Robert Shackleton Sr.

Robert George Shackleton passed away on February 28, 2025 in Falls Church, VA at the age of 99. Born August 28,1925 to Henry and Flora (Schmitt) Shackleton, he was raised on the West Side of Cleveland, Ohio, an origin in which he always took great pride.

Benefitting from one of the nation’s premier public education systems, he graduated from West High School in 1943, was accepted into the United State Military Academy at West Point in 1943 and graduated in 1946. He served with distinction in the Korean Military Advisory Group (KMAG), training a regiment of South Korean cavalry before the outbreak of the Korean War. Resigning from the Army in 1949, he earned a M.A. in History at Western Reserve University in 1952 and moved to Washington DC to join the U.S. Foreign Service.

In December 1954, he married Gilberte Louise Ranvier, a recent emigree from Casablanca, Morocco and the first French teacher at the State Department’s Foreign Service Language Institute. From 1954 to 1977, he served at posts in Switzerland, New Caledonia, Fiji, the former Yugoslavia, West Germany, the former South Vietnam, and Martinique, in the process raising a son, Robert Jr. After retiring from the Foreign Service in 1977, he served as U.S. Foreign Liaison Officer in Wiesbaden, West Germany, representing the U.S. military forces to the German state governments of the Rhein Pfalz, Hessen, and the Saarland.

Retiring with 46 years of government service and returning to the Washington area in 1991, he audited dozens of graduate courses at George Mason University while he and his wife continued to enjoy travel throughout the world.

He is survived by his son Robert Jr. and daughter-in-law Isabelle Capri. For those who knew him, his devotion to family and his love of learning remain indelible memories and a constant inspiration.