Thursday, September 21, 2006
George L. J. DalferesAerospace Executive
George L. J. Dalferes, 83, an Air Force colonel and vice president of government affairs for Martin Marietta Corp., died of congestive heart failure Sept. 8 at Inova Loudoun Hospital. He lived in Sterling.
Col. Dalferes represented the aerospace corporation in Washington for 17 years until his retirement in 1990.
He then consulted for the industry and NASA and served as legislative counsel for President George H.W. Bush's 1990 Stafford commission, which looked at long-term goals in space.
He was born in Warsaw and lived in Poland, Germany and France through his father's work as vice consul with the U.S. State Department in Warsaw and then Hamburg. He became fluent in four languages.
At the outset of World War II, his family came to the United States aboard a ship that was briefly threatened by a German U-boat. He graduated from Louisiana State University. He was commissioned into the Army and served as an intelligence and reconnaissance platoon leader in the 84th Infantry Division. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge, helped liberate a German concentration camp and, after the war, served in occupied Germany.
Col. Dalferes then returned to LSU, where he received a bachelor of laws degree in 1949 and began to practice law. But he was recalled to the military in 1952 and served in the Air Force as an aide to the commander of the Alaskan Command.
He and his wife, also an Air Force officer, were stationed in Colorado, Alabama, Washington and the Philippines. Col. Dalferes received a master of laws degree from Georgetown University in 1965 and graduated from the War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., in 1967.
He served in the Judge Advocate General's Corps in Colorado Springs and in the Philippines. His final assignment in Washington was as deputy assistant to the secretary of Defense for legislative affairs.
Upon his Air Force retirement in 1973, he joined Martin Marietta. In 1985, he received the NASA Michoud Award for his work on the space shuttle fuel tank program. He retired in 1990.
Maj. Dalferes was past-president of the local chapter of the Air Force Association and the local chapter of the National Security Industrial Association. In retirement, he was board chairman of DCI Communications Inc.
He became a member of Tantallon Yacht Club in Fort Washington and later joined the Occoquan Yacht Club. His last boat, the Cracker Jack 29, is named for his World War II call sign and is berthed at Solomons Island.
He was a past-president and board member of the Nyumbani USA programs, which care for abandoned and orphaned HIV-positive children in Nairobi.
His wife of 37 years, Georgie Evelyn Boling Dalferes, died in 1998.
Survivors include two children, Gregory S.J. Dalferes of Fairfax Station and Gail Dalferes Condrey of Kensington, and a grandson.
Shirley Smith JamesAccountantShirley Smith James, 65, an accountant with Georgetown University Hospital, died Sept. 14 of breast cancer at her home in Wheaton.
Mrs. James was born in Indianapolis and attended Indiana University and Southeastern University in Washington. She served in the Army from 1961 to 1964.
She worked in the finance office of Georgetown University Hospital from 1964 until her death.
She was a lifeguard in her youth and enjoyed visiting the beaches of Jamaica. She also played tennis and basketball and enjoyed watching football, boxing and horse races.
Survivors include her husband of 38 years, Gladston James of Wheaton; two daughters, Stephanie Beggs of Washington and Nicole Murray of Gaithersburg; her mother, Twyla B. Smith of Indianapolis; a brother; and a grandson.
Earle Franklin ThorsenCIA Finance OfficerEarle Franklin Thorsen, 72, a former finance officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, died Sept. 7 of complications of diabetes at Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, Md.
During his 30 years with the CIA, Mr. Thorsen served in Europe, the Far East and the Middle East. He received the Intelligence Commendation Medal on his retirement in 1987.
He worked for USATREX International Inc. in Arlington before being an independent contractor with the CIA until 1996.
Mr. Thorsen was born in Brookline, Mass., and attended the old Benjamin Franklin University in Washington.
He was a member of the Arlington Better Sports Club and coached youth sports in Northern Virginia. He was president of the McLean Little League and Arlington Babe Ruth Baseball.
He lived in Arlington until moving to Ocean Pines, Md., in 1996. At the Ocean Pines Country Club, Mr. Thorsen and his son, Michael Earle Thorsen of Arlington, won the club's member-guest golf championship three times, from 2002 to 2004.
Survivors include his wife of 48 years, Barbara A. Thorsen of Ocean Pines; three other children, Deborah Bosley of Chesapeake, Va., Linda Garcia of Richmond and Diane Parker of Newton Grove, N.C.; a brother; a sister; and six grandchildren.
