chapter 492 “The USAID Employee Memorial Program.”

[Sources: usaidalumni.org/tresja-denysenko/; www.andersonfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Tresja-C-Denysenko?obId=22121199; wjla.com/news/local/haiti-earthquake-fairfax-county-fire-urban-search-and-rescue-team]

Dr. Edward Howard Winant was born on November 17, 1968, in South Burlington, Vermont. He graduated from Shady Spring High School in West Virginia and obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from West Virginia University in 1989 followed by a master’s degree in 1992 and a Ph.D. in 1996. After serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon, he became a Department of State Foreign Service officer in 2009 serving in Liberia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, and Washington DC. Joining USAID in 2020, he served in Nepal, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and South Africa.

His final posting was as a Foreign Service Engineering Officer at the USAID Regional Mission in Bangkok. He died of heart disease in Bangkok on November 22, 2022. He was 54 years old. He was survived by his wife and fellow USAID colleague Dinah Zeltser Winant, their young daughter, and extended family members. He is buried in Harper Cemetery, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

Note: His inscription on the USAID Memorial Wall was added in March 2026 after the U.S. Department of State took over possession of the memorial.

[Sources: Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2023, page 89; USAID Agency Notice, November 23, 2022; Edward Howard “Ed” Winant, www.findagrave.com, Memorial ID 255685866]

Born in the Philippines, Ellen De Guzman received a bachelor’s degree from the University of the Philippines and a master’s degree from American University. She joined USAID in 2011 as Deputy Senior Development Officer in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Subsequent assignments included Congo and South Sudan. Her final posting was as Director of the Office of Humanitarian Assistance in Bangladesh. Suffering a medical emergency, she was medevaced to a hospital in Singapore where she died in early March 2023. She was survived by her daughter, sister, and extended family members.

Note: Her inscription on the USAID Memorial Wall was added in March 2026 after the U.S. Department of State took over possession of the memorial.

[Source: USAID Agency Notice, March 13, 2023]

Sarah Jane Crites was born in 1976. She joined the Peace Corps as an intern in 1995 and then served in Honduras. After receiving a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University and master’s degree from George Mason University, she worked again for the Peace Corps and then with AmeriCorps. In 2009, she joined USAID as a civil service officer in Washington DC and later became a USAID Foreign Service officer serving in Ghana and Zambia. Her final posting was in Mozambique where she died at post on April 11, 2024, of a cause that was not made public. She was survived by her husband Joseph Snapp, two children, and extended family members.

Note: Her inscription on the USAID Memorial Wall was added in March 2026 after the U.S. Department of State took over possession of the memorial.

[Sources: USAID Agency Notice, April 16, 2024; https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-j-crites/]

Jacob Toukhy served with USAID for 24 years as a Foreign Service National employee. Starting as a driver in the West Bank/Gaza mission, he rose to be a democracy and governance project manager. While volunteering with an Israeli ambulance service, he was shot by an off-duty Israeli police officer during a traffic dispute near his home in Jaffa on April 13, 2024. He was 50 years old. He was survived by two daughters and his mother.

Note: His inscription on the USAID Memorial Wall was added in March 2026 after the U.S. Department of State took over possession of the memorial.

[Sources: USAID Agency Notice, April 22, 2024; Foreign Service Journal, June 2024, Page 12; https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/blessed-are-the-peacemakers-the-life-of-jacob-toukhy/]

Susan Chuwa Easley served in the U.S. Army for 22 years rising to the rank of Major before joining USAID as a Foreign Service officer in 2009. With USAID, she served in Ghana, Afghanistan, Uganda, South Sudan, Haiti, Sudan, and Washington DC. She died in Washington DC on May 13, 2024, of complications following a medical procedure. She was 59 years old. She was survived by two sons and her mother.

Note: Her inscription on the USAID Memorial Wall lists her post of assignment Sudan, but she died in the United States. Her inscription was added in March 2026 after the U.S. Department of State took over possession of the memorial.

[Sources: USAID Agency Notice, May 16, 2024; https://usaidalumni.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Passing-of-Susan-Chuwa-Easley2.pdf; https://kffhealthnews.org/health-industry/recovery-houses-outpatient-cosmetic-surgery-patient-risks/]

Born on April 5, 1978, in Providence, Rhode Island, Priscilla Ashamu Sampil grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and Charlottesville, Virginia. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Barnard College in New York City. Following graduation, she worked for a non-governmental organization in Guinea for 16 years. After working at the U.S. Department of State and Peace Corps, she joined USAID where she served in Guinea, Togo, and Congo (DRC). Her final posting was as the Supervisory Executive Officer for the USAID Mission in Zimbabwe. She died at post on November 23, 2024, of a cause that was not made public. She was 46 years old. She was survived by her husband, three children, and extended family members.

Note: Her inscription on the USAID Memorial Wall was added in March 2026 after the U.S. Department of State took over possession of the memorial.

[Sources: https://www.forevermissed.com/priscilla-ashamu-sampil/lifestory; https://usaidalumni.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Priscilla-Sampil-obituary-b.pdf]

Cheryl D. Hodge-Snead was born on March 31, 1962. She joined USAID after 25 years at the Department of Defense. In 14 years with USAID, she served in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Liberia, and Mexico. Her final posting between 2021 and 2025 was as director of the Office of Acquisition and Assistance at the USAID Mission in India. She died on February 20, 2025, in Detroit, Michigan, of a cause that was not made public. She was 62 years old. She is buried in Trinity Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan.

Note: Her inscription on the USAID Memorial Wall lists her post of assignment India, but she died in the United States. Her inscription was added in March 2026 after the U.S. Department of State took over possession of the memorial.

[Sources: USAID Agency Notice, February 24, 2025; Cheryl D. Hodge-Snead, www.findagrave.com, Memorial ID 280507508; https://everloved.com/life-of/cheryl-hodge-snead/]