Obituaries

His positions at NIST included chief of the office of air and water measurement, manager of measures for air quality, chief of the physical chemistry division and section chief of photochemistry and radiation chemistry.

In the 1950s, Dr. McNesby worked at the U.S. Naval Ordnance Test Station in China Lake, Calif., conducting research on photochemistry of highly reactive molecules. He became a leading authority in the field, chairing national and international photochemistry conferences, lecturing, writing or co-writing several book chapters, and publishing more than 80 articles in scientific journals.

Dr. McNesby was a native of Bayonne, N.J., and a Phi Beta Kappa chemistry graduate of Ohio University. After serving in the Army at the end of World War II, he earned a doctorate degree in physical chemistry from New York University.

His professional honors included the 1958 Rockefeller Public Service Award, the Commerce Department's Silver and Gold medals, and the Robert Rowan award for service to the University of Maryland.

A sports fan throughout his life, he cheered the old St. Louis Browns baseball team and continued to follow them after the team moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles. He was a Washington Redskins season ticket holder for more than 40 years.

Survivors include his wife of 58 years, Helen Louise Rittenhouse McNesby of Arlington; three children, Kevin McNesby of Churchville, Md., James McNesby of Falls Church and Shawn Fischer of Tivoli, N.Y.; and five grandchildren.

Sara Mae McIntyreGovernment Lawyer

Sara Mae Hammond Knight McIntyre, 93, a government lawyer who retired in 1972 as assistant general counsel for the Small Business Administration, died Dec. 30 at her home in Arlington after a series of strokes.

Mrs. McIntyre was born in Summerville, Ga., and raised in Alabama. She graduated from the University of Alabama, where she also was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of its law school in 1936.

After beginning her career in Birmingham as a project lawyer for the federal Resettlement Administration, she moved to Washington in 1937 to take a position with the Social Security Administration.

In 1938, she moved to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and subsequently to the Small Business Administration.

She was a parliamentarian of the Washington Club as well as a member of the club's preservation fund committee. She was a member of First Baptist Church in Washington, where she was a recipient of its Truman Award for Christian service and a member of the board of directors of the First Baptist Church Foundation.

She also belonged to the Phi Mu social sorority.

Her first husband, C. Louis Knight, died in 1985, after 41 years of marriage. In 1988, she married former deputy assistant Postmaster General C.A. McIntyre. He died in 1996.

Survivors include a stepdaughter, Joy McIntyre of Sarasota, Fla.