Obituaries

Melbourne L. Spector State Department Officer

Melbourne L. Spector, 91, a personnel management specialist who retired from the State Department and briefly served as executive director of the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, died Sept. 22 at the Sunrise assisted living residence in Washington. He had cardiovascular disease.

Early in his career, Mr. Spector handled personnel matters for Marshall Plan programs that brought economic development to Europe after World War II.

He was director of personnel administration for the U.S. Agency for International Development before being selected in 1962 as executive director of the State Department's Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, which staffs and operates U.S. embassies and consulates throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Starting in 1964, he spent three years in Europe and Asia as a Foreign Service officer. He subsequently was executive director of U.S.-Mexico Commission for Border Development and Friendship from 1967 to 1969 and of the bicentennial commission from 1969 to 1971.

He retired from State two years later from the planning and coordination staff, within the Office of the Secretary. He then did consulting work on organizational development for the Peace Corps and other organizations and agencies, and he conducted and gave a series of oral history interviews about the Marshall Plan that are now part of a Library of Congress collection.

Melbourne Louis Spector was born in Pueblo, Colo., to Jewish immigrants from Europe. He was raised in Walsenburg, Colo., and Albuquerque. He was a 1940 graduate of the University of New Mexico and was an Army Air Forces veteran of World War II.

He was a Bethesda resident before moving to the assisted living facility in 2005. His memberships included the Cosmos Club, where he was helped start a book discussion group, and the Washington Performing Arts Society.

His wife, Louise Vincent Spector, whom he married in 1948, died in 2004.

Survivors include a son, Stephen Spector of Chevy Chase, and two grandsons.

-- Adam Bernstein