Benedetto DeFelice, a native of Providence, R.I., was the youngest of four children born to Italian immigrants, was a Fairfax, VA resident.

Ben was a 1949 graduate of Georgetown University's foreign service school and a 1954 graduate of Georgetown's law school, where he was fourth in his class. He began working for the CIA in 1953, retiring in 1987 as director of information services.

DeFelice spent two decades handling one of the Central Intelligence Agency's most delicate assignments -- consoling relatives of CIA employees who were missing, captured or killed in the line of duty

Ben served 20 years as chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Prisoners, of CIA employees to ensure "covert" CIA personnel who died in action were not forgotten,"

DeFelice's decorations included the Career Intelligence Medal and two awards of the Distinguished Intelligence Medal. In September 1997, when the CIA celebrated its 50th anniversary, DeFelice was named a trailblazer, one of 50 officers who made defining contributions to the agency.
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BEN DEFELICE DIES,COMFORTED AIDED CIA RELATIVES
 

Washington Post
By Adam Bernstein
Staff Writer
Friday, April 9, 2004; Page B06

Ben DeFelice, 79, who spent two decades handling one of the Central Intelligence Agency's most delicate assignments -- consoling relatives of CIA employees who were missing, captured or killed in the line of duty -- died of cancer April 5 at Virginia Hospital Center-Arlington. He was a Fairfax resident.

As chief of the casualty affairs branch and then deputy director of personnel, Mr. DeFelice helped create a system to look after the financial interests of employees who were detained or missing while on assignment for the CIA.

He also was the agency's liaison with those agents' families and used frequent phone calls and personal visits to smooth over relations with relatives who viewed the CIA with distrust.

Working with the Red Cross and the State Department, he helped get food packages to captive CIA employees and arrange for family visits.

He served 20 years as chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Prisoners, composed largely of CIA employees with operational experience. "But its real purpose, as devised by DeFelice, was to set up an ongoing forum that would ensure that the men were not forgotten," Ted Gup wrote in his book "The Book of Honor: Covert Lives and Classified Deaths at the CIA."

CIA Director George J. Tenet said in a statement that Mr. DeFelice "set the highest standards in care and compassion. Over a long career, Ben pioneered major benefit programs -- including retirement and medical insurance -- that reflect a profound concern for the men and women who serve their country in intelligence."

Mr. DeFelice persuaded the agency to provide retirement, health and life insurance benefits to U.S. citizens working on contract for the agency. He also got the authority to invest the salaries of missing and captured employees instead of keeping the money in standard accounts that would accrue far less interest. In figuring salary adjustments, he also calculated career promotions that the employees might have received had they remained operational.

Mr. DeFelice played a role in several well-publicized espionage cases. He handled the personal affairs of Francis Gary Powers when the Russians shot down his U-2 surveillance plane in 1960 and held him for two years. Powers was released in exchange for jailed Soviet operative Rudolf Abel.

Mr. DeFelice also was involved in the case of Hugh Redmond, a CIA officer who was arrested in China in 1951 for supporting anti-communists. Redmond died in jail in 1970, and Chinese authorities claimed he had killed himself with a razor.

Mr. DeFelice saw a better outcome in the matter of Richard G. Fecteau and John T. Downey, two CIA employees whom the Chinese government shot down over Manchuria in 1952 during the Korean War. For two years, their fate was unknown, and the CIA declared them dead.

Then in 1954, the Chinese tried them for espionage and gave Fecteau a 20-year sentence and Downey a life term. In a prelude to President Richard M. Nixon's historic 1972 visit to China, Fecteau was released in 1971. Downey was freed in 1973.

Fecteau, now 76 and a retired assistant athletic director at Boston University, said Mr. DeFelice "was a very warm and friendly guy, down to earth. He never acted like a bureaucrat."

Fecteau, of Lynn, Mass., said Mr. DeFelice took care to comfort his mother. "His assurances kept up her faith and courage," he said. "He would walk in, like my mother said, like a next-door neighbor. He never acted officious to her."

Downey, 73, a retired Superior Court judge in New Haven, Conn., said Mr. DeFelice also had a special rapport with his mother, who at first did not think the CIA was doing enough to secure her son's release.

"When Ben was first assigned to the case, he thought she was the biggest pain in the neck, and she was relentless in trying to keep our name before government officials," Downey said. "He grew to love her, and she was fond of him and had a very warm and loving relationship as the years rolled by."

Benedetto DeFelice, a native of Providence, R.I., was the youngest of four children born to Italian immigrants. During his Army service in World War II, he played trumpet in a band that performed at military functions in southern Italy.

He was a 1949 graduate of Georgetown University's foreign service school and a 1954 graduate of Georgetown's law school, where he was fourth in his class. He began working for the CIA in 1953, became chief of the casualty affairs branch in the mid-1950s and was deputy director of personnel from 1973 to 1983.

He retired in 1987 as director of information services. He processed freedom of information requests and balanced them against the CIA's security needs. He also met with historians to review the agency's process of declassifying documents for the public.

His decorations included the Career Intelligence Medal and two awards of the Distinguished Intelligence Medal. In September 1997, when the CIA celebrated its 50th anniversary, Mr. DeFelice was named a trailblazer, one of 50 officers who made defining contributions to the agency.

At the time of the ceremony, The Washington Post highlighted Mr. DeFelice's career. As described in the story, he often attended funeral services and handed a family member a letter of condolence from the CIA's director. He would read the letter in the presence of a CIA officer and then spirit it back to the office because of security concerns. Medals were also handled that way, because, he said, "we didn't want to impose an unnecessary burden on the widow."

Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Alma Gregory DeFelice of Fairfax; three children, Peter G. DeFelice of Washington, Mary A. DeFelice of Fairfax and Paul A. DeFelice of Lake Ridge; two brothers; and three grandchildren.

A son, Philip B. DeFelice, died in infancy in 1964.

Ben DeFelice Dies; Comforted, Aided CIA Relatives (washingtonpost.com)
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