Alice V.E. “Van” Brewer

Brewer, Alice V. E. “Van” (Van Ess) of Hingham, formerly of Falmouth, February 26, 2006. Beloved wife of William D., mother of John V.E. of Scotch Plains, N.J., Daniel A. of Hull and Priscilla J. Brewer of Tampa, Fla. Also survived by 5 grandchildren. A memorial service is planned for the spring in Falmouth. Donations in memory of Mrs. Brewer may be made to St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 203, Falmouth, MA 02541 or the Falmouth Service Center P.O. Box 208, Falmouth, MA 02541. “Van” was born in Basra, Iraq in 1919 to her American educational missionary parents. She attended Kodai Kanal School in So. India, the Ecole Internationale in Geneva and graduated from Northfield School in 1937. She earned a B.A. from Mt. Holyoke College in 1941. During WW II she served as a Lt. (jg) in the U.S. Navy Supply Corps stationed in New Orleans and San Francisco. In 1947, she joined the U.S. Foreign Service and was posted at the U.S. Consulate in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. A year later she was transferred to the U. S. Legation in Beirut, Lebanon.There she met William D. Brewer a Foreign Service Officer and they married in Basra in 1949. Mrs. Brewer accompanied her husband on assignments to Saudi Arabia, Syria, Kuwait, Washington , D.C., Afghanistan, Mauritius and the Sudan. In the later two posts her husband served as U.S. Ambassador. Her husband retired from the Foreign Service in 1978 to accept the position of Chevalier Professor of Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College in Los Angeles. After a second retirement in 1986 the Brewers moved to Falmouth, MA and in 2005 to Hingham, MA.