Obituaries

Lucille Eileen Pressnall Navy Dept. Administrative Assistant

Lucille Eileen Pressnall, 83, who retired in 1983 after 23 years as an administrative assistant in the Navy Department's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Washington, died Jan. 26 at Inova Fairfax Hospital after a heart attack.

Mrs. Pressnall, a McLean resident since 1953, was a native of Rochester, Minn.

Her husband of 59 years, John Pressnall, died in 2000.

Survivors include a daughter, Kathleen P. McNeil of Fairfax; a sister; a brother; and two grandchildren.

Laure M. Sharp Sociologist

Laure M. Sharp, 83, a retired sociologist, died of complications from a stroke Feb. 1 at Potomac Valley Nursing Home in Rockville.

Mrs. Sharp spent most of her professional career at the Bureau of Social Science Research, a now-defunct nonprofit organization. She served as research associate and assistant director for research operations, focusing on educational research, program evaluation and survey methodology.

From 1986 to 1993, she was a consultant and project director for Montgomery County schools' department of educational accountability. From 1993 to 2000, she was a senior consultant to Westat, a research corporation.

Mrs. Sharp was born in Frankfurt, Germany. Her family moved to Alsace, France, in the early 1930s after Hitler came into power, and it made its way to New York in 1940. She received her bachelor's degree at Hunter College.

In the early 1940s, upon graduation, she came to Washington to work in the former Office of Strategic Services. After stints at the Foundation for Foreign Affairs and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, she received a master's degree in sociology from American University in 1959.

Among her professional affiliations, Mrs. Sharp served on the executive council of the World Association for Public Opinion Research from 1974 to 1980, was president of the D.C. Sociological Association in 1979 and 1980, and served for many years on the executive council for the American Association for Public Opinion Research. She was that group's president in 1983 and 1984.

Her husband, Samuel Sharp, died in 1986.

Survivors include two daughters, Deborah Hartmann of Silver Spring and Susan Sharp Amsden of Rockville; a son, Daniel Sharp of San Anselmo, Calif.; and four grandchildren.

Dorothy Erdean Sticken Agriculture Secretary

Dorothy Erdean Sticken, 92, a secretary at the Department of Agriculture, died Jan. 31 at Inova Cameron Glen Care Center, a nursing home in Reston. She had dementia.

Miss Sticken came to Washington in the mid-1930s and spent her entire career at the Agriculture Department, retiring in 1977. She moved from the District to Arlington in 1977 and had been in a nursing home since 1997.

She was born in Carnegie, Okla., and attended business school in Oklahoma. She was briefly married in her twenties but continued to use her maiden name.

She was a member of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Arlington. In the 1980s, she volunteered with an Arlington community organization to assist the needy.

There are no immediate survivors.

Joyce Starbird Quinlan Business Alliance Official

Joyce Starbird Quinlan, 54, a former vice president of a national business consortium, real estate agent and store owner, died Jan. 29 of cancer at her home in Rehoboth Beach, Del.

She came to the Washington area in 1980 and worked for 10 years in Washington with the National Business Alliance, a coalition of businesses advocating educational reform. She was vice president of corporate development and vice president of field operations.

From 1990 to 1996, she was a real estate agent with Long & Foster in Bethesda and Potomac.

Mrs. Quinlan grew up in Livonia, Mich., and attended Western Michigan University. She was a member of the National Ski Patrol in Brighton, Mich., in her youth.

She worked in Boston in the 1970s as regional training director for the Hertz Corp. She lived in 1979 in Detroit, where she worked with the National Business Alliance before coming to Washington.

She lived in the District, Bethesda, Potomac and Annapolis before moving to Delaware in 1996. She was the owner of the Rose Garden women's clothing stores in Bethany Beach and Rehoboth Beach. She was a member of All Saints Episcopal Church in Rehoboth Beach.

Mrs. Quinlan, a certified scuba diver, enjoyed the beaches of Delaware and the Caribbean. She also had two cats and two golden retrievers.

Her marriage to Tim Brousseau ended in divorce.

Survivors include her husband of 19 years, Pierce Quinlan of Rehoboth Beach; three stepchildren, Kelly Quinlan of Scottsdale, Ariz., Kimberly Quinlan of Annapolis and Keith Quinlan of San Jose, Calif.; a brother; and one grandson.

