Obituaries

Survivors include his mother, Patricia L. Ingold of Springfield, and two sisters, Dale Monno and Joyce Lacovara, both of Alexandria.

Henry F. VollmerPlanning Specialist

Henry F. Vollmer, 78, who served for 18 years as academic planning specialist for the Maryland State Board for Higher Education before retiring in 1990, died Sept. 24 of congestive heart failure and diabetic complications at his home in Bowie.

Before that job, Dr. Vollmer was a faculty member at the University of Maryland in College Park from 1972 to 1976. While based in Heidelberg, Germany, from 1963 to 1972, he headed the foreign language department of the European division of the university, which was the first college, contracted by the Defense Department, to send faculty and staff to Europe after World War II to teach military members there.

Dr. Vollmer, a Chicago native, graduated from the University of Illinois. He also received a master's degree in German from the University of Chicago and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Maryland.

He served in the Army during the occupation in Berlin in the early 1950s. Afterward, he taught English to Germans in the German school system and German to U.S. citizens there.

He had lived in the Washington area for 34 years.

He volunteered with the U.S. Census Bureau and the Maryland State Board of Elections.

Dr. Vollmer had a vast knowledge of American and European literature, art, music, history and culture. He was well versed in about 10 foreign languages and enjoyed extensive traveling.

Survivors include his wife, Barbara Vollmer, of Bowie; three sons, Mark Vollmer of Bowie, Thomas Vollmer of Tega Cay, S.C., and Daniel Vollmer of Edgewater; a sister; and two grandchildren.

Sinclair S. 'Sandy' MartelState Department Official

Sinclair S. "Sandy" Martel, 68, deputy assistant secretary of state for politico-military affairs in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, died of cardiopulmonary arrest Oct. 4 at Prince William Hospital in Manassas. He lived in Gainesville.

A retired Navy captain, he led a team of U.S. experts in 1992 to Israel to inspect that nation's Patriot missile holdings, investigating charges that missile equipment had been improperly sent to China.

Capt. Martel, a native of Hartford, Conn., graduated from Trinity College in 1959. He was commissioned into the Navy in 1960 and served 27 years as a naval intelligence specialist. In 1977, he graduated from the Naval War College, and among his military awards were three Legions of Merit.

He worked in the 1988 presidential political campaign for the Bush-Quayle ticket and served in the office of the president-elect and the office of presidential personnel. In October 1989, he was appointed to the State Department. He retired in 1993.

Capt. Martel was an Eagle Scout, scoutmaster and a member of the Knights of Columbus. He enjoyed golf.

His first wife, Ellen Jean Martel, died in 1999.

Survivors include his wife, Madeleine "Maddy" Cullinane Martel of Gainesville; two children from his first marriage, Elizabeth Marie Monroe of Springfield and Charles Sinclair Martel of Atlanta; a sister; a brother; and five grandchildren.