Mary Awad Dyess

Mary Awad Dyess was born on November 18, 1939, in Shanghai, China, to William Michel Awad, a first-generation American who had been in Shanghai since the 1920’s importing and exporting fine linens, and Lillian (“Lily”) Alphonso Awad, a Shanghainese of Portuguese descent. The family, including older brothers William and Philip, lived in the French concession area of Shanghai, where Mary was enrolled in a French school and took piano lessons.

The family survived the Second World War, but had to be evacuated by the U.S. government in 1949, as Chinese communist troops neared the city. Eventually, the family settled in Tenafly, NJ, where they lived when not posted overseas.

In 1950, Mary’s father joined the State Department, working in what would become the U.S. Agency for International Development (“USAID”). Consequently, Mary’s primary and secondary school education spanned three continents—China, the U.S., and, as a 10 and 11-year-old, Mary lived and went to school in Greece.

At the age of 15, Mary earned a Trustees Scholarship and became the youngest freshman in the Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA) Class of 1959. In addition to her studies, Mary learned to play bridge, and was an avid bridge player throughout her adult life. Lily died during Mary’s sophomore year of college.

Mary spent her junior year overseas studying at the University of Paris, the beginning of her love affair with the “City of Lights”. Before returning for her senior year, she traveled with her paternal grandmother, Zakia, to the Middle East, and was again evacuated by the U.S. when in Iraq on July 14, 1958, military officers overthrew the monarchy and declared the Republic of Iraq. Mary graduated from Dickinson College in June, 1959, with a Bachelor’s Degree in French and French Literature. Mary had a love for languages and in later life would achieve fluency in Russian, German and Dutch.

After working for a year in New York City, in January 1961, Mary joined her father and his new wife in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. In the summer of 1962, Mary’s father was transferred to the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Mary also moved. In Kabul she worked with the Columbia University Teachers College to publish a series entitled “Afghans Learn English.” She was also active in the Kabul Amateur Dramatic Society.

At the age of 24, Mary began a four-month journey through India and Southeast Asia. She returned to the U.S. at the end of March, 1964. That year she met William Jennings Dyess, a career foreign service officer. They married in June 1965, and lived the rest of that year in Copenhagen, Denmark. Mary gave birth to a son, Chandler J. Dyess, on February 21, 1966, in Washington, DC. Bill Dyess was next posted to Moscow where the young family resided 1966-1968, and Mary participated in the Moscow Amateur Dramatic Society. Following Moscow, they moved to Berlin for the next two years until 1970.

In 1970, the couple returned to Washington, DC for 12 years. Mary began a 4-year association with the Washington Waldorf School, where she helped develop the French language program and taught French to grammar school students. In September, 1974, she took a different road and began work at the National Association of Stevedores (“NAS”). At the NAS, Mary worked her way up the ladder, eventually becoming Assistant Executive Director.

On July 30, 1981, President Reagan appointed Mary’s husband Ambassador to The Netherlands, and the family moved overseas to The Hague for two years. Mary championed contemporary American artists by showcasing their works in the Embassy through the Arts in Residence program of the State Department. She accompanied Queen Beatrix Wilhelmina Armguard of The Netherlands in April 1982 when she traveled to the U.S. for a four-day celebration and east coast tour marking two centuries of peaceful diplomacy between The Netherlands and the U.S.

Upon returning to the United States, in August 1983, Mary resumed her position at the NAS, where she remained through mid-1991. She developed a public persona as a lobbyist on maritime and free trade issues, and was profiled in the June 16, 1987 edition of The New York Times. During this time, she held leadership positions in various professional organizations and industry groups, both domestic and international, however still found time to indulge her love of the theater as a member of the board of the Mickery Theater, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, from 1989-1991.

In 1985, Mary and Bill Dyess separated, with Mary moving to McLean Gardens in Washington, DC. Dovetailing with her professional career, in 1990, Mary began an unbroken 20-year period of community leadership at McLean Gardens, when she won a seat on the Board of Directors, serving from 1990-2010. She served four years as VP and 12 years as President. She continued to be active in the community following her retirement from the Board.

Mary pursued other interests after the NAS, and then, in 1994, joined the Surveys and Investigation Staff, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives, where she worked from 1994 to 2013. As a team leader, Mary planned, managed, and conducted fact-finding investigations into a broad array of U.S. government programs to determine whether resources were being used effectively and efficiently, and reported as such to the Committee. On September 11, 2001, Mary was working in the Surveys and Investigations Staff office in the Pentagon. Fortunately, she was on the opposite side of the building from which the jetliner crashed. She rose to senior congressional staff; in which role she directed and reviewed the work of other investigative teams.

Mary retired from professional life in 2013. She spent her retirement with her long-time love and partner,

I Harry Sobol, traveling, visiting friends, and catching up on deferred projects. When she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, she worked in earnest to maintain her strength and balance through her practice of tai chi, and actively participated in the Bowen McCauley Dance Company’s “Dance for PD” program. Mary passed away peacefully of cancer on April 1, 2020.