Obituaries

William J. DixonGovernment Attorney

William J. Dixon, 83, an attorney for the old Civil Aeronautics Board and later a House committee, died June 22 at George Washington University Hospital of complications of pulmonary illness.

A native Washingtonian, Mr. Dixon was born in the back seat of an automobile as his parents rushed to the old Garfield Hospital. While growing up, he delivered The Washington Post and worked part time at Giant, Safeway and the Naval Gun Factory. He graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1941.

He enlisted in the Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor and served as an antiaircraft gunner on the aircraft carrier USS Independence. He fought in the battles of Midway, Guam and Tarawa. Mr. Dixon contracted tuberculosis and spent a number of months in Navy hospitals until he was honorably discharged.

He returned to Washington, attended the University of Maryland and then transferred to George Washington University Law School, where he received a law degree in 1950. Thirteen years later, GWU awarded him a bachelor's degree.

Mr. Dixon worked at the National Labor Relations Board for several years and then moved to Louisville to work for a law firm there. He returned to the District in 1955 and became a senior trial attorney at the Civil Aeronautics Board.

In 1964, he was asked to advise the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, where he worked on legislation such as the daylight savings bill and the National Transportation Safety Act. While working there, he lost his vision. Under treatment at the Veterans Administration hospital in the District, he started a low-vision support group.

Mr. Dixon retired from government service in 1974. He was hospitalized in 1978 due to chronic alcoholism and subsequently joined Alcoholics Anonymous. He became a volunteer at Providence Hospital and in 1984 was certified as an addictions counselor. He spent the rest of his life counseling others with the disease.

Survivors include his wife of 49 years, Eugenia Moore Dixon of Washington; five sons, Monsignor Bennet William Dixon of Roanoke, Thomas Watson Dixon of Leesburg, James Jefferson Dixon of Frederick, Damien Joseph Dixon of Port Charlotte, Fla., and Timothy Patrick Dixon of Falling Waters, W.Va.; a sister, Leila Kirby of Solomons Island; eight grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

-- Patricia Sullivan

Joseph F. BurnsAccountant

Joseph Francis Burns, 86, an Air Force Department accountant from 1963 to 1984, died June 28 at Fairfax Nursing Center. He had coronary artery disease and Huntington's disease, a genetic disorder.

Mr. Burns, a former Herndon resident, was a native of Scranton, Pa., and an Army Air Forces veteran of World War II.

He was a 1953 graduate of Washington's Southeastern University, where he also received a master's degree in commercial science in 1954. He was a certified public accountant for businesses before joining the Air Force Department.

In retirement, he taught adults how to read and volunteered for Mended Hearts, a support group for people with heart disease.

His first wife, Mary O'Connor Burns, whom he married in 1950, died in 1973. His wife of 15 years, Martha Phillips Burns, died in March.

Survivors include four children from his first marriage, Janet M. Roma of Stephens City, Va., Robert J. Burns of Charlottesville and Patricia A. Pedersen and Bonnie B. Fairbank, both of Woodbridge; four stepchildren, William R. Phillips of Fairfax Station, Susan P. North of Rosemont, Pa., David D. Phillips of Alpharetta, Ga., and Timothy R. Phillips of Herndon; and 22 grandchildren.

-- Adam Bernstein

Gracemary Greene SnyderLibrarian, Foreign Service Spouse

Gracemary Greene Snyder, 86, a retired librarian at the Wesley Theological Seminary and the spouse of a State Department protocol officer, died of failure to thrive June 24 at Collington Episcopal Life Care Community in Mitchellville.

Mrs. Snyder worked at the seminary for 10 years, retiring in 1992. Previously she accompanied her husband to posts around the world, where she fulfilled many unofficial functions of a diplomat's spouse, including entertaining foreign and U.S. officials.

When the couple returned to the United States about 1970, they settled in Bethesda.

Mrs. Snyder was a native of Reading, Pa., and graduated from Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa., in 1942. She received a master's degree in theological studies from Wesley College in Dover, Del., in 1982.

She was a member of the pastoral care team at River Road Unitarian Church in Bethesda.

Survivors include her husband of 63 years, C. Kenneth Snyder of Mitchellville; three children, Judith L. Munyon of Austin, Wendy S. Wilson of Columbus, Ohio, and Tim Snyder of Bethesda; a sister; nine grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

-- Patricia Sullivan

Don HallNursing Home Administrator

Don Hall, 85, who was an administrator at the D.C. Village, a nursing home in Washington, from 1968 to 1983, died June 22 at his home in Hillsville, Va., where he had lived for seven years.

He was born in Jackson County, Fla., and grew up in Dover, Fla. He was in the National Guard when his unit was mobilized for service in 1940. During World War II, he saw action in New Guinea and the Philippines before the Japanese surrender. After the war, as a member of the 441st Counter Intelligence Corps, he served with the occupation forces in Japan. He accompanied Emperor Hirohito during the emperor's tour of the nation after the war, receiving a box of cigars from the emperor for his role, his family said.

He remained in active service with the Army's Counter Intelligence Corps until his retirement as a chief warrant officer in 1962 in Washington. He lived at posts in Texas, California, Japan, Tennessee, Germany and Washington.

After retirement, he began another career, working as an administrator at Bay County Hospital in Panama City, Fla., before working as administrator at D.C. Village. He retired in 1983.

He was a former member of Franconia Baptist Church. He lived in Springfield and Woodbridge before moving to Florida in 1999.

Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Barbara Hall of Hillsville; three children, Donna Quesenberry of Hillsville, Ron Hall of Raleigh, N.C., and Ken Hall of Dacula, Ga.; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb