ERIK RONHOVDE

Erik Sedman Ronhovde (Age 82)  
Died at his home in Washington, DC on Wednesday, July 10, 2019. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer. He is survived by two sisters, Andrea Ronhovde and Nora Hohenlohe, a brother-in-law, Christian Hohenlohe, a sister-in-law, Julie Ronhovde, three nephews, Philip, Conrad and Paul Hohenlohe, two nieces, Kristin Ostien and Brooke Fernandez, eleven great nephews and nieces and many friends in Washington and abroad.  Born in New York, NY, he was the son of Andreas G. Ronhovde and Virginia Sedman Ronhovde. He attended elementary school in Stockholm, Sweden and graduated from St. Albans School in Washington, DC. In 1959 he received an A.B degree, cum laude, in Slavic Studies from Harvard College. At that time, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and studied International Relations at Queen's College, Oxford. He joined the United States Air Force in 1962 and was assigned as a 1st Lieutenant to teach geography, international relations and defense policy at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. In 1966 he was appointed a Career Officer in the U.S. State Department's Foreign Service, serving tours abroad in Berlin, Vienna, Moscow and Budapest. The Foreign Service Institute certified him to be fluent in Russian, German, Swedish, Hungarian, French and Italian, with a working, speaking and reading knowledge of Norwegian, Dutch and Polish. Following his resignation from the the Foreign Service in 1981, he worked for nine years as a foreign exchange program manager for the USDA's Graduate School's International Institute. He retired in 2008. A memorial service is being planned for September.