Saturday, January 13, 2007
William Myron DavisTranslator, College Professor
William Myron Davis, 72, a linguist and former college professor who worked as a translator for the FBI, died Dec. 31 at his home in Silver Spring of complications from pancreatic cancer.
Dr. Davis, who was fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Catalan and German, worked 11 years for the FBI before retiring in the early 1990s.
Earlier, he had served on the faculty as a professor of Spanish and Portuguese at St. Louis University, the University of Florida, the Stephen A. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Tex., Christian Brothers College in Memphis and what is now the University of Memphis.
Dr. Davis was a native of New York and a graduate of Queens College. He received a master's degree in French from Columbia University and a doctorate in Portuguese and Brazilian literature from New York University. In retirement, he wrote articles, book reviews and translations of poetry published in Portuguese, Spanish and German.
He also volunteered as a translator at Washington Adventist Hospital.
Survivors include his wife, Carmen Elena Davis of Silver Spring; a son, William Henrique Davis of Kensington, and a daughter, Claire Davis of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and five grandchildren.
Ethel M. PhillipsLegal Secretary
Ethel M. Phillips, 90, a legal secretary at Montgomery County law firms in the 1960s and 1970s, died Jan. 4 at Appalachian Christian Village nursing home in Johnson City, Tenn., She had pneumonia.
Mrs. Phillips worked at Kardy, Brannan & Neumann as well as Staley, Prescott & Ballman, among other firms.
Ethel Milstead, a Silver Spring native, was a 1934 graduate of the old Takoma-Silver Spring High School and a graduate of Strayer Business College in Washington. Early on, she did secretarial work for the Farm Security Administration.
She was a member of Marvin Memorial United Methodist Church in Silver Spring, where she had been a Sunday school teacher and directed the children's choir, among other activities.
Her hobbies included playing Scrabble and gardening.
She moved to Tennessee from Silver Spring about three years ago.
Her husband, Edward C. Phillips, died in 1998. Two sons died, Richard Phillips in 1983 and Thomas Phillips in 1992.
Survivors include a daughter, Ellen P. Matthews of Gray, Tenn.; and four grandchildren.
R. Colin ParkhillElectrical EngineerRobert Colin Parkhill, 69, an electrical engineer who worked with several broadcasting entities before retiring from Communications Engineering Inc. in Newington in 2000, died of cancer Dec. 29 at his home in Las Cruces, N.M. He was a former resident of Alexandria.
Mr. Parkhill was born in Dublin and was a 1961 electrical engineering graduate of Queens University in Belfast. After graduation, he began working as a field engineer with the British Broadcasting Corporation and then in 1964 with Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in Great Britain.
In 1965, he immigrated to the United States with his new wife, eventually settling in Camden, N.J. He continued his career there with RCA as a product engineering specialist for television stations. He moved to Alexandria in 1974, where he became an RCA broadcast sales representative for the Washington area.
He later held technical positions with Phillips Television Systems Inc., BTS, Sony and King Video Associates in Springfield. He concluded his career as a service engineer with Communications Engineering, providing technical repair and maintenance services to broadcasters, post-production facilities and other audio-visual clients.
He was a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.
Mr. Parkhill's greatest passion was flying, and he proudly earned his private pilot's license at age 57. He also was infatuated with photography and left a legacy of albums that meticulously documented his world travels and his family. He was an enthusiast of all genres of music and attended concerts regularly.
Mr. Parkhill fulfilled his dream of retiring to a home in the desert in 2004.
Survivors include his wife Ann Parkhill of Las Cruces; two daughters, Caroline Felps of Dallas and Diane Heipel of Richmond; a sister; and two brothers.
Nancy Brelsford ThawleyRepublican Party Fundraiser
Nancy Brelsford Thawley, 74, a longtime Republican Party fundraiser and activist, died of pneumonia Jan. 8 at George Washington University Hospital. She was a resident of the District.
Mrs. Thawley was born in Houston and attended Rice University and the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a member of Pi Phi Sorority. She became involved in Texas Republican Party efforts in the 1960s, serving as state Republican committeewoman and vice chair of the Harris County Republican Party. She worked closely with Houston congressman and future president George H.W. Bush.
She moved to Washington with her family in the early 1970s and joined the Republican National Committee in 1975 as a member of the finance division. She worked with then-Finance Chairman Jeremiah Milbank, Buckley M. Byers and William J. McManus in establishing the Repubican Eagle program, a national organization of individual major contributors. She served under seven national party chairmen and six national finance chairmen, raising funds in every election cycle from 1976 through 1998.
During the 1995-96 election cycle, she directed major contributor programs for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She retired in 1998 as director of finance for Republican Eagles.
Mrs. Thawley was active in the National Federation of Republican Women and the Junior Leagues of Houston and Washington.
Her marriage to Tom Thawley ended in divorce.
Survivors include a daughter, Virginia Elizabeth Thawley of the District; and two grandchildren.
