David H. Popper, 95; Ambassador to Chile During Pinochet Era

Boyatt called Mr. Popper a "consummate professional" who "made policy suggestions consistent with what he felt were in the best interests of the United States."

David Henry Popper, a lawyer's son, was born Oct. 3, 1912, in Manhattan, N.Y., and raised in White Plains, N.Y.

He was a 1932 summa cum laude graduate of Harvard University, where he also received a master's degree in government in 1934.

After several years on the Foreign Policy Association's research staff, he worked in Army intelligence during World War II. He was based in Miami and tracked the movements of Axis powers in Latin America.

He joined the State Department in 1945 and emerged more publicly in the early 1960s as an assistant to Adlai Stevenson, who at the time was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Mr. Popper also had a supporting role in disarmament negotiations with the Soviet Union.

He was elevated to the rank of ambassador in 1969 and spent four years in Cyprus, the Mediterranean island nation torn politically between the majority Greek population and the minority Turkish Cypriots. His successor as ambassador, Roger Davies, was fatally shot in his embassy office by unknown assailants.

Mr. Popper, known for patience and detail, ended his diplomatic career as special representative for Panama Canal Treaty Affairs.

After retiring in 1980, he served as a president of the American Academy of Diplomacy, an organization of senior U.S. diplomats.

The Washington resident also ghostwrote Kurt Waldheim's memoirs, "In the Eye of the Storm." The book appeared in January 1986 but was quickly shelved by its Bethesda publisher after the former U.N. secretary general was confronted with allegations of involvement in Nazi war crimes. The book overlooked those aspects of Waldheim's war record.

Mr. Popper, who was Jewish, was shocked by the revelations and said Waldheim had been cordial to him, family members said.

His wife of 56 years, Florence Maisel Popper, died in 1992. His companion of 14 years, Olie Rauh, wife of the late Washington lawyer Joseph Rauh Jr., died in February.

Survivors include four children, Carol Galaty of Washington, Lewis Popper of Kansas City, Mo., Katherine Kraft of Columbia, S.C., and Virginia Popper of Cambridge, Mass.; two sisters; 11 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.