ROBERT B. OAKLEY

OAKLEY ROBERT BIGGER OAKLEY Ambassador (Ret.) Robert B. Oakley died Wednesday, December 10, 2014 at the Arleigh Burke Pavilion of the Vinson Hall Retirement Home. He was 83 years old. The cause of death was complications of a Parkinson-type syndrome. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Phyllis Elliott Oakley, their daughter Mary Oakley Kress and son-in-law Joseph Kress, their son, Thomas Elliott Oakley, and five grandchildren-Ens. Robert Kress, USN, Andrew Kress, and Peter Kress, Graham Oakley, and Josephine Oakley. Bob Oakley was born in Dallas, Texas, on March 12, 1931. He was a graduate of South Kent School, South Kent, Connecticut, and Princeton University, Class of 1952. He joined the US Navy after graduation and served in naval intelligence in Japan for three years. After a year's graduate work At Tulane University he entered the Foreign Service in the summer of 1957 where he met his wife, also a Foreign Service Officer. They were married in Cairo, Egypt, in June 1958. Their first post was Khartoum, Sudan, followed by three years in Washington DC, then on to Abidjan, the Ivory Coast, Saigon, Vietnam, Paris, France, USUN in New York, Paris and Beirut. In 1974 he returned to Washington to work on the National Security Council Staff. He was named Ambassador to Zaire in 1979, followed by Somalia, and then he served as the Special Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism in the State Department in 1984-85. After Iran-Contra he returned to the NSC staff. He was named Ambassador to Pakistan in 1988. He retired from the State Department in 1991 but was called back to lead the US humanitarian intervention in Somalia in 1993. Ambassador Oakley then went on to work as a Distinguished Research Fellow in the Institute for National Strategic Studies Research Directorate at National Defense University until 2010. A Memorial Service will be held at St. Alban's Episcopal Church, 3001 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Washington at 11 a.m. Saturday, December 20, 2014, followed by a reception at the church. Gifts in Robert Oakley's honor may be made to the International Rescue Committee, Development Office, 122 East 42nd Street, New York, NY, 10168-1289 or to ANERA (American Near East Aid), 1111 14th Street, NW #400, Washington, DC 20005. Gifts in Robert Oakley's honor may be made to the International Rescue Committee, Development Office, 122 East 42nd Street, New York, NY, 10168-1289 or to ANERA (American Near East Aid), 1111 14th Street, NW #400, Washington, DC 20005.