Robert F. Gould, lawyer
Published: January 4, 2013 (Washington Post)
Robert F. Gould, 70, a State Department lawyer who served two wartime tours in Vietnam working on internal security laws and anti-corruption measures, died Dec. 15 at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville. He had cancer.
A friend, Bruce Kinsey, confirmed the death.
Robert Franklin Gould was a Cleveland native and a graduate of what is now Case Western Reserve University and its law school.
He joined the State Department after completing law school in 1966 and trained in the language and politics of Vietnam before arriving in the country in 1968. He worked with William E. Colby, the future CIA director who was given ambassadorial rank to oversee a massive pacification effort in South Vietnam that included security and development measures.
Mr. Gould left the State Department in 1973.
He later was legal adviser to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and assistant health commissioner in New Jersey. He settled in the Washington area by the early 1980s and held a series of jobs, including sales work, before retiring a few years ago.
He was a Gaithersburg resident.
Survivors include a brother and a sister.
ROBERT F. GOULD
Robert Franklin Gould, a retired foreign service officer who in the late 1960s helped reform South Vietnam's internal security laws, died December 15, 2012 after a lengthy battle with cancer.
After law school Mr. Gould joined the Foreign Service, knowing he would be sent to Vietnam. He was a member of CORDS I, the first class to graduate from the Vietnam Training Center in Arlington. For over a year Bob learned Vietnam's language, politics, culture, and details of the rural pacification program. He arrived in Vietnam in April of 1968.
Ambassador William Colby, himself a lawyer, was running U.S. pacification and asked Mr. Gould to review South Vietnam's laws for dealing with suspected communist insurgents. Colby told him: "You are the best qualified Vietnamese-speaking American lawyer in the country. In fact, you're the only one." Bob reported that existing laws and procedures were contradictory, poorly drafted and unevenly applied. Many existed only in French. Working in South Vietnam's Interior Ministry, Mr. Gould, under Colby's supervision, suggested revisions which resulted in a major liberalization of security laws and procedures. Reforms affected interrogation, standards of evidence, legal proceedings, sentencing, and prison conditions. Ambassador Colby then dispatched Mr. Gould to inspect the government's implementation of the new system. Bob found the South Vietnamese had made surprisingly good progress.
After his South Vietnam tour, Bob was assigned to Venezuela, but was soon called back to Saigon to serve as the Embassy Legal Advisor. He left the Foreign Service in 1973 and later served as a legal advisor to the states of Ohio and New Jersey. He retired to Gaithersburg. Mr. Gould is survived by his sister, Judy Gould, of Plantation, Florida; and his brother, Dr. Philip Gould, of Davie, Florida. An informal gathering of Bob's friends is set for January 26 at the Vantage Point, Holiday Inn, Rosslyn VA at 5:30 p.m.
Published in The Washington Post on Dec. 30, 2012
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Class Administrator
from Ian H Gordon (5/1/14)
Sorry to hear of Bob Gould's passing. He always had a smile and a positive attitude. It took me 25 years after high school to catch up to his quality of life.
FYI: Spencer Shaefer died in an automobile accident at the age of 50. He was T-boned by another car. That would make his death in 1991 - for the "In Memory" page.
Class Administrator
from J Richard Goldstein (5/3/14)
Bob was my closest friend throuhout high school and for many years after. I even invited him to work with me at the NJ State Department of Health when I was Commissioner. He did a great job but left for personal reasons - in 1985- and we drifted apart. I went on with my life and we lost contact. He did not attend any of the reunions. So it came as a complete surprise that he passed in December, and reinforces how fragile our own lives are, that none of us are safe. But the closer it comes to home when someone close to us dies, the harder it is. I have missed Bob's sense of humor, his love of irony, his quick wit. He was a beautiful human being and i mourn his passing.