Saturday, February 18, 2006
Eileen R. TorcasoMusic Store Employee
Eileen R. Torcaso, 83, a former director of sheet music at Dale Music store in Silver Spring, died Feb. 13 at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring of an infection after surgery for a broken hip. A longtime resident of Wheaton, she had been living in Rockville for the past year.
Mrs. Torcaso was born in Norwich, England, and moved to the District in 1946 as a "war bride." She was a homemaker until she went to work at the music store in 1965. She retired in 1993.
An accomplished pianist and organist, she was the accompanist for the C&P Singers, the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co. glee club. She also was the organist at First Presbyterian Church of Wheaton.
She was active as a Girl Scout troop leader and neighborhood chairwoman and was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockville.
Her daughter, Susan Elizabeth Mims, died in 2002.
Survivors include her husband of 60 years, Roy R. Torcaso of Rockville; two children, Linda Bernstein of Philadelphia and Bill Torcaso of Cambridge, Mass.; a brother; three grandsons; and a great-grandson.
John Anthony EverettC&P Telephone EmployeeJohn Anthony Everett, 81, who spent 35 years with Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co., mostly doing sales work before retiring in 1978, died Feb. 13 at a nursing facility in Clearwater, Fla. He had dementia.
While with C&P, Mr. Everett also was a partner in Able Realty, which handled residential properties. In retirement, he spent eight years doing telecommunications work for the Agriculture Department's Rural Electrification Administration.
He was a native Washingtonian and a 1942 graduate of St. John's College High School. He served in the Army in the Pacific during World War II.
He was a former grand knight in the Knights of Columbus and a member of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Silver Spring, where he was an usher and chaired fundraising projects.
He moved from Silver Spring to Florida in the late 1980s.
His first wife, Catherine Betts "Kitty" Everett, died in 1984.
Survivors include his wife of 20 years, Elizabeth Mazzullo Everett of Clearwater; six children from his first marriage, Mary Catherine Kirk of Alexandria, John Everett of Martinsville, Va., Gregory Everett of Ocean City, Md., Michael Everett of Berlin, Md., Patrice Pink of Carlisle, Pa., and Daniel Everett of Brookeville; nine stepchildren, Linda Bateman of Silver Spring, Timothy Mazzullo of Titusville, Fla., Patricia Webber of Lakeland, Fla., Catherine Mazzullo and Richard Mazzullo, both of Fort Lauderdale, and Bruce Mazzullo, Stephen Mazzullo, Leo Mazzullo and Christopher Mazzullo, all of Clearwater; a sister, Mary Frances Hubbard of Nathalie, Va.; a brother, James Everett of Mount Airy; and 29 grandchildren.
John Damon Peabody Jr.AID Family Planning OfficerJohn Damon Peabody Jr., 84, a retired family planning officer with the Agency for International Development, died Jan. 23 at his home in Hancock, N.H. He had leukemia.
Mr. Peabody, a former Washington resident, spent most of his career at AID working on health programs concerning family planning and population control in Third World countries.
He was stationed in Turkey after World War II, Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s and Tegucigalpa, Honduras, from 1975 to 1977. Between assignments, he lived in the District.
Mr. Peabody retired in 1980 and, two years later, moved to Hancock, where he acquired his mother's property, Valley Farm, and ran it as a dairy farm until 1985.
He was born in Syracuse, N.Y., and was raised in New York City and Princeton, Mass. He graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., in 1944 and served as a first lieutenant in the Naval Air Corps during World War II.
His first wife, Virginia Boyd Peabody, died in 1983.
Survivors include his wife of 19 years, Bettina Peabody of Hancock; three sons from his first marriage, John D. Peabody III of West Chester, Pa., Alexander Boyd Peabody of Carlsbad, Calif., and James B. Peabody II of Sante Fe, N.M.; two sisters; and four grandchildren.
Richard Alan EarleInternational Law ExpertRichard Alan Earle, 64, an international law expert and former partner at the Washington firm of Patton Boggs, died Feb. 13 at his wife's home in Galesville, Md. He had cirrhosis of the liver.
Mr. Earle, a District resident, spent 35 years at Patton Boggs before retiring in 2003. With his specialty, he assisted in international financial transactions for domestic and foreign clients.
He often negotiated with the Export-Import Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development. He also helped countries reschedule their debts with lending institutions.
He was a New York City native and a 1963 graduate of the University of Michigan, where he also received a master's in business administration in 1964. He was a 1968 graduate of its law school.
A Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, he also was active in the group Lawyers Against the War during that era.
