Franklin E. Huffman

Franklin E. Huffman, 91, a retired senior Foreign Service Officer, died on August 11, 2025 in Chevy Chase, Maryland, of complications from pancreatic cancer.  Mr. Huffman was born in Harrisonburg, Virginia in 1934.  He attended Mt. Sidney High School in Augusta county, and graduated in 1951 from Montevideo High School in Penn Laird, VA, where he was president of the first senior class of the consolidated school.  He received the B.A. degree in Modern Languages from Bridgewater College in Virginia in 1955.  From 1956-1958 he served as a French interpreter for International Voluntary Services in Laos.  He did graduate study at Cornell University, the University of Washington, the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, and Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, and received the Ph.D. degree in linguistics, anthropology and Southeast Asian studies from Cornell University in 1967.  From 1967-72, Dr. Huffman was Assistant Professor of Southeast Asian languages and linguistics at Yale University, responsible for instruction in the Thai and Cambodian languages.  From 1972-85 he was Associate Professor and then Professor of Linguistics and Southeast Asian Studies at Cornell University, teaching Cambodian, Thai, and Southeast Asian linguistics.  

In 1985, Huffman joined the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), and served as Assistant Information Officer in London (1986-87), Assistant Public Affairs Officer in Rangoon, Burma (1987-89), Director of the American Cultural Center in Marrakech, Morocco (1989-90), Director of Programs in the U.S. Information Service in Paris (1990-93), Policy Officer in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at USIA in Washington (1993-94), Public Affairs Officer in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (1995-97), and Public Affairs Officer in Wellington, New Zealand, before mandatory retirement from the diplomatic service at age 65 in 1999.  Following retirement, Huffman served brief tours for the Department of State in both Chad (1999-2000) and Cambodia (2002).   

During his academic career Professor Huffman authored nine books and numerous articles on Southeast Asian languages and linguistics, including the first comprehensive English-Khmer dictionary.  He is widely considered an authority on Cambodian language and linguistics and donated his entire Cambodian language collection to the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh in 2004.  In retirement he published two books of more general interest; the first was Monks and Motorcycles: From Laos to London by the Seat of My Pants, 1956-58 (iUniverse, 2004), which describes his experiences as a French interpreter and volunteer in Laos from 1956 to 1958, and his subsequent trip by motorcycle, bus, train, and thumb from Laos through 25 countries in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe to London.  The second, Your Diplomats at Work: A Comedy in Seven Acts (Memoirs and Occasional Papers Series of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, 2010) is an account of his sometimes comical, sometimes frustrating, but always enlightening adventures as a diplomat in seven countries from 1985 to 2000.  Dr. Huffman was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award from his alma mater, Bridgewater College, in 2007. 

Huffman’s post-retirement volunteer activities included teaching English to Hispanic immigrants and driving elderly people to medical and other appointments for local community organizations. 

Throughout his life, Huffman had a strong interest in, and talent for, music.  He enjoyed playing the piano, and played trumpet for his high school and college marching bands.  In college he performed as soloist in operettas and oratorios, and in 1960 toured the Soviet Union with the Cornell Men’s Glee Club.  After retirement he sang with the Washington Men’s Barbershop Chorus.  He also enjoyed bridge, and played tennis until the age of 90. 

He also had a passion for road travel.  In addition to his road trip from Laos to London by land in 1958, he drove his family from New Haven to Guatemala City in 1970, drove with his brother Bill in a pick-up truck from Washington to Costa Rica in 2004, and always preferred driving vacations in Europe and elsewhere.  Over the course of his academic and Foreign Service careers, he worked and traveled in more than 120 countries. 

Mr. Huffman is survived by his wife of 51 years, Sanda (Iliescu) Huffman, whom he met at Cornell in 1972 while she was studying for her doctorate in Romance linguistics, and who accompanied and supported him throughout their life together while pursuing her career as a conference interpreter.  His first marriage to Marcia Russell ended in divorce.  He is survived by brothers Robert Huffman of Harrisonburg, Virginia, Donald Huffman of Lakeland, Florida, William Huffman of Hillsboro, West Virginia; his half-brother Glenn Huffman predeceased him in 2021.  He is also survived by children Russell Huffman of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, David Huffman of San Francisco, California, Christopher Huffman of Brooklyn, New York, and Samantha Huffman, of Washington, DC, and grandchildren Maxwell, Spencer, Riley and Mila.