Obituaries - May 2026
Frances Caterini, wife of USIA Foreign Service officer Dino Caterini, died February 21, 2026, at age 88. A graduate of Barnard College and Radcliffe College, Caterini devoted her life to teaching, both in the United States and abroad. In the Washington, DC, area, she taught for more than 20 years at the Holton Arms School and Washington Episcopal School. Caterini accompanied her husband on his overseas assignments that included Berlin, Islamabad, and Calcutta; in the latter, she founded the Calcutta Foundation to create opportunities for talented but underprivileged young musicians. That initiative earned Caterini the Secretary of State’s Award for Outstanding Volunteerism Abroad.
Khen A. Chen, a retired broadcast journalist at the Voice of America, died March 22, 2026, at age 85. Born in Siem Reap, Cambodia, she studied in Oregon before moving to Washington, DC, in 1962. Chen worked for more than 40 years in the Khmer language service at the Voice’s East Asia and Pacific branch, retiring in 2006. Her reporting on Cambodia made her one of the most respected voices in the Khmer diaspora and a role model for successive generations of Khmer journalists.
Tania Chomiak-Salvi, who held numerous public diplomacy assignments during her Foreign Service career, died May 5, 2026. After earning a B.A. from the University of Virginia in 1989, she joined USIA in 1993, the same year that she received an M.A. in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School. Among her postings, Chomiak-Salvi served in Kazakhstan, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Great Britain, Poland, and Belgium. Her domestic assignments included work in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Bureau of European Affairs, and the Bureau of International Information Programs, where she was Deputy Coordinator. A gifted linguist, Chomiak-Salvi spoke Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, French, and Italian. She served on the Boards of both the Public Diplomacy Association of America, where she served as Vice President, and the Public Diplomacy Council of America, where she served as Secretary.
Barbara Harvey, a Foreign Service officer with both USIA and the State Department, died April 23, 2026, at age 92. She began her government career as a clerk-typist at USIA while attending George Washington University. After receiving an M.A. from Radcliff College in 1959, Harvey became a USIA Foreign Service officer, serving twice in Seoul and once in Surabaya, Indonesia. Leaving the Agency in 1968 to pursue a Ph.D. from Cornell University, she subsequently taught political science at Monash University in Australia. Harvey then joined the State Department in 1974, with overseas postings as a political officer in Singapore, principal office in Surabaya, and deputy chief of mission in Jakarta. Her domestic assignments included training political officers at the Foreign Service Institute, deputy assistant secretary for personnel, and a final stint before retiring in 1999 as diplomat-in-residence at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Edward Hinker, a retired Foreign Service officer, died February 14, 2025, in Arlington, VA, at age 84. Earning a Bachelor’s degree in German in 1963 from the College of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, he taught German language and culture at junior and senior high schools in Minnesota before joining the Foreign Service in 1969. His overseas assignments included postings in Bonn, Frankfurt, West Berlin, and Munich, where he became director of the Amerika Haus. In Washington Hinker served in USIA’s Office of Public Liaison, where he coordinated the Agency’s public programs, media outreach, and awards; edited the USIA Newswire; and organized public briefings and seminars designed to help Americans understand the role of diplomacy in foreign policy. He retired in 1997 as chief of that office’s Public Programs Branch.
Franklin Huffman, 91, a retired Senior Foreign Service officer, died August 11, 2025, in Chevy Chase, MD, of complications from pancreatic cancer. Huffman earned a B.A. in modern languages in 1955 from Bridgewater College in Virginia and a Ph.D. in linguistics, anthropology, and Southeast Asian studies from Cornell University in 1967. After teaching at both Cornell and Yale, he entered the Foreign Service with USIA in 1985. His overseas assignments included London, Rangoon, Marrakech, Paris, Phnom Penh, and Wellington. After retiring in 1999, Huffman authored nine books and numerous articles, including the first comprehensive English–Khmer dictionary. Widely considered an authority on Cambodian language and linguistics, Huffman donated his entire Cambodian-language collection to the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh in 2004.
