F OCUS - American Foreign Service Association

ing French and Spanish literature and
philosophy. In 1962, she returned to
the U.S. and worked as an academician
at the University of California,
Berkeley.
In 1966, Ms. Gurvin was appointed
to the U.S. Information Agency.
Her first overseas posting was to
Montevideo. After this four-year tour,
she took a leave of absence to attend
graduate school in Latin American
studies at the University of Texas.
Thereafter, she had overseas assignments
in Buenos Aires, Stockholm,
The Hague and Lima.
Her 30-year career as a cultural
affairs officer featured a number of
highlights, such as creating a consortium
of Swedish publishers to bring
20 major American authors to discuss
their work with the public, the
Swedish Academy/Nobel Prize Committee
and the media. In both
Sweden and the Netherlands, she
served as treasurer of the binational
Fulbright boards. In The Hague, she
doubled the annual Fulbright budget
from Dutch and American private
and public funding sources, linked
five Dutch universities with new
American partners and created three
new prestigious Fulbright chairs. In
Lima, she served as the proactive
coordinator of a $1 million program to
stimulate sales of U.S. textbooks (in
Spanish translation) to Peruvian universities.
Shortly before her departure,
she set up a new prize for an outstanding
Peruvian university professor,
seeded with personal funds.
During several tours at USIA
headquarters in Washington, Ms.
Gurvin served as chief of Binational
Cultural Centers Management and as
creative arts officer. In the latter
capacity, she designed and directed
grants programs worldwide that aimed
at stimulating institution-to-institution
linkages She was appointed
USIA coordinator of the Private
80 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JULY-AUGUST 2008
I N M EMORY
Sector Committee on the Arts.
She also had a Pearson assignment
with the Council for International
Urban Liaison and, at one point, her
skill at fundraising was put to use as a
loaned executive to the Combined
Federal Campaign. There she led
more than 300 volunteers in raising
$1.2 million for Washington charitable
organizations.
In 1994, Ms. Gurvin was promoted
to the Senior Foreign Service. That
same year she was diagnosed with
breast cancer. She left Lima to undergo
surgery in the U.S. and continued
to work at USIA’s Office of the
Counsel General while undergoing
treatment. She was named a U.S.
national judge for the 1995 and 1996
Carnegie Foundation competitions
for “U.S. Professor of the Year,” and
was appointed to serve on several task
forces by the American Council on
Education. Her last position before
retiring in 1996 was with the Foreign
Affairs Grievance Board.
In retirement, Ms. Gurvin continued
to created linkages among academic,
arts, government and media
institutions and leaders and to mentor
others in their careers through her
own consultancy. She was a member
of Diplomatic and Consular Officers,
Retired, and the Public Diplomacy
Alumni Association, among others.
She became a tenacious fighter
against her own cancer and an advocate
for breast cancer research and
funding, contributing to several books
on breast cancer therapy. Friends and
colleagues remarked on her continued
zest and her positive, upbeat
worldview over 14 years, despite new
and recurring cancers.
Ms. Gurvin was an avid reader and
enjoyed intellectual discussions with a
diverse network of contacts and
friends. She also liked opera, the dramatic
arts and travel, visiting more
than 60 countries for work and plea-
sure during her lifetime. Her most
recent trips were to Vietnam, Laos
and Cambodia; she also attended a
cooking school in Provence in 2006.
She is survived by three brothers
and two sisters-in-law: Peter Gurvin
and his wife, Jerusha, of Bethesda,
Md.; George Gurvin of Arlington, Va.;
and John Gurvin and his wife,
Antoinette, of Burnsville, Minn.
Arthur Moore Handly, 79, a
retired FSO with USAID, died on
Jan. 23 at Champlain Valley Physicians
Hospital in Plattsburgh, N.Y.
Mr. Handly was born in Malone,
N.Y., on March 6, 1928, the son of
Arthur W. and Ellen Handly. A 1946
graduate of Franklin Academy, he
served in the U.S. Army in Japan,
then attended Hamilton College and
transferred to Saint Lawrence University,
graduating in 1950. He
earned a master’s degree in public
administration from Syracuse University,
and pursued a career in state government
that took him to Wisconsin
and Oregon.
In 1962, Mr. Handly joined
USAID. He served in Turkey for five
years and, after a second stint at
Syracuse University, went on to serve
as mission director in Jordan,
Pakistan, Tanzania and Egypt before
retiring in 1987.
In retirement, Mr. Handly continued
his commitment to service. He
was a 4th-degree Knight of Columbus,
a hospice volunteer and a driver
for the elderly. An active member of
the Plattsburgh Duplicate Bridge
Club, he was also an avid golfer and
loved to travel.
He is survived by his wife of 56
years, Anne Frenette Handly; four
sons: Kevin and his wife, Piney, of
Boston, Mass., Marshall and his wife,
Carla, of Beverly, Mass., Brian and his