Friday, March 30, 2007

Frank H. LaubingerCIA Officer

Frank Herbert Laubinger, 80, who retired from the CIA in 1980 as a technical operations officer, died March 10 at the Greenspring Village retirement community in Springfield. He had pneumonia and Parkinson's disease.

Mr. Laubinger joined the Central Intelligence Agency in the early 1950s as a chemist and later served as chief of a technical support branch.

He was a native Washingtonian and a 1944 graduate of Eastern High School. He served in the Pacific during World War II and participated in amphibious landings on Borneo. He was a 1952 education and chemistry graduate of George Washington University.

He moved to Greenspring Village from McLean in 2002. He was a former president of the Salona Village residents association in McLean. He had memberships in several nature preservation groups.

In Westmoreland County, Va., where he had a second home, he worked to preserve bluebirds. He also became a certified master gardener.

He formerly attended Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax in Oakton.

Mr. Laubinger had an interest in genealogy and helped unite family members in the United States and Germany.

Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Alice Griffin Laubinger of Springfield; three children, Donna Herring of Cocoa Beach, Fla., Scott Laubinger of Reston and Kurt Laubinger of Great Falls; two sisters, Elsie Beach of Fredericksburg and Virginia Barnes of McLean; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Sheila R. Kotkin Paper, 63, a real estate agent for the past 20 years, died of complications of a heart attack and diabetes March 9 at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. She lived in Gaithersburg.

Mrs. Paper was a real estate agent in Maryland and Virginia for RE/MAX Realty Group in Gaithersburg and RE/MAX Preferred Properties in Vienna.

Previously, she worked as an administrator at the National Institutes of Health for about eight years in the late 1960s to early 1970s. During the rest of that decade, she ran a word-processing business, Village Secretarial Services, out of her home.

She was a member of the 100 Club, Hadassah and the Washington chapter of the Brandeis University National Women's Committee, which she was co-president of at the time of her death. She also was active in Brandeis Science for Life campaign to raise $1 million to fund a state-of-the-art laboratory devoted to research in neurodegenerative diseases.

An accomplished knitter, Mrs. Paper sold many of her works for charity. She enjoyed playing and teaching games such as mah-jongg, canasta and bridge. She was an exceptional cook who liked to bake. She also enjoyed the ocean and reading on the beach.

Survivors include her husband of 36 years, Michael Paper of Gaithersburg; a son, David Paper of Sterling; and a sister.