F OCUS - American Foreign Service Association

losing a battle with cancer.
Born in Sacramento, Calif., Mr.
Schoonover received his undergraduate
degree at the University of
California, Riverside and did graduate
studies at Berkeley.
Mr. Schoonover joined the Foreign
Service in 1964. He was posted
briefly to Kampala in 1965 and, later
that year, transferred to Dar es
Salaam. There he met Brenda Brown,
whom he married in 1968. Mr.
Schoonover went on to serve in
Lagos, Tunis and Manila. By this
time, Brenda Schoonover had joined
the State Department, and the couple
had subsequent tandem assignments
in Colombo and Tunis, where Mr.
Schoonover served as public affairs
officer.
In 1990, Mr. Schoonover was
selected to participate in the 33rd
Class of the Senior Seminar, followed
by a posting to the U.S. mission to
NATO in Brussels. After retiring in
1996, he accompanied Mrs. Schoonover
on her tours as U.S. ambassador
to Togo, as diplomat-in-residence in
Chapel Hill, N.C., and on her return
to Brussels. Chapel Hill has been the
Schoonovers’ permanent residence
since 2004.
Mr. Schoonover was active in
numerous internationally affiliated
organizations. He was co-chair of the
Carolina Friends of the Foreign
Service in Chapel Hill and served on
the board of directors of the online
magazine, American Diplomacy.
An avid lifetime golfer, he was a
member of the Kenwood Golf and
Country Club in Bethesda, Md. He
was a single-digit handicapper and
enjoyed playing challenging courses
wherever in the world he found himself.
While living in Chapel Hill, he
played golf regularly, both locally and
in the region.
Mr. Schoonover was also an exquisite
chef. Friends recall the cou-
86 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JULY-AUGUST 2008
I N M EMORY
ple’s excellent entertaining: going to
one of their parties guaranteed an
absorbing time with excellent food
and fascinating company.
Remembered as a vibrant, intelligent
and witty individual, who was a
true gentleman, Mr. Schoonover
made important contributions to his
community both in life and in death.
His remains have been donated to the
University of North Carolina School
of Medicine. While his body will go
to benefit science, his spirit lives on in
the hearts of family and friends.
Mr. Schoonover’s first marriage, to
the former Virginia Santee, ended in
divorce. He is survived by his wife of
40 years, Brenda of Chapel Hill, N.C.;
a son, Peter of Los Angeles, Calif.;
two daughters, Elizabeth Wrightson
of Los Angeles, Calif., and Stephanie
Schoonover of Austin, Texas; and a
grandson, Thomas.
Memorial contributions may be to
the Senior Living Foundation of the
American Foreign Service (www.
slfoundation.org/), or to Carolina for
Kibera (www.cfk.unc.edu).
Theodore A. Wahl, 86, a retired
Foreign Service officer, died on April
19 in Media, Pa., following a series of
strokes.
Born in Cooks Falls, N.Y., in 1922,
Mr. Wahl graduated from Colgate
University in 1942 and served in the
Army Air Corps in China during
World War II, attaining the rank of
captain. After the war, he received a
master’s degree from Tufts University’s
Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy, then joined the Foreign
Service in 1947.
During a 33-year diplomatic
career, Mr. Wahl served in consulates
in Tsingtao and Chungking, and was
then posted to Oslo. For many years
he served in the Middle East in
Dhahran, Istanbul, Beirut and Riyadh.
In Washington, he served in the
Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs from
1957 to 1960 and on the Israel and
Arab-Israel affairs desk from 1969 to
1971. He was then posted to Manila
from 1971 to 1974.
After retiring from the State
Department in 1980, Mr. Wahl worked
briefly as a consultant for the
Multinational Force and Observers,
the Sinai peacekeeping force, before
settling first in Swarthmore and, later,
Media, Pa.
His first wife, Sarah Martin Wahl,
whom he married in Tsingtao in 1948,
died in 1978. He remarried in 1981
and his second wife, Tania Cosman
Wahl, died in 2006.
Mr. Wahl leaves his three children,
Martin Wahl of Corte Madera, Calif.,
Russell Wahl of Pocatello, Idaho, and
Harriet Wahl Cowper of Tucson,
Ariz.; six grandchildren; four stepchildren;
and two step-grandchildren. ■
E-mail your
“In Memory”
submission to the
Foreign Service Journal,
attention Susan Maitra
at FSJedit@afsa.org,
or fax it to (202) 338-6820.
No photos, please.