Fannie Silverblatt Korth Homemaker, Volunteer

Fannie Silverblatt Korth, 93, a longtime volunteer with the American Cancer Society, died Feb. 5 of congestive heart failure at Lorien Nursing Home in Columbia. She was a Columbia resident.

Mrs. Korth, also known as Fay, was born in Imperial, Pa., and received an undergraduate degree in social work from Carnegie Mellon University in 1932. She worked as a social worker in Philadelphia in the 1930s and 1940s and moved with her family to Silver Spring in 1948.

She did volunteer work with the American Cancer Society while working as a homemaker from the 1950s through the 1970s. She also was active in Hadassah. She and her husband moved to Columbia in the early 1980s.

Mrs. Korth's husband, Hyman Korth, died in 1987.

Survivors include two children, Thomas A. Korth of Silver Spring and Marsha K. Barnes of Columbia.

Emma Jean Budd Elections Registrar

Emma Jean Budd, 71, a political activist who worked on behalf of children with Jack & Jill of America Inc. and other organizations and who was a Fairfax County elections registrar, died Feb. 1 of complications from diabetes and renal failure at Heartland of Adelphi Nursing Home in Adelphi. She was a longtime resident of Mount Vernon.

Mrs. Budd was born in Louisville and attended Indiana University. She moved to the District in 1955 and to Fairfax in 1964.

She worked for the Department of the Navy and former U.S. Rep. Herbert E. Harris (D-Va.) before becoming general registrar for the Fairfax County Electoral Board in 1985. She retired from that post in 2003.

Working to improve the lives of children in Northern Virginia, she was an eastern region director of Jack & Jill of America, an organization founded in 1938 to provide educational, cultural and recreational opportunities for African American children.

She was a member of the Fairfax County chapter of the NAACP and president of Alexandria-Mount Vernon chapter; a member of Black Women United for Action; a founding member of the Northern Virginia Urban League Guild; a member and vice president of the board of directors of New Hope Housing; and a member of the board of directors of the Gumsprings Community Action Association.

She also served on the 8th Congressional District Democratic Committee, the State Central Democratic Committee of Virginia and the Fairfax County Democratic Committee. She worked as a volunteer in L. Douglas Wilder's campaign for lieutenant governor in 1985 and was elected a member of the rules committee of the 1988 Democratic National Convention.

She was a member of Shiloh Baptist Church in Alexandria.

Mrs. Budd's husband, David B. Budd Sr., died in 1995.

Survivors include five children, Donna Budd, Jennifer Budd and Matthew Budd, all of Mount Vernon, David Budd Jr. of Syracuse, N.Y., and adopted son Gregory Ellis of Fort Washington; her mother, Emmerine Johnson of Mount Vernon; and a grandchild.

Louise P. Zanar Lawyer, Writer

Louise P. Zanar, 48, a labor lawyer, writer and musician, died Feb. 5 after being hit by a Metro train at the Brookland-CUA Metro station after she stepped onto the track.

She was born in Hapeville, Ga., and grew up in Syosset, N.Y. She graduated cum laude from Smith College in Massachusetts, where she was a Phi Beta Kappa, and moved to the District. In 1985, she earned a law degree from George Washington University.

Since 1987, she had practiced labor law with Katz & Ranzman. She also worked for a time with the International Union of Electricians.

Ms. Zanar wrote essays published in the Washington Blade and the Legal Times and on Chowhound, an Internet site devoted to good food. At the time of her death, she was working on a book of food essays.

She possessed a love of music and could often be found gleefully strumming a guitar or banjo and urging everyone to sing along.

Ms. Zanar was an active member of Congregation Bet Mishpachah and contributed to Immigration Equality, Food and Friends and other charitable causes.

Survivors include her partner, Elizabeth H. McGrail of Washington; her mother, Eileen Zanar of East Norwich, N.Y.; and two sisters.

Lanny Earl McCullah Naval Agency Deputy Director

Lanny Earl McCullah, 66, retired deputy director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, died of pneumonia Jan. 16 at a hospital in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Mr. McCullah, a former police officer, lived in the Washington area on and off during his 26-year career with NCIS. Beginning as a special agent, he worked his way up to deputy director of NCIS and director of the agency's counterintelligence division.

