- Kay Nidiffer Osborne died peacefully August 19, 2019, at her home.Born in Columbia, SC in 1943, she was the daughter of Wayne Woodrow Nidiffer and Lillie Edens Herndon. Mrs. Osborne was a graduate of the University of SC, Columbia University, and Winthrop University, with post-graduate certifications from Georgetown University, and South Carolina's Executive Institute. In Columbia, SC, Mrs. Osborne was Publisher and Vice President of Sandlapper Press and served as Coordinator of the Indo-Chinese Refugee Agency for the SC Department of Social Services. With an extensive career in public service, Mrs. Osborne distinguished herself as a senior manager in domestic and international private organizations, public agencies, and academic institutions. She served in Washington, DC and Southeast Asia as a senior executive in the U.S. refugee program at the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of State and its agencies. She developed policy and position papers for the White House and executive branch agencies, managed the provision of education and language training services, international movement to and resettlement in the United States of 196,000 Indochinese refugees and over 80,000 Soviet Jewish refugees annually, and the airlifts of 30,000 Ethiopian Jewish refugees from the Sudan to Israel.External to government service, Mrs. Osborne served as Chief Administrative Officer and Treasurer for Appropriate Technology International, a nonprofit office of USAID in Washington, DC and in Nairobi, Kenya and as Chief Administrative Officer and Deputy Director of the National Foreign Language Center at the Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC.On return from Washington, DC, Mrs. Osborne was Division Director of SC DSS, later retiring as Special Assistant to the Deputy Director. Mrs. Osborne was the founding director of the South Carolina CPM Society and taught management, marketing and organizational development in the colleges and universities where she lived, providing consult for nonprofit boards of directors and trustees in board and governance matters.Her honors and awards include the Sustained Superior Performance Award from the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award from the Government of the Philippines. In 2007, Mrs. Osborne received the Henning Award from the American Academy of Certified Public Managers.Mrs. Osborne served on a number of boards as a member of the World Peace and Justice Commission and the Committee of Inquiry for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington DC, as consult to the Palmetto AIDS Life Support Services (PALSS), and trustee for the Baptist Health System of SC, and Shandon Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Osborne was predeceased by her husband, Dr. William Osborne of Savannah, Georgia, her mother, Lillie Edens Herndon, and her brother, Wayne Woodrow Nidiffer. She is survived by her son, James Clark Seabrook Langley, Jr. and his wife, Rebecca of Charlotte, NC, and two grandchildren, Geoffrey Wayne Edens Langley and Katherine Elizabeth Langley.The family will welcome friends as they celebrate Mrs. Osborne's life on Friday, September 6 at 11:00 a.m. at Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration, Saluda, NC.In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials to the Endowment Fund, Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration, P.O. Box 275, Saluda, NC 28773.
To
to the family, please