Obituaries

Elisa M. KieswetterState Department Employee

Elisa M. Kieswetter, 70, a former State Department employee, died of pancreatic cancer Feb. 23 at her home in Arlington.

Mrs. Kieswetter worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Population Research and the Europe and Newly Independent States Bureau from 1989 to 1996. For the next three years, she was at State's National Foreign Affairs Institute as an assistant to the executive director of the registrar.

From 1999 to 2004, she worked as office manager and medical assistant in the obstetrics and gynecology practice run by one of her daughters, Dr. Caren Kieswetter of Arlington.

She thrived in the richness of diversity of the area, her daughters said, and volunteered to register Hispanic voters, studied geography and cultures, and had a passion for the latest trend, from food to hairstyles. She loved art, dance and music, ranging from Panamanian danzas de los Mestizos to the arias of Verdi and Mozart.

"She believed that when life gives you limes, make margaritas," said another daughter, Patricia Kieswetter of Randallstown.

Born in San Jose, Costa Rica, she immigrated with her family to Panama in 1944. She studied piano and music at the Conservatorio Nacional de Panama and graduated from the Universidad Nacional de Panama.

She married in 1957 and moved to the United States a decade later. Mrs. Kieswetter began working for the Organization of American States General Secretariat in 1969, retiring in 1989 as legal assistant for the administrative tribunal. She received her general equivalency degree in 1979 from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington.

Her marriage to Robert C. Kieswetter ended in divorce.

Survivors, in addition to her daughters, include her father, Fernando Bonilla of Arlington; four sisters; and a grandson.

Charles A. BohrerCIA Physician

Charles A. Bohrer, 86, a retired physician with the CIA, died Feb. 21 of pneumonia at Inova Alexandria Hospital. He was a 47-year resident of Alexandria.

Dr. Bohrer was born in West Plains, Mo., and graduated from the University of Missouri in 1942. He received a medical degree from George Washington University in 1946.

After his internship and military duty as a captain in the Air Force, he entered private general practice in Arlington. Five years later, he joined the CIA medical office.