In 1980, Mr. Earle bought one-acre Bodkin Island in Queen Anne's County, Md., which he donated to the state in 1995 as a nesting ground in the Chesapeake Bay for migrating black ducks.
He enjoyed sailing and fishing.
His marriage to Janice Halperin Earle ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife of 14 years, Nancy Nikkenen Earle of Galesville; three children from his first marriage, Jonathan Earle of Lawrence, Kan., Karen Earle-Lim of San Francisco and Geoffrey Earle of Washington; and two granddaughters.
Dr. W. Dabney JarmanUrologistDr. W. Dabney Jarman, 99, a urologist and the first chairman of the urology department at the Washington Hospital Center, died of congestive heart failure Feb. 13 at his daughter's home in Hume, Va.
He was born in Greenville, Tenn., and received a bachelor's degree from Hampton Sydney College in 1927. He received his medical degree from the University of Virginia Medical School in 1932 and trained in urology at the University of Rochester. He began practicing in the District in 1937.
Dr. Jarman served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1946 and then returned to his Washington practice. He played a central role in bringing together the medical staffs of the three predecessor hospitals of the Washington Hospital Center -- Garfield Memorial; Episcopal Eye, Ear and Throat; and Central Emergency and Dispensary -- and served as president pro tem of the new medical staff when the hospital opened in 1958. For 20 years, he was chairman of the hospital center's urology department and the founder of its urology residency training program.
He was a past president of the American Board of Urology, the Mid-Atlantic Section of the American Urological Association and the Washington Urological Society. He was co-founder of the Needy Sick Fund, which helps patients experiencing financial burdens after a major illness or injury. He retired in 1987.
Dr. Jarman was a member of the Chevy Chase Club, the Metropolitan Club, the Alfalfa Club and the Alibi Club.
His wife, Margaret Brandon Jarman, died in 1976. A son, Capt. William Dabney Jarman, died in 1969.
Survivors include two daughters, Margaret Gantner of Pasadena, Calif., and Wiley Grosvenor of Hume; four grandsons; and one great-granddaughter.
John William GoldschmidtMedical OfficialJohn William Goldschmidt, 80, a physician who specialized in physical medicine and rehabilitation and held prominent medical appointments in Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington, died Feb. 9 at a hospice in Boca Raton, Fla. He had congestive heart failure.
In the mid-1980s, Dr. Goldschmidt became the founding medical director of the National Rehabilitation Hospital, on the grounds of Washington Hospital Center.
He was also chairman of the rehabilitation medicine department at Washington Hospital Center and professor of rehabilitation medicine at Georgetown University's medical school.
Starting in 1992, he spent five years as national director of the Department of Veterans Affairs' Rehabilitation Research and Development Service.
He was a Philadelphia native and served in the Army in the Pacific during World War II. He was a graduate of Villanova University and a 1954 graduate of Jefferson Medical College, now Thomas Jefferson University, in Philadelphia.
He worked at Thomas Jefferson University until 1976, serving as the founding dean of its College of Allied Health Sciences and organizing its first multiple disability rehabilitation center for the severely handicapped.
Dr. Goldschmidt then spent many years in Chicago on the faculty of Northwestern University's medical school and as associate medical director and director of research and education at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
He received many medical honors and was a former president of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine as well as the National Association of Rehabilitation Research Training Centers.
For more than a decade, he served on advisory committees of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations that dealt with long-term care and hospital accreditation.
In 1998, he moved from Washington to Avalon, N.J., where he long had a home.
Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Marion Stodder Goldschmidt of Avalon; six children, John Goldschmidt of Wayne, Pa., Karen Peterson of Greensboro, N.C., Christine Colnon and Nancy Anderson, both of Chicago, and Marian Miller and Susan Atkinson, both of Boca Raton; two sisters; a brother; and 10 grandchildren.
Barbara Davis HobbsSchool Volunteer, SecretaryBarbara Davis Hobbs, 93, a former volunteer and school secretary in Montgomery County public schools, died Feb. 8 of Alzheimer's disease at her home in Maplewood Park Place in Bethesda.
Mrs. Hobbs was born in the District. After the death of her mother, she was raised by her grandmother, who ran a boarding house in St. Petersburg, Fla. When she graduated from high school, she returned to Washington and completed her studies at the old Strayer Business College. She worked for several years as a legal secretary for Oliver & Donnelly.
She was a library volunteer at Bradley Hills Elementary School in Bethesda while her children were students there, and from 1952 to 1969, she was the school secretary at Westbrook Elementary School in Spring Valley.
