Thursday, April 12, 2007
Leonard Filson ParkinsonLobbyist
Leonard Filson Parkinson, 69, a lobbyist for Aerojet Corp. and a former CIA analyst, died March 31 of pancreatic cancer at his home in McLean.
Mr. Parkinson was born in Scott City, Kan., and was a 1959 history graduate of the University of Kansas. Awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, he attended graduate school at the University of Washington, receiving a master's degree in political science in 1960.
At the Central Intelligence Agency, which he joined in 1961, he was a Soviet political and military analyst for the Special Research Staff, a branch chief in the Office of Strategic Research and a special representative to the Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction Talks.
A member of the Army Reserve, Mr. Parkinson was part of the 226th Military Intelligence Detachment, which was mobilized in response to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. After demobilization in 1962, he joined the CIA's reserve unit, serving until his discharge as a first lieutenant in 1967.
After retiring from the CIA in 1976, he was awarded a sabbatical with the Congressional Fellowship Program of the American Political Science Association. He later served three years on the staff of Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.), working primarily on legislation that came before the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Defense Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
In 1981, he became director of government relations for the Atlantic Research Corp. He retired in 2003 but continued to work part time as ARC's rocket propulsion advocate for the PAC-3 missile defense system, the Minuteman III ICBM and the Trident II D5 missile. The company was acquired in 2003 by Aerojet, which retained Mr. Parkinson as a part-time lobbyist.
He was a member of the board of directors of the American Political Science Association's Congressional Fellowship Program and belonged to the Association of the U.S. Army, Air Force Association, Navy League and Lions International. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was a Cub Scout and Boy Scout leader.
Mr. Parkinson also was a sculptor in metal and stone. He studied under the late Constantine L. Seferlis, a master stone carver known for his work at the National Cathedral and other Washington area sites.
Mr. Parkinson was most proud of an Indian limestone bust he carved of Albert Einstein, a personal hero. He had hoped to finish stone busts of two other heroes, Charles Darwin and Samuel Filson, his maternal grandfather. More recently, he had been focusing on metal works, with busts of his late son, his daughter and daughter-in-law, as well as U.S. soldiers in Iraq, horses and wildlife on his western Kansas farm.
His son, Scott Edward Parkinson, died in 2004.
Survivors include his wife of 44 years, Judith Gorton Parkinson of McLean; a daughter, Jennifer Parkinson Lawner of Baltimore; and a sister.
Gertrude GreensladeEconomist
Gertrude Schroeder Greenslade, 87, an economist at the CIA and the University of Virginia, died of renal failure March 30 at Powhatan Nursing Home in Fairfax County. She lived in McLean.
Mrs. Greenslade was an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1954 until 1969 and worked as a consultant to the CIA from 1993 until her death. She was a member of the faculty at the University of Virginia from 1969 until 1993, when she retired.
She was born in Albuquerque and graduated from Colorado State University. She received two degrees in economics from Johns Hopkins University, a master's in 1948 and a doctorate in 1953.
Her specialty was the study of Soviet and Eastern European economies. Mrs. Greenslade was fluent in Russian and was a former president of both the Southern Conference on Slavic Studies and the Association for Comparative Economics.
Her first husband, William Schroeder, died in 1966. Her second husband, Rush V. Greenslade, died in 1978.
Survivors include three stepchildren from her second marriage, Richard M. Greenslade of Milan, Rush D. Greenslade of Chapel Hill, N.C., and Robert L. Greenslade of Elk, Wash.; a half sister; and two half brothers.
Wallace E. Reed Sr.Greenhouse Owner
Wallace E. Reed Sr., 81, a greenhouse owner, florist and grower at St. Elizabeths Hospital, died of cancer March 23 at Southern Maryland Hospital in Clinton. He lived in Fort Washington.
Mr. Reed owned and operated Reed's Greenhouses and Barbara's Florist in Suitland from 1974 to 1990. He then joined the federally owned mental hospital in the District as a grower and groundskeeper, working there until a few months ago.
He was born in South Burlington, Vt., and served in the Navy during World War II in the United States. He was a fighter pilot and helped develop experimental radio-controlled aircraft.
After the war, he graduated from the University of Vermont and worked for the next 25 years on Long Island, N.Y., for A.M. Dauernheim Inc., one of the largest commercial floral greenhouses in the nation at the time. He specialized in growing flowering plants, including azaleas, lilies, poinsettias, cyclamen and mums.
In 1974, Mr. Reed and his family moved to Bowie, where he enjoyed growing many varieties of tomatoes in his home garden. He later moved to Fort Washington.
He was a member of Corcoran Memorial United Methodist Church in Temple Hills.
Survivors include his wife of 59 years, Betty Jean Melton Reed of Fort Washington; two sons, Wallace E. Reed Jr. of Purcellville and James E. Reed of Fort Washington; and a grandson.
Ralph Evans Goodwin Jr.Advertising ExecutiveRalph Evans Goodwin Jr.,73, who owned an advertising specialty business, died April 5 at his home in Vienna of a subdural hematoma, the result of a fall from a ladder at his home 11 months earlier.
Mr. Goodwin, an advertising executive for General Electric Corp. for 21 years, formed his own company in 1981 and operated it for 17 years. In 1998, he sold it and worked part time with the advertising department of the Connection newspapers in Alexandria.
Born in Hackensack, N.J., he survived polio as a toddler. His family moved to Miami while he was in his teens. He graduated from the University of Florida and received a master's degree in journalism from Pennsylvania State University in 1957.
He joined the Air Force in 1957 and served as an information officer in the Philippines and in Minot, N.D.
After three years in the military, Mr. Goodwin worked for GE in Illinois, New York, Massachusetts and North Carolina before settling in Northern Virginia in 1976.
He enjoyed traveling in his motor home to the 48 contiguous states, as well as Mexico and Canada. He also enjoyed gardening, photography, cooking and music and was a member of the Metropolitan Washington Old-Time Radio Club.
Survivors include his wife of 44 years, Myrna Goodwin of Vienna; four children, Brenda Goodwin Dixon of Lothian, Daniel L. Goodwin of Boston, Ralph E. Goodwin III of Birmingham, Ala., and John T. Goodwin of Manassas; and six grandchildren.