John Tuohey Obituary

Died May 22, 2008 after a brief battle with cancer. Born November 6, 1932 in West Roxbury, Massachusetts to John Sr. and Ann (Rogers) Tuohey, Jack graduated from Boston College High School in 1950 and then Boston College in 1957 after serving in the US Army stationed in Alaska. In 1959 he married Virginia Ann Williams at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York and together had four sons: John Matthew (1960) of Linden, North Carolina; Kevin Michael (1961) of Natick, Massachusetts; Robert Paul (1964) of Sturbridge, Massachusetts and Patrick Eugene (1971) of Kansas City, Missouri. Jack served both the US Information Agency and the US Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer raising his family in Frankfurt (1960-1963), Vienna (1963-1964), Moscow (1965-1967), Bombay (1967-1970), Berlin (1973-1977), Tel Aviv (1977-1979) and Washington, DC before, between and following assignments overseas. While abroad, Jack served as press or cultural attache for US ambassadors and participated on the State Department's Iran Task Force during the hostage crisis in 1979. In his free time, Jack enjoyed hiking and camping with his boys and served as their Scoutmaster in Tel Aviv and Berlin. Of the scouts in Israel, Jack said, "I had six different nationalities in my troop, but we were still the Boy Scouts of America." From his career and life overseas, Jack loved to share stories about religious riots in Bombay, intrigue in Berlin and, of course, his beloved Bolshoi Ballet. Among his most memorable experiences were the negotiations surrounding the Camp David Accords-an experience he would later say, "it left me on the brink of exhaustion at most times." Jack arrived in Tel Aviv one month before Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. "The US had volunteered to play the middle man in the peace process, and it was one heck of a job. It was very satisfying however, because we achieved something." In 1977, Virginia was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and in 1979 the Tuoheys returned to Washington, DC. In 1985, Jack was given what would be his last assignment-to serve as the State Department advisor to the Commanders of Special Operations at Ft. Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In addition, Jack taught psychological operations at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. Jack retired as a Counselor of the Senior Foreign Service in 1989 and remained in Fayetteville to care for Virginia full-time as her health declined. After her death in 1996, Jack volunteered his time as an arbitrator for the Cumberland County courts, the speakers bureau at Fayetteville Technical Community College and as a liaison to the Cumberland County Sheriff's office for his neighborhood association. Jack's letters to the local newspaper editor were so frequent that in order to get published, he often wrote under a pseudonym or submitted them under the names of consenting neighbors. He is survived by his four sons, their wives (Pam, Shauna, Kristen and Michelle) and his twelve grandchildren (Shannon, Sarah, Ashley, Caroline, Jay, Savannah, Evan, Rebecca, Ryan, Caroline Rose, Maureen and Madeline). Despite the family diaspora, which at times has spread as far as Turkey and Australia, all Jack's boys were present with him in his final hours. It is fitting of a Foreign Service family that when called upon, no distance is too great. Family and friends will miss Jack's gift for a quick limerick, his partisan taste in Irish whiskey, and a brogue that surprisingly never saw the shores of the Emerald Isle. In addition to his wife Virginia, Jack was preceded in death by his brother Paul Francis Tuohey. Jack will be buried in the Tuohey family gravesite in St. Joseph Cemetery, West Roxbury, MA. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any contributions be made to The Multiple Sclerosis Society.