Obituaries

Fred K. Hoehler Jr.Labor Educator

Fred K. Hoehler Jr., 87, founding director of the George Meany Center for Labor Studies (now the National Labor College), died of complications from prostate cancer Jan. 4 at his home in Bellingham, Wash.

Mr. Hoehler was working at the Brookings Institution in the late 1960s when Meany, then president of the AFL-CIO, asked him to set up a labor leadership education program on such topics as collective bargaining, organizing and union communication.

Mr. Hoehler developed the program at a conference center in Williamsburg and then persuaded Meany and the union's executive council to buy 47 acres just outside the Capital Beltway in Silver Spring to establish a permanent center.

Mr. Hoehler worked with Antioch College in Ohio to create a college degree program modeled after adult education programs he studied while touring the United Kingdom, recalled Robert Pleasure, who succeeded Mr. Hoehler as director of the Meany Center.

Thomas R. Donahue, longtime secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, said in a statement that Mr. Hoehler was "the most significant contributor to U.S. labor education. He trained thousands of labor leaders in this country. He was a pioneer in lifelong education."

Mr. Hoehler, born in Cincinnati, was the son of Fred K. Hoehler, who was Illinois's director of social welfare under Gov. Adlai Stevenson. After serving in the Army Air Forces during World War II, he graduated from Arizona State University and earned a master's degree in political science and industrial relations in 1947 from the University of Chicago.

He taught at the University of Puerto Rico and Penn State University before joining the AFL-CIO in 1954. Two years later, he became a professor of industrial relations at Michigan State University, where he taught until 1971.

He also served as education director for the United Steelworkers of America from 1964 to 1967 and wrote for the Brookings Institution from 1962 to 1970. He was executive director of the Meany Center for Labor Studies from its opening on Labor Day 1969 until he retired in 1984. The school was fully accredited in 2004.

Survivors include his wife, Lisa Portman Hoehler of Bellingham, and two sons, Fred Hoehler III and Dan Hoehler, both of California.

Karen Sue BrownRegistered Nurse

Karen Sue Brown, 54, a registered nurse who worked nearly 20 years at Potomac Hospital before retiring for health reasons in early 2005, died of kidney disease Dec. 23 at her home in Woodbridge.

She also worked at Sibley Memorial and Inova Fairfax hospitals earlier in her career.