John Alfred Warnock III

b. 9/29/1934

d. 5/28/2014

John A. Warnock, III, a retired diplomat died on May 28, 2914. He was predeceased by his beloved wife, Annette Gail Hersch Warnock in 2009. He is survived by his loving daughters Julia Warnock Utano (Rich) of Springfield, Virginia, and Wendy Olivia Holmvik (Tom) of Chevy Chase, Maryland, and his loving grandchildren: Alex and Nicole Utano and Erik, Katrina and Claire Holmvik. He is also survived by his sister, Sheila T. Warnock of New York City. Burial will be private at Rock Creek Cemetery.

Mr. Warnock was born on September 29, 1934 in Bayonne, NJ to the late John A. Warnock, Jr., and Julia Repas Warnock. In 1948 the family relocated to Frankfurt Germany where he attended the American high school. In 1956 he graduated from the Edinburgh University in Scotland with the prize in Economics.

Following two years of service in the Counterintelligence in Washington, DC, Mr. Warnock entered the Foreign Service in which he served for over 34 years with assignments to Salzburg, Vienna, Munich, Hong Kong, Monrovia, Copenhagen, Paris, Tokyo, Bonn, and London, as well as in the Department of State. He spoke German, French and Danish. A specialist in labor affairs, Mr. Warnock was selected in 1971 to be Executive Secretary of the present statutory Board. Later in his career, he served as Special Assistant to Secretaries Haig and Shultz. He won the State Department’s prize for labor reporting for his reporting on the collapse of the East German regime and the subsequent reunification of Germany. He retired as a Minister-Counselor of the Senior Foreign Service in 1994.

In his retirement Mr. Warnock became involved in civic affairs, first as a member of the Montgomery County’s Advisory Committee on Hate Violence; and later as an officer and then president of the Greater Bethesda Chevy Chase Coalition, a citizen’s organization dedicated to preserving the County’s trails and green spaces. He also followed up on his life-long interest in archeology and traveling.

Mr. Warnock was an amateur artist, gardener and raconteur, with a wealth of incidents from his own experiences to draw on. These ranged from being held for six hours on the East German border in a US Army train by the Soviets when the Korean War erupted on through to doing emergency interpreting for the French members of an international trade union team visiting President Reagan in the White House.

Arrangements under the direction of Joseph Gawler's Sons LLC, Washington, DC.

JOHN ALFRED WARNOCK, III

9/29/1934 ~ 5/28/2014

John A. Warnock passed away on May 28, 2014 from complications related to Lewy Body Dementia. Mr. Warnock was a foreign service officer for 34 years, retiring in 1994 with assignments to Saltsburg, Vienna, Munich, Hong Kong, Monrovia, Copenhagen, Paris, Tokyo, Bonn and London, as well as in the Department of State. He spoke German, French and Danish. He was a specialist in labor affairs. He was an avid reader, archaeologist and artist. He loved gardening at his home in Chevy Chase, MD. After retiring he continued to travel with his beloved wife, Annette, who predeceased him in 2009.

He is survived by his children, Julie (Rich) Utano and Wendy (Tom) Holmvik and five grandchildren, Alex and Nicole Utano and Erik, Katrina and Claire Holmvik.

He will have a private burial on June 21, 2014. In lieu of flowers, please contributions on his behalf to the

Alzheimer's Association

.