Richard Henry Smyth, a retired Foreign Service Officer who served as a professor at the Army War College from 2006 to 2010, passed away at his home in Carlisle on Monday, May 27 after a long struggle with cancer. His wife and best friend of 34 years, Janice Sullivan Smyth, was with him when he slipped quietly away.

Mr. Smyth, son of the late Ronald Henry Smyth and Alyce Miriam Smyth of Bend, OR, was born in Oakland, CA, in 1951 and raised in the San Francisco Bay area. He graduated from the University of Washington and then served in the Peace Corps for two years in Afghanistan before attending graduate school at the University of Alabama, where he met his wife, earning a post-graduate certificate in Regional and Urban Planning and Development.

A Career Foreign Service Officer of the U.S. Department of State since 1979, Mr. Smyth served in Afghanistan, India, Iraq (during 3 years of the Iran/Iraq war), Indonesia, Denmark, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Jamaica. In 1997, between tours in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, he graduated from the National War College in Washington, DC, with a Masters in Strategic Studies and was promoted into the Senior Foreign Service. His last assignment before his retirement in 2011 with the personal grade of Minister-Counselor was on detail to NATO as Director for Strategy and Policy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

In addition to his wife, he leaves behind a daughter, Johanna Caitlin Smyth-Teller and son-in-law Andrew Teller, of Salem, OR; two brothers and a sister; as well as many nieces and nephews and a host of good friends with whom he loved to tell stories. Besides his father, he was preceded in death by a daughter, Theresa Alison Smyth.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to the American Cancer Society or to Horsepower for Life (www.horsepowerforlife.org). A memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 1, 2013, at 2 PM in the Ewing Brothers Funeral Home, 630 S. Hanover St., Carlisle, followed by a reception at the Army Heritage and Education Center. Chaplain (Col) (Ret) David Reese, US Army will officiate. A visitation will be held from 1:30 PM until time of service at the funeral home.