Washington-area obituaries of note
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Version 0 of 1. Obituaries of residents from the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia. Maria O’Leary, 85, the co-owner of Nuevo Mundo, an Alexandria boutique that sold antiques, jewelry and artifacts from 1966 until it closed in 2011, died Oct. 13 at her home in Alexandria, Va. The cause was complications from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, said a daughter, Moira O’Leary. Mrs. O’Leary was born Maria Eneim in Los Angeles and settled in the Washington area in 1955. Soon after settling in Alexandria, she entered and won a “Mrs. Virginia” contest. She used the prizes — a stove, freezer and household appliances — to furnish the townhouse she was rehabilitating. George W. Rose, 81, a distributor of The Washington Post from about 1969 to the mid-2000s, died Oct. 19 at his home in Washington. The cause was cancer, said a daughter-in-law, Tiffany Rose. Mr. Rose was born in Boston and moved to the Washington area in 1959. He was a choir member and trustee emeritus of Allen Chapel AME Church in Washington. Robert F. Patton, 90, a printer at The Washington Post from 1950 to 1982, died Oct. 8 at an assisted-living center in Fulton, Md. The cause was complications from dementia, said a son-in-law, Michael Baroody. Mr. Patton was a native Washingtonian. He served in the Navy during World War II and was a member of the Knights of Columbus and the American Legion. He retired to Bethany Beach, Del., in 1987. Richard D. Thompson, 86, former pastor of St. Paul United Methodist Church in Laytonsville, Md., and former president of the Laytonsville Volunteer Fire Department, died Oct. 17 at a health-care center in Frederick, Md. The cause was coronary artery disease, said a son, Richard D. Thompson Jr. The Rev. Thompson, a resident of Walkersville, Md., was born in Baltimore. He was a United Methodist clergyman in Fort Washington, Md., and in Carroll County, and was pastor in Laytonsville from 1967 to 1981. He retired from the ministry in 1983 and ran an accounting and wealth-management business in Parkville, Md., until 2008. John R. Gill Jr., 86, a U.S. Public Health Service endocrinologist and captain who served as medical director in the Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, died Oct. 11 at a care center in Bethesda, Md. The cause was cancer, said a daughter, Helen Arnold. Dr. Gill, a Washington resident, was born in Richmond, Va. He began his career at NIH in 1957, retired in 1988 and then worked another seven years as an emeritus staff member. He was a leading researcher in the fields of high blood pressure and diseases of the adrenal glands. Florenz R. “Flo” Ourisman, 85, who co-owned a prominent Washington car dealership before starting a commercial real estate firm in 1971, died Oct. 16 at a hospital in Palm Beach, Fla. The cause was complications from a urinary tract infection, said a daughter, Beth Glassman. Mr. Ourisman, a native Washingtonian, spent much of his early career in his family’s Chevrolet dealership. After his father’s death in 1955, he and a brother took over. The real estate company that bore his name developed properties in the Washington area before expanding along the East Coast. He retired to Palm Beach from Washington in 1982. Algie A. “Al” Wells, 103, a lawyer at the Atomic Energy Commission who chaired its atomic safety panel from 1967 to his retirement in 1972, died Oct. 16 at an assisted-living community in North Bethesda, Md. The cause was congestive heart failure, said a grandniece, Kellie Mateus. Mr. Wells, a resident of Bethesda, was born in Upshur County, Tex. During World War II, he was an intelligence officer assigned to the Manhattan Project, the code name for the Allied effort to develop an atomic bomb. He then moved to the Washington area and joined the AEC, where he negotiated uranium purchases and assisted in the founding of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He served as the agency’s deputy director general from 1964 to 1967. He was a deacon at what was then called Bethesda First Baptist Church for more than 30 years. Lucinda P. Janke, 72, a local historian whose work included lectures, books and articles on life in Washington as the capital of the Union during the Civil War, the German beer brewing industry on Capitol Hill, and Marine Corps bandleader and march composer John Philip Sousa, died Oct. 27 at a hospital in Washington. The cause was head injuries suffered in an accidental fall, said her daughter, Jennifer Lindsay. Lucinda Prout was born in Geneva, N.Y., and was a 45-year resident of Capitol Hill, where she restored a Civil War-era residence with her husband, John Janke. In addition to her work as a historian, she had been secretary-treasurer of C. Dudley Brown & Associates interior design firm, collections manager for the Historical Society of Washington and curator of the Kiplinger Washington Collection for Kiplinger Washington Editors Inc. — From staff reports |