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| This undated photo provided by Tom Smedinghoff, shows Anne Smedinghoff. Anne Smedinghoff, 25, was killed Saturday, April 6, 2013 in southern Afghanistan , the first American diplomat to die on the job since last year's attack on the U.S. diplomatic installation in Benghazi, Libya. |
CHICAGO (AP)
-- Anne Smedinghoff had a quiet ambition and displayed a love of global
affairs from an early age, joining the U.S. Foreign Service straight out
of college and volunteering for missions in perilous locations
worldwide.
So when the 25-year-old suburban
Chicago woman was killed Saturday in southern Afghanistan - the first
American diplomat to die on the job since last year's attack in
Benghazi, Libya - her family took solace in the fact that she died doing
something she loved.
"It was a great
adventure for her ... She loved it," her father, Tom Smedinghoff, told
The Associated Press on Sunday. "She was tailor-made for this job."
Anne
Smedinghoff grew up in River Forest, Ill. - an upscale suburb about 10
miles west of Chicago - the daughter of an attorney and the second of
four children. She attended the highly selective Fenwick High School,
followed by Johns Hopkins University, where she majored in international
studies and became a key organizer of the university's annual Foreign
Affairs Symposium in 2008. The event draws high-profile speakers from
around the world.
Those who knew Smedinghoff described her as a positive, hard-working and dependable young woman.
While
a student in Baltimore, she worked part time for Sam Hopkins, an
attorney near campus. He described her as ambitious "but in a
wonderfully quiet, modest way."
Her first
assignment for the foreign service was in Caracas, Venezuela, and she
volunteered for the Afghanistan assignment after that. Her father said
family members would tease her about signing up for a less dangerous
location, maybe London or Paris.
"She said,
`What would I do in London or Paris? It would be so boring,'" her father
recalled. In her free time, she would travel as much as possible, her
father said.
Smedinghoff was an up-and-coming
employee of the State Department who garnered praise from the highest
ranks. She was to finish her Afghanistan assignment as a press officer
in July. Already fluent in Spanish, she was gearing up to learn Arabic,
first for a year in the U.S. and then in Cairo, before a two-year
assignment in Algeria.
Secretary of State John
Kerry said Sunday at a news conference in Turkey that Smedinghoff was"vivacious,
smart" and "capable." Smedinghoff had assisted Kerry during a
visit to Afghanistan two weeks ago.
He also
described Smedinghoff as "a selfless, idealistic woman who woke up
yesterday morning and set out to bring textbooks to school children, to
bring them knowledge."
Her father said they
knew the assignments were dangerous, though she spent most of her time
at the U.S.
Embassy compound. Trips outside were in heavily armored
convoys - as was Saturday's trip that killed five Americans, including
Smedinghoff. The U.S. Department of Defense did not release the names of
the others
who died: three soldiers and one employee.
"It's
like a nightmare, you think will go away and it's not," he said. "We
keep saying to ourselves, we're just so proud of her, we take
consolation in the fact that she was doing what she loved."
Friends remembered her Sunday for her charity work too.
Smedinghoff
participated in a 2009 cross-country bike ride for The 4K for Cancer -
part of the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults - according to the group.
She served on the group's board of directors after the ride from
Baltimore to San Francisco.
"She was an
incredible young woman. She was always optimistic," said Ryan Hanley, a
founder of the
group.
"She always had a smile on her face and incredible
devotion to serving others."
Johns Hopkins
officials mourned her death in a letter on Sunday to students, faculty
and alumni. Smedinghoff graduated in 2009. In the letter, University
President Ronald J. Daniels praised her work on the symposium, her
involvement in her sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, and her involvement
outside campus too.
"Her selfless action for others was nothing new," he wrote.
Funeral arrangements for Smedinghoff are pending.
