Miriam Clippinger Huff Obituary

RICHMOND, INDIANA - Miriam Clippinger Huff of Wooster, Ohio, passed away September 3, 2015, in Richmond, Indiana, at Friends Fellowship Community. She was born May 25, 1924, the daughter of the late G. Howard and Pearl Clippinger of Rittman, Ohio. She attended Rittman schools and graduated in 1942 from Rittman High School.

She attended Ohio State University, receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1945 with honors and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She was the first woman to receive the Ohio State Derby Scholarship for graduate study at Harvard University, where she received her Master of Arts degree in 1947 and her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Political Science and International Law in 1949.

She then served for two years as executive foreign affairs editor on the National Headquarters Board of the American Association of University Women in Washington, D.C. Upon receiving her U.S. Army commission in G-4 Intelligence, she was appointed Attaché of Embassy to the U.S. Mission in Saigon, Indochina, from 1954 to 1956, where she served as liaison officer between Chief-of-Staff General O'Daniel and the French High Commissioner to Indochina.

Returning to Washington and the diplomatic service, she married her first husband, Ralph A. Brown, in 1961. The couple was assigned to West Berlin, German, where Mr. Brown was appointed political adviser for German Affairs to General Lucius D. Clay, special representative of President John F. Kennedy, in August 1961, when the Wall between East and West Berlin was built.

Their service in West Berlin continued for 27 years, until the death of Mr. Brown in 1988.