Obituaries - February 2025

Claudia Anyaso, whose career at USIA and State spanned four decades, passed away December 29, 2024, at age 80. After earning a Bachelor’s degree from Morgan State University and a Master's from American University, Anyaso joined the U.S. Information Agency in 1968. Her overseas postings included tours in Nigeria, Haiti, and Niger. In Washington, Anyaso’s assignments included working in USIA’s Office of African Affairs as country officer for Anglophone West Africa; at the Pentagon in the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and at State as office director for public affairs and public diplomacy in the Bureau of African Affairs. Anyaso was a founding member of the State Department’s Thursday Luncheon Group. Following her retirement in 2009 she taught cross-cultural communication at American University, was involved with the Pickering and Rangel Fellowship programs, and volunteered at the Shepherd Park Public Library.

Cesar Beltran, whose Foreign Service career spanned 35 years with USIA and the State Department, died December 13, 2024, in Chaplin, CT. He was 77. Beltran earned a B.A. from California State University, Chico, and an M.A. from George Washington University, and was also a Ford Fellow. Beltran served overseas at posts in Santo Domingo, Moscow, Budapest, and Warsaw, the latter two as embassy public affairs officer. Following retirement he embarked on a second career as an adjunct professor in communication at Eastern Connecticut State University for 11 years. Beltran also served as a senior advisor to the NGO International Center for Development and Democratic Transition.

George Thomas Czuczka, who worked as a translator at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals in 1947 and 1948, died January 28, 2025, at age 99. Born in Vienna, Czuczka and his family fled Austria in 1939 following the German annexation (Anschluss) of the country the previous year, reaching New York via a journey through Zurich, Paris, and Cherbourg. Czuczka later served in the U.S. Army  during World War II and was one of the U.S. military’s “Ritchie Boys” who included a large number of German and Austrian recruits who had fled Europe prior to the war and whose language skills were used for such purposes as prisoner interrogation and counter-intelligence. Following his entry into the Foreign Service, Czuczka served in in Germany as radio officer in Berlin and director of the Amerika Haus in Essen; in Austria as field program officer and later information officer, both in Vienna; and in India.

Eva Jane Fritzman, a longtime VOA employee, died January 30, 2025, at age 82. After graduating from the Jenner-Boswell Joint High School in Somerset County, PA, she moved to Washington in 1960 and began a 37-year career at USIA with the Voice of America, including work in its News and Current Affairs division. Starting as a GS-2 clerk-typist, Fritzman rose steadily through the Civil Service ranks to hold senior personnel and administration positions at the Voice.

Robert Jordan, a USIA Foreign Service officer, died August 24, 2024, in Overland Park, KS. He was 97. After Army service from 1945 to 1947, he graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1951 and taught high school algebra and Spanish for five years. Jordan entered the Foreign Service in 1956, and over the course of a 36-year career served at 11 posts in Latin America, Europe, and Asia, among them Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Ireland, and the Philippines. After retiring in 1992 he worked on State and USIA inspection teams that surveyed more than 20 U.S. embassies. From 1995 to 2001 Jordan worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, handling Spanish-speaking media on disasters around the country. He also served as vice president for international and government affairs at the U.S.-Asia Institute, accompanying numerous congressional staff delegations to China and Singapore.

Thresia “Terry” Martino, 95, died August 29, 2024, in Washington, DC. Martino began her government career in the 1950s working for the U.S. Information Agency in Washington. In the early 1960s, she served as the executive secretary for USIA officers assigned to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York, and later worked on the staff of USIA’s assistant director for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In 1971 Martino traveled as part of a USIA inspection team to Japan and Hong Kong, an experience that inspired her to join the Foreign Service. She then served on the front lines of the Cold War at posts in Belgrade, East Berlin, Bonn, and Moscow. Martino retired in 1986 after 35 years of government service.

James Morad, a Senior Foreign Service officer with USIA, died January 6, 2025, at age 90. The cause of death was congestive heart failure. A Navy veteran in the Korean War era, he earned a B.A. in journalism from USC and a Masters in the same field from Columbia University. After a stint as a reporter for UPI, Morad joined USIA in 1960. Over the course of his 33 year career with the Agency he served overseas at posts in Latin America and Europe, including Brazil, El Salvador, Spain, Belgium, and France. Morad held a variety of assignments at USIA’s Washington headquarter such as policy officer for Latin America, chief of the Voice of America’s European branch, deputy director for Western Europe, and senior inspector in the Office of Inspections.

