Anne Chesney's Obituary
On March 15, 2013, Anne Dickinson Chesney died peacefully at her home in Annapolis, MD, after a recurrence of cancer. Her husband, Peter Chesney, died in 2004.
Anne was born in Washington, D.C. on October 2, 1926, to Dr. Dwight and Mrs. Elizabeth Young Dickinson. She and her brother John traveled extensively with their parents as children, including living for two years in Honolulu and attending the Punahou School while their father, a Navy surgeon, was stationed at Pearl Harbor. Anne graduated from the Dobbs Ferry School for Girls and Smith College, and started her career as an Intelligence Officer with the Central Intelligence Agency in 1949. Over a 25 year career with the CIA, Anne became a specialist in Soviet Union affairs and served extensively overseas, including postings in Munich, Hong Kong, Tehran, New Delhi, Rangoon, and Stockholm. In 1974, Anne retired from the CIA and, in 1977, she married her childhood sweetheart, Peter Chesney. All their lives, Anne and Peter enjoyed summers in Deer Isle, Maine, where they played together as children. They were devoted to family and friends, sailing, travel, and a succession of Lhasa Apsos and Dachshunds.
Anne was many things: a keen intellect, warm and caring, irreverent, opinionated and confident, courageous during her career and in the face of series of health trials in later years, equal parts modest and flamboyant, fiercely independent until the end, and very funny. We will miss her always.
Anne is survived by stepchildren Peter, Tom, and Steve Chesney, and Liz McDonald, Peter's wife Bonnie Chesney, grandchildren Pete and Alyssa Chesney, Rowan Hodgdon-Chesney, and Tommy and Robert McDonald, nephews Dwight and Nathaniel Dickinson and their wives Lisanne Crowley and Erin Dickinson, grand-nieces Grace and Genevieve Dickinson, and a wide circle of dear friends and extended family.
We will have a gathering of family and friends in Anne’s memory in Deer Isle, ME, this summer. If you would like to make a charitable donation in Anne's memory, may we suggest Hospice of the Chesapeake (www.hospicechesapeake.org; 445 Defense Highway, Annapolis, MD 21401) or the Island Heritage Trust (http://www.islandheritagetrust.org; P.O. Box 42, Deer Isle, ME 04627).
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