Homer Angelos BacasReal Estate BrokerHomer Angelos Bacas, 82, a longtime Northern Virginia real estate broker, died of a stroke Sept. 9 at Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore. He lived in Burke.
Mr. Bacas was born in Washington and was a graduate of Roosevelt High School. As a boy, he helped operate the scoreboard during Washington Senators games at Griffith Stadium.
He attended Virginia Tech for two years before serving in the Navy during World War II.
After the war, he worked in family restaurants in Washington and had an exterminating business. In 1960, Mr. Bacas moved to Fairfax County and opened a real estate brokerage firm, Bacas Co. Real Estate. He was president of the company until his retirement in 2000.
He was a member of the Masons and a life member of the Arlington-Fairfax Elks Lodge. He was also a member of St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Washington and St. Katherine Greek Orthodox Church in Falls Church.
He moved to the Heatherwood retirement community in Burke in 2004.
His wife of 55 years, Estelle "Chickie" Mandris Bacas, died in 2004.
Survivors include four daughters, Diane Hoffman of Fredericksburg, Georgia Martin of Baltimore, and Christina Gibson and Eleni Woglom, both of Fairfax County; and eight grandchildren.
Enid Brossard ZukowskiHomemaker, Amateur MusicianEnid Cecil Brossard Zukowski, 96, a homemaker and amateur musician, died Sept. 16 of a heart ailment at Millennium Health and Rehabilitation at South River, an Edgewater nursing facility. She was a longtime resident of Forestville.
Mrs. Zukowski was born in Lewisville, Idaho, and attended Idaho State University. She taught third grade in Idaho before moving to Washington in the 1930s and working as a secretary with the federal government. In her leisure time, she played cello in an amateur orchestra, where she met her husband to be.
She lived in Baltimore from 1944 to 1955, when she moved to Forestville. She was a member of the Suitland Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Her husband of 48 years, Boleslaw Dominick Zukowski, died in 1989.
Survivors include two sons, Jan B. Zukowski of Edgewater and Robert E. Zukowski of Richmond; a sister; and a grandson.
Richard Francis DownsHealth-Care ConsultantRichard Francis Downs, 94, a retired health-care consultant, died of cardiopulmonary arrest Sept. 19 at Cherrydale Health and Rehabilitation Center in Arlington.
Mr. Downs was born in Calumet City, Ill. He joined the Navy in 1942 and taught radio electronics at Great Lakes Naval Station in Chicago and Treasure Island Naval Station in San Francisco Bay.
After World War II ended, he returned to his home town and worked as a supervisor at Lever Brothers Co. He married and had four children, and after the GI Bill was enacted, he moved his family to California, where he graduated summa cum laude from the University of California at Berkeley in two years. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
He went to work in 1950 for U.S. Rep. John F. Shelley, a newly elected Democrat, and moved to Arlington. He spent 10 years on Capitol Hill. Mr. Downs retired in 1975 from the now-defunct Gordon Friesen International as a health-care consultant.
His wife of 66 years, Katherine E. Downs, died in 2002. A son, James C. Downs, died in 1992.
Survivors include three daughters, Judith D. Tinelli of Falls Church, Katherine D. Foster of Fredericksburg, Tex., and Marie D. Kyriakeas of Stoupa, Greece; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Zoe J. GadonasHomemaker, RestaurateurZoe J. Gadonas, 93, who worked in her family's Majestic Cafe in Old Town Alexandria for 20 years, died of peripheral vascular disease Sept. 7 at her home in Alexandria.
Mrs. Gadonas was primarily a homemaker until her husband, John D. Gadonas, died in 1958. He had started the iconic, white-tablecloth restaurant on King Street in 1935; it attracted judges, baseball star Walter "Big Train" Johnson and entertainer Arthur Godfrey. After her husband's death, Mrs. Gadonas and their daughter Pauline operated the restaurant until it closed in 1978.
Mrs. Gadonas was born in Macedonia, Greece, in October 1912, the same week that Macedonians rebelled against Ottoman rule. The rifle shots that traditionally accompanied a birth announcement were accompanied that week with cannon fire.
She married in 1934 and moved to the United States the following year. She was an avid gardener and loved to cook, and was well known for her pastries. She was a member of St. Katherine Greek Orthodox Church, the Philoptohos Society, the Daughters of Penelope and the Pan-Macedonian Association of Washington.
In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by her daughters Pauline J. Gadonas in 1997 and Eugenia J. Gadonas in 2002.
Survivors include a son, Demetrios "Jim" Gadonas of Alexandria; and two grandchildren.