Obituaries

Michael Joseph HayEconomist

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Michael Joseph Hay, 65, a retired economist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, died of complications from multiple sclerosis June 12 at Inova Alexandria Hospital. He lived in Alexandria.

Dr. Hay was born in Minneapolis and attended Beloit College in Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota before joining the Peace Corps in 1963. He was a volunteer in the West African country of Guinea for two years and became interested in economic development while assigned to an agricultural station. He met and married his wife, a fellow Peace Corps volunteer, in Guinea.

After returning to the United States, Dr. Hay completed his bachelor's degree at the University of Minnesota and received a doctorate in agricultural and applied economics from the university in 1974. In 1971-72, he conducted research in Tunisia for his dissertation on rural-to-urban migration.

He moved to Alexandria in 1974 to work for the Environmental Protection Agency, then transferred to the Fish and Wildlife Service two years later. He worked in the policy and planning division, later the division of economics, until he retired in 2004. He worked on projects affecting the California sea otter and the Oregon spotted owl.

Survivors include his wife of 42 years, Ann Marie Y. Hay of Alexandria; two children, David C. Hay of Orange, Va., and Megan E. Hay of Williamsburg; a brother; two sisters; and three grandchildren.

-- Matt Schudel

Paul B. RichardsMathematician

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Paul B. Richards, 82, who was a mathematician with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, died June 30 of kidney failure at his home in Harrisonburg, Va.

Dr. Richards was born in North Attleboro, Mass., and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946. After serving in the Navy, he received master's degrees in mathematics in the 1950s from Harvard University and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He received a doctorate in mathematics from Case Western in 1959.

In 1968, he joined the Naval lab, where his research on the motion of celestial objects was applied to the manned space flight program.

Dr. Richards was a fellow of the American Astronautical Society and, as its president in 1971-72, promoted commercial applications of space technology. He also co-wrote a book on computerized systems to help evacuate victims for medical treatment during disasters.