Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Ernst S. MaasCIA Economic Analyst

Ernst Salomon Maas, 82, who spent nearly 25 years as a CIA economic analyst, died June 2 at the National Lutheran Home in Rockville. He had Alzheimer's disease.

Mr. Maas specialized in the European economy during his career with the CIA. After his retirement in 1980, he continued as a CIA consultant and attended economic summits.

He was born in Mannheim, Germany, to a Jewish family that fled the country after the anti-Semitic Kristallnacht attacks of 1938. They settled in Houston, where they had relatives.

He became a U.S. citizen and served in the Army in Europe. He participated in the Normandy invasion and the Battle of the Bulge. His decorations included the Purple Heart.

After recuperating in England after a mortar shell landed near him, he became a military government translator in Vienna.

He also attended economics classes at Cambridge University before returning to the United States. He received a bachelor's degree at Houston's Rice University and a master's degree in economics at the University of Texas in Austin. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Rice.

Mr. Maas, a Potomac resident, received a certificate for his 500 hours of volunteer work for the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. He also volunteered in the library of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington in Rockville.

He enjoyed listening to classical music and was an amateur photographer.

Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Jeanette Herson Maas of Potomac; two children, M. Steven Maas of Brookline, Mass., and Ann Wagner of Potomac; and two granddaughters.

-- Adam Bernstein