He died on Nov 17 and the cause was complications from congestive heart failure, according to media reports, quoting his son Washingtonian magazine editor Michael Schaffer. He visited Bangladesh in 2013 when he met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who briefed the former US envoy about the progress Bangladesh made so far. He became a leading South Asia specialist who had a chequered 36-year career in the US Foreign Service and who formed a then-rare “diplomatic couple” with his wife, a fellow ambassador. Howard and his wife, fellow diplomat Teresita C Schaffer, were among the first couples to maintain dual careers in the Foreign Service, where nepotism rules sometimes prevented them from working at the same embassy. Howard Bruner Schaffer was born in Manhattan on July 21, 1929.

Source: bd News24 November 24, 2017 19:30 UTC