Jay Kenneth Katzen (August 23, 1936 – April 9, 2020) was an American diplomat, business consultant, state legislator, and government agency administrator, and former President of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. He graduated from Princeton University (1958) and Yale University (1959) and served United States presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower through George H. W. Bush. His positions included White House translator and U.S. representative to the United Nations. From 1977 to 1979 he served chargé d'affairs ad interim to Congo (Brazzaville). He became active in Virginia politics when elected in 1993 to represent the 31st legislative district of the Virginia House of Delegates. In 2001, he was the Republican Party's nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. He received his B.A. (magna cum laude) in Political Science from Princeton University in 1958 and his M.A. in International Relations from Yale University the following year. He attended the National War College in 1977, was a visiting professor at the Boston College Graduate School of Management 1978-79, and was a member of advisory boards at the Duke University Primate Center in 1986 and the University of Kentucky’s Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce in 1989. Jay and his wife of 56 years, Paddy, were driving forces in the construction of the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, D.C. He was chairman of the Board of the Combat Wounded Veteran Challenge. The Katzens moved to Alaska in 2009, where he continued his service as a National Park Ranger. U.S. Government From 1959 to 1979, Jay Katzen served as a career Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State. His posts included Australia, Burundi, Congo (Kinshasa), communist Romania, Mali, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York, and Congo (Brazzaville). He also was assigned to Washington D.C. – at the State Department and the White House. His responsibilities included consular affairs, promoting American business, political and economic reporting, labor affairs, multilateral negotiation and management. He served as Chargé d'Affaires at two posts, in one instance, opening and maintaining an embassy. Katzen was trained at the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service Institute to speak five languages: French, Romanian, Swahili, Lingala and Kirundi. In 1990, Katzen was appointed by President Reagan and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Vice Chairman of the Board of the African Development Foundation, and served in that capacity for two years. From February 2004 to January 2009, Katzen