John Austin Armitage, born Aug. 4, 1919, in Greeneville, Tenn., to Madeline Noel and Leighton Armitage, died Thursday, Jan. 4, 2007, at the University of Virginia Medical Center, after a brief illness.
He graduated with distinction from the University of Tennessee with a B.A. degree in 1940, from Northwestern University with a M.B.A. in 1941, and from Columbia University with a master's degree in Soviet Studies.
He served his country with honor, distinction and dedication for 35 years, including the United States Navy from 1941 to 1943; and the Department of State from 1943 to 1978.
After numerous American Embassy assignments in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Iran, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Eastern Europe from 1973 to 1977. He was a 1962 graduate of the United States War College, received the Meritorious Service Award from the Department of State and traveled to Moscow with the Kitchen Cabinet. His final year of United States government service was as Ambassador in Residence to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where he remained on as faculty in Soviet Studies and Foreign Relations until 1986.
He died Jan. 4, the 57th anniversary of his marriage to Patricia Weiss, the late daughter of Lewis Allen Weiss and Susan Stephenson.
He is survived by his two sons, Lewis Leighton Armitage of Seattle, Wash., and John Marshall Armitage of Fredericksburg, and their loving families. He has four grandchildren, Madeline, Catherine, Austin and Elliott; and his daughters-in-law, Lee Ann and Nicole. He has two loving nieces, Patricia Jacob of Richmond and Noel Schwartz of Memphis and is survived as well by his sister, Helen Allen.
A memorial service will be held March 24, at St. Paul's Memorial Church in Charlottesville.
Contributions in memory of John A. Armitage may be made to a scholarship fund for Men's Soccer at James Madison University, MSC 2603, Harrisonburg, Va. 22807, in honor of his first grandson, Justin Marshall Armitage.
Hill & Wood Funeral Home, Charlottesville, is handling the arrangements.