The former resident of Alexandria, Springfield and Severna Park retired in 1989, then moved to Smith Mountain Lake, Va., before settling in Sedona, Ariz.

Mr. McCullah was a native of Garden Grove, Calif., and a graduate of San Jose State University, where he was a member of Theta Chi social fraternity.

In the early 1960s, he was a member of the California National Guard and a police officer in Menlo Park, Calif.

His professional honors include the CIA's National Intelligence Distinguished Service Award.

Survivors include his wife of 42 years, Darlene McCullah of Sedona; and two daughters, Karen Lutz of Los Angeles and Dana Guilfoyle of Littleton, Colo.

John D. Coffelt Maintenance Worker

John D. Coffelt, 45, a maintenance worker at a Rockville school for children with emotional disabilities, was found dead Feb. 1 in his condominium in Damascus.

The death was ruled a suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to a Montgomery County police spokesman.

Mr. Coffelt was born in Bethesda and raised in Rockville, where he graduated from Robert E. Perry High School. He then was trained as an auto mechanic at the Barwood Cab Co. in Bethesda.

He worked as a mechanic for Honda dealerships before taking a job in the mid-1990s as a maintenance worker at the John L. Gildner Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents.

Survivors include his parents, Ann H. Coffelt and G.V. Coffelt, of Rockville; and a sister, Thressa A. Coffelt of Rockville.

Lawrence Johnson Safeway Employee

Lawrence Johnson, 61, a Safeway employee for more than 30 years, died Feb. 1 of congestive heart failure at his home in DeSoto, Tex. He had lived in the Washington area for nearly 40 years, the last five years in Mitchellville, before moving to Texas in 2002.

Mr. Johnson was born in Richmond and graduated from Cortez Peters Business College in the District in the early 1960s.

In 1963, he went to work for Safeway "putting potatoes on the counter" -- as a sacker, in other words -- and became a store manager in Prince George's County in 1967. In 1980, he became public affairs section manager, and in 1987, he became manager of Safeway's eastern division public affairs department. He retired in 1997 as director of public affairs for the eastern division.

He served on the board of directors of the Prince George's Chamber of Commerce, as chairman of D.C. Crime Solvers, as a member of the D.C. Litter Commission and as a member of the executive committee of the Prince George's County Economic Development Commission. He also was a member of the Prince George's chapter of the NAACP and a founder of the annual food drive, Project Harvest.

Mr. Johnson's marriage to Betty Johnson ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of eight years, Katrina Johnson of DeSoto; four children from his first marriage, Lawrence Johnson Jr. of DeSoto, Michele Mayo of Waldorf, Kimberly Hall of Clinton and Monica Williams of Waldorf; a stepson from his second marriage, Steven Swanson of Burleson, Tex.; and 13 grandchildren.

William Potter Arnold Justice Department Trial Attorney

William Potter Arnold, 95, a lawyer who worked as a trial attorney in the civil division of the Justice Department for more than 20 years until he retired in 1986, died of cancer Feb. 2 at the Washington Home. He lived in the District.

Mr. Arnold, a World War II Navy veteran, began his civil service career in 1949 as an assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington. He tried criminal cases in District Court before joining the Justice Department in the early 1960s.

He was born in Portsmouth, R.I., and grew up there and in Providence. He came to the Washington area in 1924 when he was about 15 years old.

He was educated in preparatory schools in Virginia and Maryland and attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis before leaving to study law.

In 1933, he graduated from what is now George Washington University law school. He worked for the D.C. law firms King & McFarland and then Cummings & Stanley before joining the Navy as an ensign at the start of World War II. After an initial assignment at the Anacostia Naval Air Station, he attended flight director school in Honolulu as an aviation officer.

He went on to serve as a flight director officer on aircraft carriers, including the Saratoga when it was hit by five kamikazes and seven bombs during the Battle of Iwo Jima.

He was a member of Christ Episcopal Church in Georgetown, Order of the Cincinnati and the Chevy Chase Club, where he enjoyed playing tennis until three years ago.

His marriage to Julie Arnold ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of 56 years, Margaret B. Arnold of Washington; a daughter from his first marriage, Julie Matheson Arnold of Purcellville; a daughter from his second marriage, Anne A. Constable of Washington; and three grandchildren.