Kenneth Michael "Mike" Jenson, who served overseas as a Regional English Language Officer (RELO), passed away April 17, 2026, in Flat Rock, NC. In his career he worked with local teachers and government officials in Indonesia, Poland, and Mexico to broaden the educational and career opportunities of thousands of young people through access to the English language. At each post he immersed himself in the local community to better understand its culture and become a more effective teacher. In retirement, Jenson enjoyed hiking the trails of the Blue Ridge Mountains. A Remembrance has been posted on the PDCA website.
Kevin Klose, a journalist and broadcast executive whose long career included stints heading Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and National Public Radio, died April 15, 2026, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 85. Beginning in 1967, Klose spent a quarter-century as a reporter and editor at The Washington Post, including a four-year stint as the paper’s bureau chief in Moscow where his reporting included interviews with Soviet dissidents such as Andrei Sakharov. In the 1990s he led Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, overseeing its relocation from Munich to Prague; he again served as RFE/RL’s president from 2013 to 2014. Klose was noted for his leadership of National Public Radio from 1998 to 2008, when he secured the largest donation in public broadcasting history, a 2003 gift of more than $200 million from Joan B. Kroc, the widow of McDonald’s executive Ray Kroc. The donation went into NPR’s endowment, transforming the organization’s fortunes while helping to accelerate its growth and insulate the broadcaster from political pressure.
Steve Redisch, a former senior editor at the Voice of America, died February 17, 2026, from septic shock. He was 69. While attending American University, Redisch launched his career in journalism by working at the campus radio station before joining WTOP Radio in 1979. He subsequently worked for 20 years at CNN, both in its Washington bureau and at its Atlanta headquarters, earning two Emmy awards and leading the team honored with a Best Newscast National Headliner Award for “The World Today,” CNN’s flagship primetime news show. Joining VOA in 2008, Redisch served as an executive editor, responsible for VOA’s news, programming, broadcast operations, and Internet departments, before becoming managing editor at the Voice’s news center, where he produced reports for VOA TV programs and digital platforms.
Mona Burchell Rowland, 93, a retired USIA Foreign Service officer, died May 12, 2025, in Silver Spring, MD. A 1953 graduate of Lynchburg College, she worked one year for an educational journal before joining the Foreign Service. In the course of her government career she served in Thailand, Italy, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Sri Lanka, Laos, and Pakistan. In Laos, Rowland played a key role in evacuating Americans before the Communist takeover of the country in 1975 and was among the last to leave. Her final Washington assignment before retiring in 1983 was in USIA’s budget office.
Bruce Wharton, a retired Senior Foreign Service officer who held numerous high-level public diplomacy positions at the State Department, died April 15, 2026. Joining USIA in 1985, he worked overseas in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Later in his career, Wharton served as Deputy Coordinator in the Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP); Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of African Affairs; and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of African Affairs. From 2012 to 2015 he was U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe. In 2016 Wharton was designated acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. In that role he provided global strategic leadership of all Department of State public diplomacy and public affairs engagement. Wharton was the 2011 recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in public diplomacy. A remembrance of Bruce Wharton by PDCA President Karl Stoltz that includes numerous accolades from Wharton’s colleagues is available here.
Peter Wolcott, a retired USIA Foreign Service officer, died March 4, 2026, at age 87. After earning a B.A. at Kalamazoo College in 1959 and a master’s in international relations at Syracuse University in 1962, he became a Peace Corps Volunteer. The early years of his Foreign Service career were spent in Southeast Asia, with assignments to three Indonesian posts in Medan, Djakarta, and Sumatra, as well as to Penang in Malaysia. In the mid-1970s Wolcott worked in USIA’s Executive Secretariat. Later overseas tours included Finland and Melbourne. After retiring from USIA, Wolcott remained in Melbourne until 1998, working as a public affairs officer for the Victoria state government before moving back to his home state of Michigan.