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Am shocked and very sad to learn that a wonderful friend and source on all things Iran and Washington Don Weadon has died today, apparently after a series of strokes at 4am Easter morning. A more lovely guy one wouldn't meet. Don had served in Iran before and after the shah fell and as a lawyer in Reagan's Pentagon. He'd studied at Cornell, been an intelligence officer in the Navy, lived in France, Iran and traveled widely in Asia, and was an expert on trade and export control law. Kind, generous, and genuinely charming, Don was friends with everybody, he had a real gift for friendship. We sometimes would go out to lunch in Georgetown where he and his wife were completing a renovation of their brownstone, which was finally almost done, and he's introduced me to numerous other people who have become sources and some, friends. He and his wife Suzie were devastated to have had to put their beloved lab Sir Blackamoor to sleep last week. He wrote me at the time, "Just returned from Friendship Animal Hospital where we had to put down my bestest friend, Sir Blackamoor. He had been failing for several weeks, but things accelerated over the weekend. Suzie, as you can imagine, is crushed. If she could, she would have donated most or all her organs to keep the little soldier alive. He was really trying, but after discussing matters with the doctors, he had a mysterious infection which had spread to his brain and was doing a number on his vitals. As I was once told, when the time is at hand, you’ll know. I knew, but could not admit it. But after we spent some time discussing it amid tears and frustration, we both knew. The procedure was fast and painless, and we held him in our arms as he expired. Now to pick up the pieces. But I thought you should know. He was the best of the best, and everyone’s friend. I learned a lot from him." Much the same could be said of Don too. A few weeks earlier, when my own pet had died under similar circumstances, he wrote me a note with his sympathies, about how painful it was to watch his dog decline, and realize his own mortality too. Last week, I guess just a day before Sir Blackamoor died, he wrote the nicest note, totally typical of him, prompted by I think a posting on borscht and Spitzer as the subject of the great American novel, but perhaps too by a sense that he himself wouldn't be here long. "Thanks. Now I know why I turn to your blog every day and why I miss it while you are on travel. You seem to ferret out every important piece of reading which I have missed or should have seen, and present the heart of it for me to evaluate ... As far as I am concerned, you are performing a remarkable public service. ... Just thought I should let you know ... And I am eternally appreciative." I am shocked Don died so quickly after absorbing the loss of Blackamoor, I am so sorry he had such a wrenching last month, and my great sympathies to his wife, Suzanne Cameron, who's lost her two best friends in the space of a week, their family and his many many friends all around the world on the loss of this most generous spirited man.
Update: Another reader and correspondent writes, "I read about Don Weadon and realized that he and I were at Cornell at the same time. He, JP Maher (who disappeared on a plane flight over Nicaragua four years ago [.pdf, p. 14]) introduced us and we were all friends and though I had lost contact I remember him fondly. He was intelligent, curious and had a 'rolypoly' sense of humor as befitted his stature. He was surely too young to go and the sad news conjured up many memories of happy student days. Please pass on my condolences. --Sheldon Haseltine, Class of '71"
"Don, I now vividly recall, liked his wine!" Haseltine further writes. "I was at the Hotel School and was in Les Amis d'escoffier and he, Jimmy [Maher] and I would often make sure all was as it should be (unofficially of course)."
Maher, in turn, I'm informed by Haseltine (whose own father succeeded "an old friend" Allen Dulles as station chief in Bern and got out of the business before being sent to Vietnam), was in the "paper business ... albeit in strange places, Cali, Columbia; Barrios Guatemala, Panama. ... He was en route from Honduras to Costa Rica when his plane disappeared. Nothing was ever found. Coincidentally he shares the same name as Chavez denounced a couple of years ago as being head of the CIA unit dealing with Venezuela, Cuba and other Latin American bad boys!" Just the kind of circles about which Don knew something and to which I delighted in his introductions.
More affectionate remembrances of Don at the Export Law blog and in the comments.
Memorial service
Date: April 5, 2008
Time: 11AM
Location: St. John's Episcopal Church Georgetown Parrish.
3240 O St NW
Washington, DC 20007
Condolences can be sent
3338 N ST NW, Washington DC 20007,
or here.
"In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Chincoteague Volunteer
Fire Company, Inc** or the American Diabetes Association**."
