Ambassador John Ives Getz

Moline, Illinois Ambassador John Ives Getz, 86, of Durham, North Carolina, formerly of Moline, died Saturday, December 6, 2003, in Durham. Memorial services are planned for later dates both in Durham and at the Getz summer home near Whitehall, Michigan. Burial will be in the family plot at Oakwood Cemetery, Geneseo. Memorials may be made to the Benevolent Fund at The Forest at Duke, 2701 Pickett Road, Durham, NC 27705. Trimble Funeral Home, Moline, is assisting the family with local arrangements. Ambassador Getz was born March 29, 1917, in Holland, Michigan, the son of Harry W. and Carolyn Ainsworth Getz. He graduated from Moline High School, graduated with honors from the University of Michigan, and attained a Masters Degree from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He married Mary Elizabeth Cozad in 1941, in Rock Island. During WW II, he saw action in the Pacific with a flame-throwing tank battalion. After passing entrance exams, he entered the United States Foreign Service in 1948. His first assignment was to French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) followed by assignments to Washington (three times), Geneva, Rome, Bangkok, Paris, and finally as American Ambassador to Malta. In 1986, he retired to the Village of Fearrington, North Carolina, and subsequently to the Forest at Duke, a life-care community in Durham, North Carolina. He was a tennis player, a sailor, and a gardener. Ambassador Getz is survived by his wife, Elizabeth; two brothers, William A. Getz and Thomas G. Getz, both of Moline; and two sisters, Carol Bartholomew of Del Ray Beach, Florida, and Sara Winwood of Springfield, Ohio, and their families. He was preceded in death by his parents, one brother and four sisters. END OF OBITUARY