Robert Palmieri, 85, a USIA Senior Foreign Service officer, passed away November 6, 2024, at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Palmieri worked as a chemistry teacher in Nigeria before entering the Foreign Service. During his USIA career he served mainly in Africa and the Middle East, with assignments in Nigeria, Congo, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Benin, Senegal, the Ivory Coast, and France, where he was an early director of the Agency’s African Regional Services Center in Paris. Fluent in French, he also knew conversational Yoruba, Igbo, Wolof, and Arabic. After retiring Palmieri taught English in the Ivory Coast before returning to the United States and settling in Yarmouth Port, MA.

David Melvin Paul, 94, passed away January 17, 2025. Paul worked at USIA for 30 years as an exhibits producer in the Agency’s Information Centers Service. He was also a Swedish to English translator and a published author.

Caroline “Nina” Pillsbury, the widow of USIA Foreign Service officer Phil Pillsbury, died December 24, 2024, in Washington, DC, at age 78. She accompanied her husband on his diplomatic assignments to Lubumbashi, Zaire; Tehran, Iran; Turin, Italy; and Buenos Aires, Argentina. After returning to Washington she was active in numerous charity events, including serving as chairwoman of the Red Cross Ball in 1997, with Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, as the guest of honor. An enthusiastic Francophile, she was on the Alliance Francaise Gala Committee helping to plan the 120th anniversary of the organization to be celebrated in May 2025.

Thomas Switzer, a USIA Foreign Service officer, died October 26, 2024, in Chantilly, VA, at age 82. Following graduation from Notre Dame University in 1964, he volunteered for the Peace Corps and spent two years in Malawi, using that opportunity to travel throughout the African continent and, among other adventures, climb Mount Kilimanjaro. After earning a Master's degree from the University of Colorado, Switzer joined USIA in 1968 to begin a diplomatic career lasting more than 30 years, with assignments in Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela, Yugoslavia, and Spain. In retirement he served as the communications director at the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) in Washington, working to promote awareness of the vital role of U.S. diplomacy and to encourage the next generation to pursue careers in public service and diplomacy.

Tracy Thiele, a State and USIA Foreign Service officer who specialized in Asian affairs, passed away in 2023. Joining the Foreign Service in 1990, Thiele served as branch public affairs officer in Chengdu, China, 1991 to 1993; as assistant PAO in Singapore, 1993 to 1997; and as one of the first public affairs officers in Hanoi, Vietnam, 1998 to 2000. Later in her career she headed the Kaohsiung branch officer of the American Institute in Taiwan from 2005 to 2008. A graduate of Chatham College, Thiele spoke fluent Mandarin Chinese and Vietnamese, and was the recipient of a State Department Superior Honor Award and two USIA Meritorious Honor Awards.

Norman Tolman, a USIA Foreign Service officer who later worked to promote contemporary Japanese art worldwide, died January 15, 2025. He was 88. After earning a B.A. in Chinese language from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master's in Asian Studies from Yale University, he served in the Air Force and worked for the National Security Agency. His USIA career included assignments in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sapporo, and Kyodo. In 1972 Tolman and his wife Mary established the Tolman Collection to promote contemporary Japanese prints internationally. With galleries in Tokyo and New York, they organized exhibitions in Hong Kong, Cairo, and Singapore.

John Wicart, a long-time USIA employee, died in 2024 at age 81. After working in Afghanistan as a USAID contractor, Wicart began his Agency career in 1970 as a Foreign Service officer with postings in Spain and Venezuela. He subsequently transferred to Washington-based jobs at USIA, joining its Visual Services branch in 1977, where his duties included working as a staff photographer. In the aftermath of Operation Desert Storm Wicart was sent to Kuwait in March 1991 to document with nearly 2,000 photos the destruction left by the Iraqi invasion of the country. Following the creation of the I Bureau in the mid-1990s he worked in its Electronic Media team. Wicart retired some 20 years ago from State’s International Information Programs (IIP) bureau and later moved to Kailua-Kona on Hawaii’s Big Island. An appreciation of John Wicart by Jacqui Porth is available at https://publicdiplomacy.org/an_appreciation_of_john_wicart.php.

Compiled by Member News Editor Domenick DiPasquale. Contact him at editor@publicdiplomacy.org.