John J. Foarde, III

Beloved husband and father John Joseph Foarde III, 71, passed away in his sleep on Thursday, July 11, 2024. John was born on April 4th 1953, in Evanston IL, the eldest son of John Joseph Foarde Jr. and Evelyn LaVon Craver. He spent part of his early childhood in Alexandria, VA before his father’s FBI career took the family to Mexico City, Mexico.

John graduated high school from the American High School in Mexico City and then attended Creighton University in Omaha, NE, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a Juris Doctor before joining the Foreign Service in 1980. His State Department service included various assignments in Washington D.C. including the Office of the Legal Adviser and the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He served in five overseas postings at the American Embassies in Santiago, Chile; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Beijing, China; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as well as the American Institute in Taipei, Taiwan. After leaving the State Department in 1998, John was the Vice President of the U.S. China Business Council, Inc. and the House Staff Director of the Congressional-Executive Commission on the People’s Republic of China before finishing his career as a independent foreign affairs and trade consultant.

One of John’s greatest and lifelong passions was music. John listened to and was knowledgeable about an eclectic range of genres from Baroque and Classical to Jazz, from Rock and R&B to traditional Celtic music. After singing in the church choir as a boy, he learned to play guitar and played lead, rhythm and bass guitar in amateur bands consistently for the rest of his life. From The Firm in law school to The Back Door Band in Beijing, The ML Band, The Growlers, and most recently Partial Recall here in the DMV he was seldom happier than when he was practicing and performing as part of a group.

John’s other great passion was his friends and family. If you broke bread or shared a beer or glass of wine with him, you were family and had an open invitation to come back for another anytime. He loved nothing more than a table laden with good food and surrounded with laughter and good conversation. Whether it was helping to organize high school reunions, or meeting former colleagues for lunch in the area, he cherished the friendships he made over the course of his travels. For many years he hosted friends and colleagues at various pubs in the DMV on St. Patrick’s Day, marrying his appreciation of a pint with his love of his Irish heritage.

John was a proud brother, father, uncle, and grandfather, and cherished time spent with both his immediate family and the larger Foarde clan. He is survived by his wife of 49 years, Mary Beth Foarde (Sinclair), daughters Katherine Foarde, Colleen Steare, and Maggie Foarde, son-in-law David Steare, and four grandchildren Nadya Steare, James Steare, Andrew Steare, and Anna Steare as well as eight siblings, Mary Foarde, Thomas Foarde, Patrick Foarde, Katie Foarde, Timothy Foarde, Michael Foarde, Betsy Campos, and Daniel Foarde.

Funeral and memorial services will be scheduled at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to The Dui Hua Foundation (duihua.org) https://duihua.org/, a nonprofit humanitarian organization that John was a long time supporter of, or The American Cancer Society. https://www.cancer.org/