Graciela "Chela" OlsenSpanish TeacherGraciela "Chela" Olsen, who taught Spanish at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School from 1986 to 1992 and was a former co-head of the Georgetown Garden Tour, died of respiratory failure Jan. 8 at Winchester Gardens at Ward Homestead in Maplewood, N.J. She was 82.
Mrs. Olsen also taught Spanish at Coolidge High School in the District from 1967 to 1971 and was a board member of the former Georgetown Children's House.
She was born Graciela Virginia Gamio in Lima, Peru, and came to the United States in 1941 to attend college. She graduated in 1945 from Russell Sage College in Troy, N.Y.
She married Arthur J. Olsen in 1950, and the couple moved to Washington the next year. She lived overseas during her husband's assignments as a foreign correspondent for the New York Times from 1955 to 1965 and his diplomatic postings with the U.S. Foreign Service, including acting U.S. ambassador to Sweden and deputy chief of mission in Belgium, from 1971 to 1980.
Mrs. Olsen was known for her abilities as a hostess when she and her husband lived in Bonn, Germany; Warsaw; Buenos Aires; Stockholm; Brussels and, from 1980, Georgetown, when her husband joined the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
While living in Europe, Mrs. Olsen was active in international women's organizations. In Germany, she was a producer of plays for a local community theater, the Plittersdorf Players.
She moved to New Jersey in 2003, the year her husband died.
Survivors include two children, Patricia Olsen Matthews of Short Hills, N.J., and Christopher A. Olsen of San Juan, Puerto Rico; and two grandchildren.
Emily Schubach LampertMath ProfessorEmily Schubach Lampert, 92, a longtime professor of mathematics at Mount Vernon College, died Jan. 7 at Homerton Hospital in London of a heart attack following a broken hip. A Bethesda resident, she had been visiting her daughter in London during the holidays.
Mrs. Lampert was born in Chicago and grew up in Indianapolis. She received her undergraduate degree in mathematics and English from Northwestern University in 1934 and became an advertising copywriter for Montgomery Ward catalogs. Later, she became a catalog manager.
She moved to the Washington area in 1942 after her marriage to a Navy officer and began math tutoring. She moved to Bethesda in 1950 and in 1952 joined the faculty of Mount Vernon College, now a part of George Washington University. She received a master's degree in mathematics from American University in 1957.
She remained at Mount Vernon until her retirement in 1980. She was a member of the Seymour Club, a women's group, and enjoyed travel.
Her husband, Chester G. Lampert, died in 1981.
Survivors include two daughters, Jean Woy of Brookline, Mass., and Catherine Lampert of London; and a granddaughter.
Michael A. Mucci Sr.Mechanical EngineerMichael A. Mucci Sr., 85, a retired mechanical engineer, died of liver disease Jan. 6 at Montgomery General Hospital.
He spent about 30 years with Genco Tool and Engineering in Silver Spring. He next worked about 10 years until the mid-1980s for what was then the National Bureau of Standards.
Mr. Mucci, who lived in Wheaton, was born in Camden, N.J. He served in World War II as a chief petty officer outfitting Navy ships with radar equipment.
He was a past president of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and a member of the American Legion Post 268 in Wheaton.
Survivors include his wife of 58 years, Martha B. Mucci of Wheaton; two children, Marilyn A. Woodall of Chesapeake, Va., and Michael A. Mucci Jr. of Brookeville; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Ronald R. ConnerEconomist
Ronald R. Conner, 50, an economist and water resources planner with the Army Corps of Engineers, died of liver cancer Jan. 6 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. He lived in Silver Spring.
Mr. Connor worked as a senior economist for the Corps' Institute for Water Resources at Fort Belvoir since 2002. He helped establish the Interagency Flood Hazard Advisory teams and developed flood risk management initiatives for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies and the Association of State Floodplain Managers.
He also served as U.S. Section secretary of the Permanent International Association of Navigation Congresses.
Mr. Conner was born in Oxnard, Calif., and joined the Navy out of high school. He later graduated from the University of La Verne in California and began working for the Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles as an economist, rising to chief of the economics and social analysis branch.
He moved to Washington in 1995 to work for the Corps' directorate of civil works in the planning and policy division. He was also an emergency response program manager at the Corps' headquarters. He received the agency's Leadership Award for Excellence and its Commander's Award for Civilian Service.
Mr. Conner was a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and a season ticket holder to the D.C. United soccer team. He enjoyed traveling overseas, with trips to Iceland, Scotland, Greece, Turkey, China, Japan, Bermuda, Italy and Switzerland.
He had no immediate survivors.
Charles W. Humphreys Jr.Internal Medicine Doctor
Charles W. Humphreys Jr., 80, an internal medicine doctor who had a private practice in Washington from 1955 to 1987, died Jan. 5 at Sibley Memorial Hospital. He had pulmonary fibrosis and pneumonia.
Overlapping with his private practice, Dr. Humphreys was a clinical professor of internal medicine at George Washington University, a senior aviation medical examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration, a medical adviser to the Board of Veterans' Appeals at the Department of Veterans Affairs and attending physician to senior medical staff at Sibley and Washington Hospital Center.