Mrs. Hobbs and her husband were among the 50 founding families of Christ Congregational Church in Silver Spring. After moving to Bethesda, they became members of Bethesda Presbyterian Church, where Mrs. Hobbs established the church library and served as a volunteer librarian for 45 years. She was a member of the church for more than 50 years.
Her husband, Robert B. Hobbs, died in 2003.
Survivors include two children, Michael E. Hobbs of Alexandria and Marian L. Hobbs of Falmouth, Mass.; and a granddaughter.
Warren Kenneth Wright Jr.Maryland Procurement AdviserWarren Kenneth Wright Jr., 69, who spent a decade as procurement advisor to the Maryland Board of Public Works before retiring last March, died Feb. 11 at his home in Chesapeake Beach. He had pancreatic cancer.
Mr. Wright was known for his efforts to boost minority business with the state. Last year, he received the Governor's Office of Minority Affairs' Robert L. Clay Leadership Award for exceptional service to the state's minority business enterprise program.
He was a native Washingtonian and a 1954 graduate of Coolidge High School. He attended Montgomery College.
Starting in 1962, he was a buyer for the University of Maryland and, soon after, had a central role in establishing the purchasing committee of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
His later jobs included purchasing director for Prince George's County and procurement director for the Maryland Department of Transportation.
He was active in the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, and he started the Maryland chapter and served a term as the chapter's president.
In retirement, he was on the Chesapeake Beach planning committee.
Survivors include his wife of 49 years, Audrey Greulich Wright of Chesapeake Beach; seven children, Kenneth Wright of Chantilly, William Wright of Owings, John W. Wright of Springs, Pa., Catherine Fortney of Hughesville, Jeanne Hayden of Manassas, Judith Gillett of Huntingtown and JoAnne Wallmark of St. Leonard; a sister, Adrienne Caswell of Lusby; and 14 grandchildren.
James Michael KlineNSA EmployeeJames Michael Kline, 64, former chief of staff and consultant for the National Security Agency's Defense Special Missile and Astronautics Center, died Feb. 12 after a heart attack at his home in Bowie.
Mr. Kline worked for the NSA for his entire 42-year career, his family said, and he consulted for the intelligence agency even after his 2003 retirement.
He was born in Hazleton, Pa., and served in the Navy directly after high school. After leaving the Navy as a chief petty officer, he joined the NSA in 1963. He attended the University of Maryland University College while working for the government.
Survivors include his wife of 29 years, Judy Kline of Bowie; three children, Mark Kline of Sanford, N.C., Scott Kline of Jamestown, Mich., and Suzanne Kline Coblentz of Bowie; and eight grandchildren.
Jeremiah M. Colbert Jr.Private DetectiveJerry M. Colbert Jr., 79, a longtime Washington area private detective and retired insurance claims manager, died Jan. 19 of acute coronary syndrome at the Shady Grove Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rockville. He had been a resident of Lusby since 1981.
In 1970, Mr. Colbert teamed with his brother, John "JJ" Colbert, to form the Colbert Detective Agency. He became a private eye, handling mostly domestic cases, partly because he would be in business with his brother, said his son. "He was more proud of being a private detective than anything," said Jeremiah M. Colbert III of Columbia.
A Washington native, Mr. Colbert attended McKinley Technical High School before enlisting in the Navy in 1944. He served aboard the USS Nashville for two years during World War II. He later graduated from a veterans high school in the District.
For a while, Mr. Colbert played minor league baseball in Ohio and with the Wilson, N.C., Tobs, a Washington Senators affiliate. He also attended the University of Maryland.
After those endeavors, Mr. Colbert began a career in insurance claims. He worked for Markel Insurance Co., USAA and what was then known as Preferred Risk. He retired as a claims manager in 1991.
Mr. Colbert, who lived in Chevy Chase from 1961 to 1981, was a Little League baseball coach in Montgomery County for many years.
A golfer, he was a charter member of the now-defunct Brooke Manor Country Club in Olney and later Chesapeake Hills Golf Club in Lusby. He also enjoyed collecting sports memorabilia and model trains.
His first wife, Bette I. Colbert, died in 1970. His second wife, Eileen M. Colbert, died in 1991.
Besides his son, survivors include two other children from his first marriage, Michael L. Colbert of Alexandria and Wanda L. Wells of Gaithersburg; four stepchildren, Peter Devaney of Hyattsville, Christine Porter of Lusby, Sean Devaney of Catonsville and Brendan Devaney of York, Pa.; a brother, John J. Colbert of Ocean Pines, Md.; 15 grandchildren; and one great-grandson.