He Was Special, His Daughter Remembers

WASHINGTON (AP) — He was special, Albert Votaw's daughter remembers all these decades later.

Cathy Votaw is 70 now, more than a dozen years older than her father lived to be. She describes a man with a larger-than-life personality and a love of fun — as if you couldn't tell that from the photos, which show an outrageous handlebar mustache and a penchant for bowties sewn by his wife.

Each year on April 18, the anniversary of the 1983 bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut that took the lives of her father and 62 others, a persistent sense of loss awakens in Cathy. Some years, she writes an email to her family, telling them about Albert, a public-housing expert for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

He was, she writes, dedicated to public service — and to USAID. And she is so sorry, she tells Albert Votaw's grandchildren and great-grandchildren, that his death at the hands of an anti-American attacker driving a truck packed with explosives means they never got to meet him.

Yet Albert Votaw's influence echoes down across the generations. As the agency that worked to promote American security through international development and humanitarian work disappears at the hands of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, two things are abundantly clear:

Service to USAID shattered the Votaw family. And service to USAID reshaped it as well.

A death that echoed and inspired

In a way, the requiem of the now-dismantled agency can be told through its people — including some entire families, like the Votaws. Albert's work for USAID, and his death while on the job, steered the work of two generations of his family after him.

It led his daughter, Cathy, to dedicate part of her life to working on behalf of the families of Americans killed by extremist attacks.

It led his granddaughter, Anna, to work as a contractor for USAID, with a willingness to take on dangerous assignments — a proclivity that she ties directly to his death.

"When my father talked about his work, he talked about ... how he was proud of the fact that he was an American, coming over here to help people," Cathy Votaw says.

Her father's time at USAID began in the first years after the aid and development agency's 1960s founding by Congress and President John F. Kennedy, who believed the United States needed more than troops and diplomats to protect its interests and advance global stability.

Cathy and her sisters as children followed him on his initial postings in a career that took him to countries including Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Thailand and, finally, Lebanon.

One thing Albert and his wife, Estera, a Jewish survivor of the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, loved best in his first post for USAID, in Ivory Coast, was driving deep into the countryside to where Albert and USAID were working to expand rural housing. He had a big white station wagon that Ivorians came to recognize. They nicknamed it the Bateau - the Boat.

A treasured family photo captures one of those moments. Albert and Ivorian elders are deep in animated discussion, surrounded by community members craning to hear every word. Estera watches, smiling.

Ivory Coast's leaders gave Albert one of their country's highest medals for his work. When he was killed decades later, Ivorian officials traveled across the Atlantic for his memorial.

Back then, "you feel like you were recognized as a country for trying to do the right thing and trying to help, and in fact, contributing lives and resources to help people overseas," Cathy says. "I think that's a wonderful thing to have seen. I don't know that I'll ever see it again."

After the 1983 bombing, President Ronald Reagan eulogized Albert and the 16 other Americans killed. The Reagan administration had directed USAID workers to Lebanon just before the attack, hoping their work to restore a more normal life for civilians there could help lead the country out of civil war.

Days after the bombing, Reagan spoke in a hangar at Andrews Air Force Base over newly returned bodies.

"The best way for us to show our love and respect for our fellow countrymen who died in Beirut this week is to carry on with their task," Reagan said. "And that's exactly what we're doing."

Over the years, the names of 98 USAID and other foreign assistance colleagues were placed on a memorial wall inside USAID headquarters in Washington, D.C.

One of those names was Albert Votaw.

A legacy that transcended generations

After her father died, Cathy Votaw switched from private legal practice to working as a federal prosecutor. It paid tribute, she felt, to his government service. She also became an advocate for better treatment for federal workers and other American victims