Kenneth Antrim Byrns

Kenneth Antrim Byrns, a retired diplomat and career Foreign Service officer of the US Department of State, died on Saturday, March 12, 2011 at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He was 99 years old. Mr. Byrns was born in Dickinson, North Dakota on February 18, 1912. He spent most of his boyhood in Colorado and New Mexico. He received his B.A. from the University of Northern Colorado in 1935. After three years teaching and a tour of duty as a 2nd Lieutenant, U.S. Army Reserve, commanding a CCC Camp, he spent several years as a student at San Diego State and George Washington University, receiving an M.A. from the latter institution in 1943. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant, Coast Artillery, California National Guard, in 1937. In 1940-41, he was a 1st Lieutenant on duty with the Office of the Chief of Ordnance, Washington, D.C. He resigned on July 1, 1941 to enter the US Foreign Service. In 1951, when the State Department allowed its officers also to have reserve commissions in the Armed Forces, he joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve and retired in 1972 as a Lieutenant-Colonel. Mr. Byrns entered the Foreign Service in July 1941 and served in three posts in Mexico. In 1943 he was temporarily assigned to Buenos Aires and went on from there to Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Then, to Reykjavik, Northwestern University (to study advance economics), Washington, Brussels, and the Canadian National Defence College. In 1956, he was assigned to St. John’s, Newfoundland, as Consul General and then to the Department of State in Washington as Officer in Charge of Canadian Affairs. His last assignment was to Izmir, Turkey as Consul General, 1960-64, where he retired. After his retirement from the Foreign Service, Mr. Byrns was, for two years, General Manager, Overseas Operations, of an American company in Turkey. In 1966, he joined the U.S. Department of Commerce as an International Trade Specialist and was assigned to Des Moines, Iowa. While there, he received a Department of Commerce meritorious service award for his work in export promotion. Later, he was in the charter travel business and from 1976-1981, he was in charge of international trade, tourism and investment for a five-state consortium-Montana, Wyoming North and South Dakota and Nebraska, with offices in Rapid City, Lincoln, Germany and Japan. He was married to Berenice “Necha” Blevins in 1956 and she accompanied him to St. John’s, Washington, Izmir and Des Moines, where she died of cancer in 1972. He retired to Leawood, Kansas (a suburb of Kansas City), living there with his wife, Virginia, until they moved to Powell, Ohio, in 1999. He was active in local organizations, was an avid tennis player even into his nineties, and is a published author of articles and fiction. He was an active member of St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Powell. Preceded in death by his grandsons Aaron Antrim Byrns Kent and David Alexander Schnegg, Mr. Bryns is survived by his wife of 37 years, Virginia “Ginny” Byrns, of Powell; children: Kendra Kiraithe of Framingham, MA, Sadhaka (Mark McPartland) Byrns of Magalia, CA, Lara (Gary Kent) Byrns of Portland, OR, Kenneth Fadil Bryns of Bodrum, Turkey, Maria Michalczyk (Robert) Vandiver of Salem, OR, Faik Byrns of Ankara, Turkey, James Byrns of Salem, IL, and Tom (Marlis) Byrns of Westerville, OH; six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Family will receive friends from 5:00-8:00pm. MONDAY (TODAY) at the RUTHERFORD FUNERAL HOME AT POWELL, 450 West Olentangy St., Powell, OH 43065 (614)-792-1471. (The funeral home is located on W. Olentangy St./Powell Rd./SR 750 ¼ mile east of Sawmill Parkway.) Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated 11:00am. TUESDAY, March 15, 2011 at ST. JOAN OF ARC CATHOLIC CHURCH, 10700 Liberty Road, Powell, Ohio 43065 with The Reverend Raymond Larussa, Celebrant. Burial will be held privately for the family at Resurrection Cemetery, Lewis Center, Ohio. In lieu of flowers, friends are asked to consider memorial contributions to: The Westerville Education Challenge, PO Box 1863, Westerville, OH 43082. Send condolences for the family to: www.rutherfordfuneralhomes.com.