Charles Wesley Humphreys Jr. was born in Roanoke and grew up in Washington, where he was a 1943 graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School. During World War II, he served in the Navy's V-12 program at Duke University. He was a 1949 graduate of the University of Maryland medical school in Baltimore.
He was a Japan-based Air Force flight surgeon during the Korean War before completing his internship and residency at the old Garfield Memorial Hospital in Washington. He also had a two-year fellowship in internal medicine at the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Humphreys, a Bethesda resident, enjoyed visiting Civil War battlefields. Using his collection of old maps, he would trace troop movements as he hiked the terrain with his family. He also camped at parks in North America.
Survivors include his wife of 56 years, Shirley Charles Humphreys of Bethesda; four children, Eric Humphreys of Columbia, Jane H. Sayler of St. Petersburg, Fla., Bruce Humphreys of Bend, Ore., and Sara E. Sheppard of Silver Spring; and four grandchildren.
S.G. 'Jay' StackigAdvertising Company FounderS.G. "Jay" Stackig, 80, who founded a Washington area advertising and public relations business long known as Stackig, Sanderson and White Inc. that specialized in high-tech and defense clients, died Jan. 6 at his Marshall farmhouse in Fauquier County. He had cancer.
When Mr. Stackig started the firm in Washington in 1960, he hoped to attract new clients by recruiting friends and neighbors to pretend to be staff members of an established, bustling office. His gamble worked. By the time he sold the company in 1987, it reportedly had annual billings of more than $45 million and a staff of 73 in offices in McLean and Melbourne, Fla.
Among the major clients were federal agencies as well as BDM International, an information technology company; Thomson CGR, a manufacturer of medical-imaging equipment; and NEC America, a maker of telecommunications equipment.
Sven Goran Stackig was a 6-foot-6, flamboyant Swede who spoke often about his beginnings in the United States as a janitor at the Swedish Embassy in Washington. Born in Uppsala, Sweden, he was raised by a single mother and immigrated to the United States in 1946.
He received a bachelor's degree in business administration from American University in 1949 and, having received U.S. citizenship, served in the Air Force from 1952 to 1954. He was assigned to a psychological warfare unit in Idaho.
After his military service, he was a sales representative for a lawn equipment company. On a swing through Texas, he developed an appreciation for cowboy hats. In later years, he was known for his sea captain headgear as well as his ownership of a variety of boats.
He was an account executive at the M. Belmont Ver Standig advertising agency before starting his own business.
He also was a founder, in 1969, of Bethesda-based Scientific Time Sharing Corp., which became one of the country's largest computer service companies. He and his second wife also started a land development company in Culpeper. Mr. Stackig designed, built or renovated every house he lived in, from Virginia to the Florida Keys.
His marriage to Beverly Beckett Stackig ended in divorce. A son from that marriage, Stefan Stackig, died in 1979.
Survivors include his wife, Annette Dodd Stackig, whom he married in 1968, of Marshall; a daughter from his first marriage, Viveca Morris of Winston-Salem, N.C.; two stepsons, Frank Dodd of Boston, Va., and Bruce Dodd of Rapidan, Va.; seven grandchildren; and a great-grandson.
Edward L. HuntResearch Psychologist
Edward L. Hunt, 82, a retired research psychologist at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research who studied the biological effects of electromagnetic radiation, died Dec. 29 at his home in Olney. He had metastatic melanoma.
Mr. Hunt worked at the institute from 1975 to 1988, spending the first two years as chief of the microwave research department. His research on non-ionizing radiation, which includes microwaves and radio waves, helped establish standards in the field of bioelectromagnetic research and determine safe exposure levels for humans.
Edward Lawrence Hunt was a native of East Lansing, Mich., and a 1946 philosophy and psychology graduate of Michigan State University. He did graduate work in psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles.
He spent much of his early career as a biological and experimental research psychologist at the old Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory in San Francisco. He received a lab award for his work on X-rays and their effect on the nervous system.
From 1969 to 1975, he was a research psychologist at Battelle-Northwest in Richland, Wash., and helped develop a powerful measuring device called a twin-well calorimeter to measure amounts of absorbed microwave energy.
With Donald J. Kimeldorf, he wrote "Ionizing Radiation: Neural Function and Behavior" (1965). Mr. Hunt also had articles about ionizing radiation published in such journals as Nature and Science.
He was a founding member, first secretary and treasurer of the Bioelectromagnetics Society, an organization of scientists who study electromagnetics. He also held roles on public policy advisory committees for the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal and scientific bodies.
He was a member of the Randolph Lions Club in Rockville, where he did fundraising work to help the needy buy glasses. He also had a key role in the growth of Lions Camp Merrick in Charles County.
His avocations included gardening, salmon fishing, camping, polka dancing and hosting crab feeds.
His marriage to Shirley Williams Hunt ended in divorce.
Survivors include his partner, Peggy White of Olney; a daughter from his first marriage, Stephanie Hunt of San Francisco; and a son he helped raise with White, Joshua Rose of Olney.