Jon Goodwin Edensword

1935 - 2024

Jon Goodwin Edensword was born in 1935 in Mount Vernon, Washington and died at home in Washington, DC on September 23, 2024, surrounded by his family, his greatest treasure. He had a wonderful life and commented on this regularly. An important part of Jon's life involved his public service. Early schooling in Seattle and scholarship to a small college in Illinois was followed by graduate degrees in education at the University of Chicago and public affairs at Harvard University. A Presidential Management Internship led to employment as a foreign service officer with the Department of State. Subsequent assignments took him to Martinique, Liberia, Haiti (twice), Jordan, France, and Mexico, as well as Washington, DC assignments in Personnel and the Office of the Inspector General.

Following his retirement, Jon supervised consular functions in Togo, Benin, Congo Kinshasa, Liberia and Tanzania where he reestablished consular services after the 1998 bombing of the American Embassy in Dar es Salaam. His was a career filled with challenges to civil order and rule of law often involving the safety of American citizens. He faced these times with equanimity, humor, and always a spirit of collaboration. His successes in Haiti won him the Department's coveted Consular Award in 1985.

After the bombing in Tanzania Jon retired again and devoted himself to tennis, his dog friends, his wife Rachel, his two daughters Karen Pritzker and Diana Conway, their spouses Dan and Bill, and a growing family of eight grandchildren and two great granddaughters.

A celebration of Jon's life will be held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on October 8 at his favorite place in the world, the Historic Congressional Cemetery where he and Rachel were early members of the Canine Corps. He will be buried there to be surrounded always by dogs at play and the natural beauty of this historic site.