Obituaries

Lisa KapinStudent Rabbi

Lisa Kapin, 42, a student rabbi who belonged to the theologically liberal Reconstructionist movement and helped lead services at area congregations, died July 10 at Sibley Memorial Hospital. She had breast cancer.

Ms. Kapin, a Bethesda resident, was a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduated in 1986 with a degree in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania. She did financial work for Morgan Stanley in New York and then traveled worldwide, teaching English in Japan and working on a kibbutz in Israel, among other activities.

She came to the Washington area in 1989 and spent a few years as a project manager at MCI. At the time, she was a member of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Synagogue in Bethesda and decided to make Judaic study the focus of her life.

In 1994, she began her rabbinical studies at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia and became part of the Jewish spiritual renewal movement known as Aleph.

While maintaining a home in Bethesda, she taught, counseled, sang and participated in other facets of congregation life in the Philadelphia and Washington areas.

She was the mid-Atlantic regional director for the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation from 1997 to 1998. She was a board member from 1998 to 2005 at the Philadelphia-based Institute for Contemporary Midrash, an organization that brings the arts into contact with sacred text and where she offered training in such areas as strategic planning and fundraising.

Survivors include her mother, Phyllis Kapin of Bethesda; her father and stepmother, Jay and Haydee Kapin of Miami; a twin sister, Laureen Kapin of Bethesda; another sister, Allyson Kapin of Washington; and a brother, Bryan Kapin of Miami.

Luther Irvy 'Bud' TatumNuclear Engineer

Luther Irvy "Bud" Tatum, 66, a nuclear engineer with the Navy and the Energy Department, died of brain cancer July 12 at Cherrydale Health and Rehabilitation Center in Arlington.

Mr. Tatum came to the Washington area in 1961 as a Navy officer on the staff of Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, considered the father of the nuclear Navy. Mr. Tatum was an engineer who helped design nuclear reactors for submarines.

In 1966, he left the Navy with the rank of lieutenant but continued to work for the Navy as a civilian nuclear engineer. Later in his career, he held a dual appointment with the Navy and Energy Department. He retired in 1999. His honors included the Energy Department's Exceptional Service Award.

Mr. Tatum was born in Denison, Tex., and was a 1961 graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He received advanced training at the Navy's Bettis Reactor Engineering School in Pittsburgh in 1962.

He lived in Arlington for more than 30 years and had a second home in the Northern Neck of Virginia near Heathsville. He enjoyed gardening and boating.