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AATDA Advisory Board Member Edna Boorady Passes; She
“Turned Off The Lights” at U.S. Embassy with Hoxha Regime
AATDA morns the
passing of its distinguished board member, Edna A. "Betty" Boorady, 87,
of Dunkirk, NY, who died Wednesday morning (Nov. 5, 2008).
She was born on
March 13, 1921 in Dunkirk, the daughter of the late Albert and Tamam
(Mosey) Boorady.
Miss Boorady left for Washington, DC, in 1941. She was the first woman
to direct an overseas mission in the history of the U.S. foreign aid
program, and later served as the director of the Agency for
International Development's Office of Personnel and Management.
She began her federal career in the Office of Price Administration and
in 1944, became assistant and principal aide to the chief of mission to
the UN Rehabilitation and Relief Administration's mission in Albania.
The US Government broke relations with Albania shortly after Enver
Hoxha assumed leadership. Edna, being a US citizen but working for the
UN, was literally given the keys to our US Embassy to use the facility
if her and the other Americans needed it or to close it. Shortly after
the US embassy staff departed, the UN also evacuated leaving Edna the
last US citizen to “turn off the lights” at the US Embassy in Tirana.
An alumna of St. Mary's Academy in Dunkirk, she attended Fordham
University from 1947 to 1951, graduating magna cum laude. She proceeded
to Cornell Law School in Ithaca where she received her law degree in
1954, specializing in international affairs. She was elected to the
board of directors of the Cornell Law Quarterly.
Miss Boorady then joined the International Cooperation Administration as
an attorney-advisor and in 1958 became the regional attorney for the Far
East. She was a leading force in the creation of USAID and spent seven
years in Thailand as its regional legal advisor.
In July 1974, she returned to Washington to be director of the Office of
Special Assistance for Labor Relations. And in October 1977, she was
sworn in as director of USAID's mission in Guyana.
Miss Boorady was promoted in 1972 to the rank of Foreign Service Reserve
Officer, Class 1, the highest career rank in the USAID system. She was
one of the six recipients of the 15th Annual Federal Woman's Award in
1974 for outstanding achievement by women in federal service. Prior to
that, she had been nominated for the Federal Bar Association's
prestigious Justice Tom C. Clark Award and the USAID Woman of the Year
Award. She is listed in "Who's Who of American Women."
Miss Boorady had served overseas for a total of 20 years. She retired
from the federal government in 1986 and returned to Dunkirk to live.
Together with her brother, Norman, she helped in the startup of the
Boorady Reading Center.
She was a member of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish and its Ladies Guild,
League of Women Voters, Federal Bar Association and New York State Bar
Association.
Survivors include three brothers, Edward F. (Ethel) Boorady, Richard J.
(Nohade) Boorady and Robert T. Boorady, all of Dunkirk; and several
nieces and nephews. Besides her parents, she was preceded in death by
two brothers, Norman Boorady and Frederick Boorady; and one sister,
Rebecca Boorady.
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