The Foreign Service Journal, December 2004

he served in Frankfurt, Bucharest, Moscow, Saigon, Honolulu and Perth, Western Australia. He was consul in Perth from 1963 to 1967, and then was assigned to the depart- ment until 1972, when he retired. While in Perth, Mr. McGovern married Trenna Leske, an Australian nurse. On retirement they and their son C.J. returned to her birthplace, Adelaide, to live. He served as the U.S. consular agent in Adelaide for 12 years until his retirement from those duties in the late 1980s. For many in South Australia, Bill Mc- Govern was the U.S. government, helping widows with their Social Security, taking passport applications and guiding U.S. ambassadors, Mel- bourne consuls general and other U.S. official visitors through their vis- its to South Australia. Son C.J. died tragically in 1992 at 23 from the consequences of Goodpasture’s Syndrome. After that time, Mr. McGovern put aside much of his active civic life, and he and Trenna traveled widely. He was a Knight Commander of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and an active member of the South Australia Kidney Foundation. He is survived by his wife, Trenna, of Burnside, South, Australia. James K. Penfield , 96, retired FSO and former ambassador, died in the hospital in Seattle, Wash., on Sept. 11. Ambassador Penfield was born in New York City in 1908. He studied history at Stanford University, grad- uating in 1929. He entered the Foreign Service that year, and was posted to Mexico. Following train- ing in Mandarin at the Foreign Service Language School he spent almost a decade in China, posted successively to Canton, Mukden, Peiping, Yananfu and Chung King. In 1941, Amb. Penfield was sent to establish the first consulate in Gothab, Greenland. He was next posted to Guam as political adviser to Admiral Nimitz. In 1948 he was posted to Prague, and two years later to London. In 1954 he was assigned to Vienna. Following a tour in Athens in 1956, Amb. Penfield returned to Washington to take up the post of deputy assistant secretary of State for African Affairs. He attained the rank of career minister in 1958. After serving as ambas- sador to Iceland from 1961 to 1966, he returned to Washington. In 1970 he retired to Longbranch, Wash. Amb. Penfield’s experiences under six presidents from Hoover to Nixon in the many countries to which he was posted were character- ized by variety, glamour and danger. He was fluent in French and Mandarin Chinese. His walk through Manchuria to Tibet pro- duced many stories. A high point of his career was the negotiation and signing of the treaty returning Austria to its citizens after its post- war management by Russia, France, Britain and the U.S. The timing of his postings to Prague and London enabled him to witness extraordi- nary events such as Czechoslovakia’s turn to communism and the corona- tion of Queen Elizabeth II. An active retiree, Amb. Penfield served the local communities around Longbranch as energetically as he had served his government. He was head of the Park Recreation Board and of the Fire Department. His active role in land-use zoning and the establishment of a local medical clinic are among his many activities that are still appreciated by commu- nity members. Amb. Penfield is survived by one daughter, Kedzie Penfield of Scot- land, from his first marriage to the late Anne Boardman; his second wife, Georgia; and two granddaughters. John Holly Scanlon , 79, retired FSO, died on Sept. 27 at Medlink Hospital in Washington, D.C. Mr. Scanlon was born on July 20, 1925, in Kansas City, Mo., to the late Henry Patrick and Margaret (nee Casey) Scanlon. He was a United States Navy vet- eran, and joined the Foreign Service in 1954. During a 28-year career he was posted with USIA in Phnom Penh, Naples, Palermo, Trieste, Mogadishu, Algiers, Oran, Saigon, Rome and Washington, D.C. Mr. Scanlon is predeceased by one brother, Bob Scanlon. He is survived by four children, Holly Klassen, John Scanlon, Sarah Murdock and Matthew Scanlon; two brothers, Timothy and Joseph Scanlon; 13 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. 70 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 4 I N M E M O R Y Send your “In Memory” submission to: Foreign Service Journal Attn: Susan Maitra 2101 E Street NW, Washington DC 20037, or e-mail it to FSJedit@afsa.org, or fax it to (202) 338-8244. No photos, please.