Washington-area obituaries of note
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Version 0 of 1. Obituaries of residents from the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia. David I. Couvillion, 80, a special trial judge on the U.S. Tax Court from 1985 until he retired in 2008, died Oct. 17 at a hospice center in Baton Rouge, La. The cause was cancer, said a great-nephew, Craig Cremillion. Mr. Couvillion was born in Simmesport, La. He first came to Washington in 1966 as administrative assistant to Rep. Speedy O. Long (D-La.). He relocated to Baton Rouge in 1973 to practice tax law. In retirement, he moved from Alexandria, Va., to Baton Rouge. His avocations included woodworking. Paul Nelson, 94, a Department of Agriculture economist who retired in 1987, died Oct. 26 at a retirement facility in Alexandria. The cause was Parkinson’s disease, said a son, Philip Nelson. Dr. Nelson, a longtime resident of Arlington, Va., was born in St. Louis. He came to Washington in 1959 after 10 years teaching economics at Denison University in Ohio. He served as a professor and economics department chairman at the Department of Agriculture’s Graduate School. Christopher May, 85, a CIA operations officer who later practiced law as a specialist in child abuse and child neglect in D.C. Superior Court, died Oct. 17 at a retirement community in Silver Spring, Md. The cause was congestive heart failure, said a son, Stephen May. Mr. May, a native of Rochester, N.Y., worked for the CIA from 1951 to 1977 including stints in Germany and Austria. After earning a law degree, he served as vice president of a mortgage reporting service, and from 1991 to 2005, he practiced child abuse and neglect law. In the early 1970s, as founding chairman of the McLean Gardens Residents Association in Washington, he helped successfully block a proposed conversion of the moderately priced rental community into a high-rise development. He lived at the Silver Spring retirement community for the past four years. Marjorie Musolino, 88, a Northern Virginia homemaker who was a recreational road runner and the mother of 10 daughters, died Oct. 23 at her home in Aldie, Va. The cause was congestive heart failure, said a daughter, Angela Scanlan. Mrs. Musolino was born Marjorie Hintz in Madison, Wis., and moved to Washington in 1943. In 1963, seeking more living space for a growing family, she moved from Annandale, Va., to a farmhouse in Loudoun County, where she remained until her death. She was a member of the D.C. Road Runners. E. Carol Schafer, 94, a nurse who with her husband, Paul Schafer, brought color television to the surgical and medical educational programs at the old Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District, died Oct. 22 at an assisted living facility in Chevy Chase, Md. The cause was complications of arteriosclerosis and a stroke, said a friend, Eloise Keary. Elizabeth Carol Schmidt, a longtime resident of Bethesda, Md., was born in Highland Park, Mich., and grew up in Portland, Ore. She served in an Army Air Forces medical unit during World War II and came to Washington after her marriage in 1954 to Dr. Schafer. In the late 1950s, she was production coordinator of educational television at Walter Reed, helping to produce 2,500 hours of live programming in medicine and feature-length documentaries. Lindsay Makepeace, 89, a Washington artist and printmaker whose work was displayed in solo exhibitions at area galleries, died Oct. 7 at an assisted living facility in Washington. The cause was Alzheimer’s disease, said a son, Tim Makepeace. Mrs. Makepeace was born Lindsay Harper in Evanston, Ill. She moved to the Washington area in 1971, studied printmaking at what is now the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. Early in her career, she was an artist with the CIA. She later worked in watercolors and painted mostly landscapes. Robert M. Smucker, 86, a lobbyist for nonprofit and charitable organizations and foundations, died Oct. 28 at his home in Falls Church, Va. The cause was Alzheimer’s disease, said his daughter, Beth Smucker. Mr. Smucker was born in Orrville, Ohio, and was a lobbyist in Pennsylvania for state and local mental-health associations before relocating to Washington in 1971. He was director of public policy for the National Mental Health Association until 1979. He then spent about eight years as vice president for government relations at the Washington-based Independent Sector, where his work included advising foundations and nonprofit groups on tactics, regulations and limits on lobbying. In 1996, he initiated the Center for Charity Lobbying in the Public Interest. He wrote “The Nonprofit Lobbying Guide” and “Promises, Progress and Pain: A Case Study of America’s