Norman Lee Achilles, retired Foreign Service Officer and long-time resident of Georgetown, died at the age of 79 on January 27, 2015. He had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on May 12, 1935. His parents were Christy and Ida Ann Achilles. He was pre-deceased by his brother, Gordon Achilles.
He attended Carnegie Mellon University and received a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1957. He received a Master of Arts from the University of Edinburgh in 1961 and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University in 1962. He attended the Foundation Nationale des Sciences Politiques in Paris, France in 1965 and 1966. Later in his career he returned to Harvard and completed a Master of Public Administration in 1978. He served on active duty in the U.S. Army in 1958-1959.
Mr. Achilles joined the U.S. State Department in 1963 and served in Vientiane, Laos, and in Hue and Saigon, Viet Nam as a political officer. He later served in Japan and Australia as a economics officer, and in France and Washington, DC. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1994. Following his retirement he spent a year as a scholar in residence at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and for many years was a visiting fellow at the Foundation Nationale des Sciences Politiques in Paris. He maintained an apartment on the Isle de France in Paris for many years.
During his Foreign Service career he participated in the State Department’s Federal-Private program by serving in a private sector assignment at IBM's American Far East Corporation in New York. An article in the Washington Post in 1985 described his contribution. Because he had been in the economics division of the U.S. Embassy in Japan for seven years and had worked with IBM executives previously, the company selected him to participate. He advised senior managers on issues involving Japan and helped them to better understand how the State Department operates to help U.S. companies compete in important foreign markets..
Norman served as a docent at Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown and loved introducing visitors to the house and gardens. He was a member of the American Foreign Service Association and was a generous supporter of the Senior Living Foundation of the American Foreign Service, that assists retired foreign service personnel.
He will be greatly missed by his friends. A celebration of Norman’s life will take place at Joseph Gawler’s Sons, 5130 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016, Saturday, February 7, 2015 from 4:30 to 6:30 P.M. Contributions in his memory can be made to the Senior Living Foundation, 1716 N Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036 or to the Sarah Heinz House, 1 Heinz Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15212.
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