David E. Zweifel

Zweifel
David E. Zweifel
David E. Zweifel, 87, a retired Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, passed away on January 1, 2022, from complications of cancer, with his family by his side.

He was born in Denver, Colo., on September 13, 1934, to Henry Sebastian Zweifel and Frieda Theresa Zweifel (née Pieper). He grew up on the Plains, where through the reading of an old family atlas, he began to dream of seeing the world.

After graduating from Oregon State University, he joined the U.S. Navy to fulfill his Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) obligations aboard the USS Gearing. There, he served three years at sea and two years on the faculty of Princeton University where he taught naval warfare.

With his obligations fulfilled, he at last took the Foreign Service exam and joined the State Department with the class of 1962. He served postings in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Beirut, Lebanon; Amman, Jordan; Mexico City, Mexico; Muscat, Oman; Sana'a, North Yemen; and various postings in Washington, DC.

In 1995 he retired from the Foreign Service after 33 years. He continued to work as a Portuguese language interpreter for the State Department's Office of Language Services, and also completed several projects with the Office of Inspector General, covering inspections and Iraq and Afghanistan issues in the early 2000s.

He is survived by his wife, Denise; son, Mark E. Zweifel; daughter, Daphne L. Zweifel; and two beloved granddaughters, Julia Lauren Berger and Elsa Denise Barakos-Zweifel.