Community Mental Health Movement from 1960 to 1980.” Stephen A. Janger, 79, the founder and chief executive of an educational program that brought hundreds of thousands of students in middle and high school high to Washington to learn how the government works, died Oct. 11 at his home in McLean, Va. The cause was cancer, said his wife, Kathie Janger. Mr. Janger was born in Oklahoma City and came to Washington in 1963 as a State Department officer. In 1971 he founded the Close Up Foundation, serving as its president and chief executive until he retired in 2005. A nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, Close Up draws students to Washington for a week-long visit featuring activities about how government works. Daniel L. Lycan, 84, an Army colonel who retired in 1981 after almost 30 years in the Corps of Engineers and spent more than a decade working as public works director for Prince William County, Va., Stafford County, Va., and Dumfries, Va., died Sept. 26 at his home in Manassas, Va. The cause was esophageal cancer and congestive heart failure, said a daughter, Karen Zimmerman. Col. Lycan was born in Decatur, Ill. During one of his two tours in Vietnam, he commanded a battalion of combat engineers repairing roads and bridges under enemy fire. Later at the Pentagon, he was assigned to the Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program, mapping the moon and working on the landing gear of the lunar module. Albert H. Heider, 77, a Northern Virginia flower grower and commercial nurseryman who from 1995 to 2014 operated Heider’s Country Store in Loudoun County, died Oct. 21 at a hospital in Leesburg, Va. The cause was heart ailments, said his wife, Sheila Heider. Mr. Heider, a resident of Lucketts, Va., was born in Washington. In 1969 he moved with his family to a farm in Lovettsville, Va., where he raised a pack of hounds for fox hunts. He also raised mules, which won championships at shows, and draft horses. In 1978 he moved to Lombardy Farm east of Leesburg and, for more than 20 years, ran a nursery and flower business. Morris S. Ojalvo, 92, a program director for the National Science Foundation from 1965 to 2006 who helped engineering research groups apply for funding, died Oct. 19 at an assisted living facility in Washington. The cause was congestive heart failure and complications from pneumonia, said a daughter, Beth Ojalvo. Dr. Ojalvo, a Washington resident, was born in Queens. Before joining the science foundation, he taught mechanical engineering at schools including the University of Maryland and George Washington University. Upon retirement, he volunteered as a science tutor and as a tax preparer for seniors. He was a member of the Washington-area synagogue Kehila Chadasha. Estelle James, 79, an economics professor emeritus at Stony Brook University in New York and former lead economist at the World Bank, died Oct. 13 at a hospital in Washington. The cause was complications from cancer, said a son, David Lazer. Dr. James was born Estelle Dinerstein in the Bronx. She began teaching at Stony Brook in 1972 and was provost from 1975 to 1979. She moved to the Washington area in 1987, and in the 1990s worked at the World Bank, where she led a study on the economic problems associated with aging populations. Her research on pension reform led to an appointment on the bipartisan President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security in 2001. About five years ago, she began splitting her time between Washington and Sarasota, Fla. William J. Jones Jr., 86, a retired Marine Corps gunnery sergeant who served in Korea during the Korean War and with post-World War II occupation forces in China, died Oct. 22 at his home in Silver Spring, Md. The cause was cancer, said his son-in-law, Bill Glenn. Sgt. Jones was born in Washington and served in the Marine Corps from 1946 until 1966, retiring after having been a training sergeant for officer candidates at the Marine base in Quantico, Va. His awards included a Marine Corps Commendation Medal. In retirement, he was a civilian security guard at the Harry Diamond Laboratories in Washington, the General Services Administration and the Naval Ordnance Laboratory at White Oak, Md. James I. Vette, 88, who for 22 years was director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s National Space Science Data Center, died Oct. 26 at an assisted living facility in Mount Airy, Md. The cause was a stroke, said his son, James Vette. Dr. Vette was born in Chicago and worked with the Aerospace Corp. in Southern California before joining NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in 1967. He retired in 1989. He received NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal. — From staff reports |