Obituaries

Basil Charles PuherStonemason

Basil Charles Puher, 85, an Adelphi resident and a brick mason and stonemason who worked on some of the most notable buildings in the Washington area, died of renal failure July 22 at Somerford Place, an assisted living facility in Annapolis. He had had dementia since undergoing brain surgery in 2003.

Mr. Puher, known as Charles, was born in Buckner, Ill. In the late 1930s, he served in the Civilian Conservation Corps, where he helped build roads and lay storm drains and learned to be a bricklayer and stonemason. He received his high school equivalency diploma after enlisting in the Army in 1942.

He served in Europe during World War II, and his decorations included three awards of the Bronze Star. Wounded on three occasions, he refused all but one of the Purple Hearts he was eligible to receive. At the Battle of the Bulge, during one of the coldest winters in memory, his multiple layers of clothing stopped a bullet inches from his heart.

He settled in the Washington area around 1950. A 58-year member of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers local No. 1 in Washington, he did work on the Washington National Cathedral, Smithsonian Institution buildings and the chapel at the University of Maryland, among others.

He retired in 1976, but the federal government asked him to come back to work as a stonemason on Smithsonian renovations. Helping restore buildings he had first worked on decades earlier, he was able to match color, mortar and sand from the earlier work. He was a specialist on such intricate work as brick window archways. He retired again in 1989 as precast concrete threatened to make the stonemason's craft obsolete.

In retirement, Mr. Puher joined the Loyal Order of Moose in College Park. He also enjoyed shooting pool and recounting stories with friends at the College Park chapter of the American Legion.

His wife, Veronica Firda Puher, died in 2004.

Survivors include five children, David Charles Puher of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Mark John Puher of Medford, N.J., Laura A. Guido of California, Md., Christopher Michael Puher of Memphis and Paul George Puher of Davidsonville; nine grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Donald P. ChaneyPrinter, Real Estate Agent

Donald P. Chaney, 61, who worked as a printer and real estate agent, died July 26 of pulmonary fibrosis at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. He lived in Rockville.

Mr. Chaney was born in Washington and graduated from Archbishop Carroll High School. He also attended the University of Maryland at College Park.

He served in the Air Force in the late 1960s and subsequently worked for a variety of printing companies in the Washington area for the next 35 years. Among other employers, he worked for Holiday-Tyler Printing in Rockville and for Craftsman Press in Cheverly. In recent years, he was a freelance printer and color-control coordinator for magazines and for publications of the University of Maryland.

Mr. Chaney also was a licensed real estate agent and had worked for several years with Weichert Realtors in Rockville.