Amb. James Lilley, 1928-2009

So much will be said about Ambassador Lilley in the next few days, at places of far greater consequence than this site, that I need only add a few personal observations.

In Washington, Lilley was treated with greater respect than I’ve ever seen afforded to any other person in Asia policy circles. At public events where rooms were filled with well known and respected people, the whole room would rise to recognize Ambassador Lilley when he walked in. My wife, who is sometimes my one-woman focus group of Korean public opinion, remembered him immediately.

By a series of coincidences, it seems that I met Ambassador Lilley on the street or the Metro every year since I moved to this town. Once, he helped me find my way to a Metro stop. Another time — and at the time, he was walking with a cane — I helped him with his suitcase from the Metro stop to Union Station, where he was catching a train to Chicago. Not in the artificial sort of way so characteristic of professional diplomats, Lilley was a perfect gentleman in a much more sincere, direct, and tough-minded way.

I’ve never heard anyone breathe a bad word about him, and I can scarcely imagine a life better lived.