Obituaries

In 2004, he moved to Newport Beach, Calif., from Chevy Chase.

His avocations included skiing, tennis, ballroom dancing and writing poetry.

His marriages to Anne Waterman Cooley and Edna Hammer Cooley ended in divorce.

Survivors include four children from the first marriage, Jean Cooley of Forks, Wash., Brian Cooley of Mequon, Wis., Stuart Cooley of Newport Beach and Laura Cooley of Seattle; a brother; and three grandchildren.

William T. GreenvilleBusiness Owner

William Thomas Greenville, 82, president of Applied Natural Systems, a business he started with his brother in 1980 to manufacture a soil-stabilization product used in road building, died Nov. 1 at Holy Cross Hospital. He had complications from prostate cancer.

Mr. Greenville spent most of his early career as an estimator for Edward G. Scharf, a construction-cost consulting business.

He was born in Hannibal, Mo., and raised in suburban Maryland. He was a graduate of St. John's College High School in Washington.

During World War II, he served in the Army in Europe. While with the Chemical Warfare Service in 1944, he received the Silver Star for actions near Saint Malo, France.

The citation credited Mr. Greenville for saving the lives of a dozen U.S. soldiers by effecting the surrender of Saint Malo's German-held citadel without further strafing and bombing by U.S. attack planes. At one point, he risked his life by racing to an exposed area and waving identification panels he removed from vehicles to get the attention of the planes.

His other decorations included the Purple Heart.

He was a member of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Kensington and its Holy Name society. He was a longtime Kensington resident and moved to Silver Spring two years ago.

Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Modeste Majewski Greenville of Rockville; two children, Catherine R. Camut of Rockville and William T. Greenville III of Huntington Beach, Calif.; and three grandchildren.

Thomas F. CroninPost Office Employee

Thomas Francis Cronin, 87, who retired in 1971 after 30 years as an accountant and mechanization specialist with the old Post Office Department in Washington, died Oct. 24 at Harris Methodist Southwest Hospital in Fort Worth. He had ischemic colitis.

Mr. Cronin was a native Washingtonian and a 1937 graduate of Gonzaga High School.

A former Silver Spring resident, he left the Washington area after retiring and lived in Pennsylvania and Florida before moving to Fort Worth in 1999.

He was a member of the Knights of Columbus.

Survivors include his wife of 54 years, Dorothy Beard Cronin of Fort Worth; two daughters, Karen Cannon and Fay Scramlin, both of Burleson, Tex.; a sister, Rita Rourke of Frederick; six granddaughters; and six great-grandchildren.

Lawrence Bruce TaishoffBroadcasting Publisher

Lawrence Bruce Taishoff, 73, former president and publisher of Broadcasting magazine, died of respiratory failure Nov. 1 at Washington Hospital Center. He had diabetes.

Mr. Taishoff, whose father, Sol Taishoff, founded the Washington-based trade publication in 1931, led it from 1973 until 1996. The 75-year-old publication is regarded as the bible of the industry, chronicling the history of radio, television, cable and satellite, and considered unparalleled in its coverage of broadcast regulation.

The magazine was bought in 1986 by the Los Angeles-based Times Mirror Corp. for $75 million, and Mr. Taishoff stayed on for another decade as publisher, then chairman. Times Mirror sold it to Cahners Publications, now Reed Business Information, in 1991.

After the sale of the magazine, Mr. Taishoff, who had always considered broadcast ownership a conflict of interest during his magazine years, briefly co-owned Chuckie Broadcasting. He also became involved in real estate investments in the Washington area.

Mr. Taishoff was born in Washington, graduated from Duke University in 1955 and served in the Army's 101st Airborne Division in Germany. He joined Broadcasting in 1958 and gravitated to the business side of the publication, soon taking over its publishing operations.

Accredited as a White House correspondent and a member of the White House Press Association, he was for many years co-author of the radio and television segment of the Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year. He was a trustee of the Washington Journalism Center and a board member of the National Press Foundation.

His interest in the Broadcast Pioneers organization led to his financial support of the Library of American Broadcasting, now at the University of Maryland in College Park.

The Taishoff family's real estate interests multiplied alongside the magazine business, and Mr. Taishoff was among a group of Washington executives in the 1980s who tried to lure a professional baseball team back to the city. He had homes and offices on the western shore of Maryland and in Naples, Fla., as well as in metropolitan Washington.

He was a member of Woodmont Country Club, the Cosmos Club, the Society of Professional Journalists and Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity.

His marriages to Nancy Lee Stucky and Pamela Sherwood Taishoff ended in divorce.

Survivors include three sons from his first marriage, Robert Paul Taishoff of Annapolis, Randall Lawrence Taishoff of Cerrillos, N.M., and Jonathan Bradford Taishoff of McLean; and seven grandchildren.