The Foreign Service Journal, April 2011

A P R I L 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 63 I N M E M O R Y degree at Syracuse University. His career in public service began with summer stints during his college years with the U.S. Forest Service as a smoke jumper, fighting fires through- out the western United States. He served in the Mountain Cold Weather Training Command of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division from 1954 to 1956. After seven years in the private sector, Mr. Dawson joined the For- eign Service in 1964 and was posted to Saigon as an assistant development officer. He received a Medal for Civilian Service for his efforts on be- half of USAID while serving in Viet- nam. He subsequently served in Thailand, Kenya, Liberia and the Philippines, before retiring from the Foreign Service. Mr. Dawson went on to consult in numerous other countries with USAID and several nongovernmental organizations before concluding his public service as the director of finance at the Lee County Public Health De- partment in Fort Myers, Fla. An avid outdoorsman, skier, moun- taineer and sailor, Mr. Dawson was also an intrepid traveler and voracious reader, who in his later years applied his consummate planning skills and fi- nancial acumen in volunteer efforts at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tallahassee. He is survived by his wife, Nona L. Dawson, of Tallahassee; children, Robyn D. Flowers of Tallahassee, Stephen K. Dawson (and his wife, Daphne) of Campobello, S.C., and Elizabeth A. Dawson of Menlo Park, Calif.; and three grandchildren, Jona- thon K. Flowers, James M. Flowers and John W. Dawson. He is also sur- vived by his younger brother, DavidM. Dawson of Concord, Calif. Donations in his memory may be made to the Unitarian Universalist Service Com- mittee at www.uusc.org/donate. Carroll Flaten , 76, the wife of re- tired FSO and former Ambassador Robert A. Flaten, died on Dec. 9, 2010, in Northfield, Minn. Born in Aberdeen, S.D., Carroll Jean Johnson also lived in Madison, Wisc., and Ortonville, Minn., before returning to Aberdeen, where she graduated from high school in 1953. She worked her way through St. Olaf College, graduating cum laude, and then joined her Air Force husband Robert Flaten in South Carolina. She completed college course work at the College of Charleston, later earning an M.A. in English from George Mason University during one of the family’s assignments to Washington, D.C. Mrs. Flaten had always dreamed of travel to beautiful and exciting places, family members recall. When her husband joined the Foreign Service in 1961, she took up the challenges of life as a diplomatic wife with enthusiasm, raising four children while serving in Strasbourg, Peshawar, Tel Aviv, Kigali and Washington, D.C. In Kigali, she was director of the li- brary at the American International School. She was twice evacuated from war zones with young children, leav- ing their father behind to do his job. During assignments toWashington, D.C., Mrs. Flaten partnered with her husband in remodeling their early 1900s home in Arlington, Va. She learned to refinish antiques and re- upholster furniture, and she became a master gardener. She was also co-de- signer and builder of a cabin on Mas- sanutten Moutain in Virginia over- looking the Shenandoah River, which remained her favorite place in the world. Later, when the couple settled in Northfield, Mrs. Flaten was a member of the board of the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company, twice president of the American Association of Univer- sity Women, a member of the League of Women Voters, the Garden Club and St. John’s Lutheran Church. She participated in the AAFSWBook Fair every year. Mrs. Flaten’s love of travel contin- ued after retirement. She traveled to Europe with her son Arne, visited Russia and Italy with St. Olaf groups, and made several trips to India, South- east Asia and Africa during lecture cruises with her husband. She jour- neyed by car across the southern United States and across Canada from Vancouver to Nova Scotia. As family and friends recall, Mrs. Flaten found beauty in the simple, the imperfect, the flawed, the earthy and the handmade. Baskets from all over the world, inexpensive and trans- portable, are prominently displayed in her home along with other beautiful artifacts. Her creative interest was ex- pressed in her hooked rugs, always de- signed by her and hooked with found colors and recycled wool. Carroll Flaten is survived by her husband of 54 years, Robert, of North- field, Minn.; children Kristin Flaten of St. Paul, Minn., Karen Flaten (and husband, Denny Jarosch) of South Haven, Minn., Sonia Mathew (and husband, Paul) of Brookline, Mass., and Arne (and his wife, Rebecca) of Conway, S.C.; four grandchildren, Erika, Natasha and Lara Flaten, and Anjoli Mathew. Memorials may be sent to Sing for Joy at St. Olaf, the Community Action