HEADLINE: Otto G.J. Schaler, Foreign Service Officer, Dies at 79

The following is a corrected version of the obituary of Otto G.J. Schaler, which appeared in The Post Jan. 31, but incorrectly reported his first name and middle initials.

Otto G.J. Schaler, 79, a Foreign Service officer who retired in 1987 from the Agency for International Development as chief of the population and health training branch, died of a neuro-degenerative disease Jan. 30 at the Avalon House nursing home in Falls Church.

Mr. Schaler joined the Foreign Service in 1960 after working in public relations, first with his own international trade public relations firm and later for Kaiser Industries Corp.

His early State Department assignments took him to Lagos, Nigeria, and Ankara, Turkey, as a cultural affairs officer.

He spent the remainder of his career with AID, supervising international training activities for citizens of developing countries.

An Alexandria resident, Mr. Schaler was born in Gotha, Germany. His family, concerned with the rise of National Socialism, sent him to live with an aunt in Albany, N.Y., when he was 15.

He attended law school at George Washington University and graduated from officer candidate school at the University of Virginia in 1946.

A first lieutenant in the Army, Mr. Schaler served as chief of information for the legal section at the headquarters of the Supreme Commander Allied Powers in Tokyo in 1946 and 1947, and he later directed public information on the war crimes trials in Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan,and in Manila.

By 1948, he had established the public relations firm of Schaler, Butler & Associates. He also served as an advance man for Adlai Stevenson's presidential campaign in 1956, taught and directed a program in overseas business representation at American University and served as deputy director of the Business Council for International Understanding.

He was a founder and past director of the World Population Society, past president of the Washington International Student House and a member of the Diplomatic and Consular Officers Retired, the National Press Club and Mount Vernon Unitarian Church.

Survivors include his wife, Elizabeth Schiltz Schaler of Alexandria; three children, Jeffrey A. Schaler of Erdenheim, Pa., J. Gregory Schaler of Silver Spring and Joel E. Schaler of Grand Junction, Colo.; a sister; and four grandchildren.

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