Obituaries

-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb

Charles W. SnellPark Service Historian

Charles William Snell, 86, a National Park Service historian from 1948 to 1984 and a longtime Silver Spring resident, died July 8 at Renaissance Gardens nursing home at Riderwood Village in Silver Spring.

A spokeswoman for the Maryland medical examiner's office said determination of the cause of death is pending tests.

Mr. Snell worked for the National Park Service in Washington from 1968 until his retirement.

Earlier, he worked at Saratoga National Historical Park and Roosevelt-Vanderbilt national historic sites, both in New York; Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia; and the Park Service's San Francisco office.

Mr. Snell wrote many park histories, and his Interior Department honors included the Meritorious Service Award.

He was a native of Schenectady, N.Y., where he was a 1943 graduate of Union College. As an undergraduate, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received a master's degree in American history from Columbia University in 1947.

During World War II, Mr. Snell served as an Army Air Forces mail clerk on Guam.

His memberships included the Red Circle, the Sherlock Holmes Society of Washington; and the American Association of University Women's Kensington-Rockville branch, of which he was historian for several terms.

Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Julie Kamerer Snell of Silver Spring; three children, Nancy Anselm of Arnold, Mark Snell of Albuquerque and Scott Snell of Greenbelt; and five grandchildren.

-- Adam Bernstein

Frances P. LewisAdministrative Officer

Frances P. Lewis, 84, a former administrative officer with several defense agencies, died July 18 of a pulmonary embolism at Inova Alexandria Hospital. She had lived in Alexandria for more than 55 years.

Mrs. Lewis was born in Clarksburg, W.Va., and attended business college in West Virginia before moving to Washington in 1942.

She initially worked with the War Commendations Board during World War II and later held a series of administrative positions at the Pentagon, the Defense Logistic Agency and the Naval Research Laboratory, where she retired as an administrative officer in 1982.

Mrs. Lewis also worked as a crossing guard and was a member of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Alexandria.

Her husband of 24 years, Frederick R. Lewis, died in 1969.

Survivors include four children, Sandra L. Rasmussen of Jupiter, Fla., Richard P. Lewis of Clifton, Thomas C. Lewis of Leesburg and David H. Lewis of Seattle; a sister; and six grandchildren.

-- Matt Schudel

Francis L. WycheTrade Association President

Francis Larkin Wyche, 92, longtime president of the Household Goods Carriers' Bureau, a trade association for the leading moving companies, died July 27 at the Jefferson assisted living home in Arlington County. He had congestive heart failure.

Mr. Wyche was president from 1956 to 1981 and remained a consultant with the association, now called the American Moving and Storage Association, until 1994.

The trade group helps determine rates, subject to approval by the Interstate Commerce Commission, state commissions and other regulatory bodies.

Mr. Wyche testified at hearings of many state and federal commissions, as well as in federal court proceedings involving antitrust cases that involve the moving industry.

Mr. Wyche was born in Atlanta and raised in Washington, where he was a 1933 graduate of McKinley Technology High School. He was a graduate of Benjamin Franklin University, from which he also received a master's degree in accounting.

In 1937, he began working at the Household Goods Carriers' Bureau mailroom to pay his college tuition.

During World War II, he handled many details in connection with a large-scale moving operation involving dozens of federal agencies and the household goods of thousands of federal employees in the Washington area.

Mr. Wyche also served in the Army in the Pacific during the war. On one special assignment, he assisted in arrangements for the moving of the household goods of military personnel from the Washington area.

His memberships included Walker Chapel United Methodist Church in Arlington. He was a former McLean resident.

Survivors include his wife of 68 years, Sarah Brunori Wyche of Arlington; two sons, Douglas Wyche of Sterling and Kenneth Wyche of Gaithersburg; two brothers, Thomas Wyche of District Heights and Richard Wyche of Temple Hills; and four grandchildren.

-- Adam Bernstein

Dorothy W. LyonCampaign Worker

Dorothy Weisberg Lyon, 84, who worked on national and local Democratic campaigns in the 1960s and 1970s, and who later was an antiques dealer, died of respiratory failure July 23 at her home in Washington.

Mrs. Lyon was a campaign consultant and senior adviser to Hubert H. Humphrey in his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. After George McGovern secured the party's nomination, Mrs. Lyon served as special assistant to Democratic National Committee chairperson Jean Westwood. In 1976, Mrs. Lyon was senior adviser to Terry Sanford in his campaign for the presidency.

Mrs. Lyon moved to Washington in 1960 when she married Richard K. Lyon, who helped fight for home rule as president of the Washington Home Rule Committee. Mrs. Lyon joined him in that effort and was a senior campaign adviser to Walter E. Washington in his mayoral bids of 1974 and 1978.

After the last campaign, Mrs. Lyon and her husband established Doric Antiques out of their home, working as dealers in blue-and-white ceramics, quilts, copper and country kitchen items and furnishings. They appeared at more than 40 shows a year throughout the eastern United States. She worked at that business for about 25 years.

She was born in Cleveland and grew up in Ohio and Massachusetts. She served stateside in the Marine Corps during World War II, and she attended Washington University in St. Louis.

Her marriage to Adrian Weiss ended in divorce. Her second husband died in 2005.

Survivors include two daughters from her first marriage, Barbara W. Cooper and Patricia W. Coll, both of McLean; a son from her second marriage, Jon Lyon of Leesburg; two stepsons, Simon M. Lyon of Cincinnati and Richard H. Lyon of New York; and eight grandchildren.

-- Patricia Sullivan

Suzanne Melanie PhillipsIMF Employee

Suzanne Melanie Phillips, 35, who had spent the past four years doing human resources work for the International Monetary Fund, died July 30 at her home in Lansdowne, near Baltimore. She was eight months pregnant with her first child.

A spokeswoman for the Maryland medical examiner's office said determination of the cause of death is pending further tests. The child, a boy, also died.

Ms. Phillips was born in Washington and grew up in suburban Maryland. She was a 1990 graduate of the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda and a 1994 graduate of Columbia University.

As a younger woman, she did volunteer work with Wildwood Summer Theatre, a Washington area youth theater group.

After college, she worked in New York doing event marketing and tourism, among other jobs. She returned to the Washington area to work at the IMF.

Survivors include her companion of two years, Charles Carroll of Lansdowne; her parents, Ann and Percival Phillips of Germantown; a sister, Tania Phillips of Gaithersburg; and a brother, Neil Phillips of Bethesda.

-- Adam Bernstein

Tatiana Alexandra MartinAir Force Officer, Teacher

Tatiana Alexandra Martin, 87, a former Air Force intelligence officer and language teacher, died July 27 of melanoma at the Greenspring Village retirement community in Springfield.

Mrs. Martin was born in Moscow, Russia. Her father, a colonel in the Russian Imperial Army and a doctor, had been captured by the Germans during World War I and was offered an opportunity to stay in Germany and practice medicine. He was eager to get home, despite the fact that the Russian Revolution was raging. ("It'll all blow over in three months," he assured friends and family members.) He went back to Moscow and was killed while trying to subdue a mentally disturbed patient.

Mrs. Martin was 2 when she lost her father. She immigrated to the United States with her mother and siblings in 1921, and grew up in the New York City area. Fluent in Russian, French, Spanish and English, she received a bachelor's degree in languages from Queens College in 1942 and a master's degree in Spanish from Columbia University in 1951.

Shortly after receiving her undergraduate degree, she worked as a legal translator on Wall Street, specializing in Spanish financial documents.

In 1947, she joined the Air Force, where her Russian language skills were put to use in an intelligence unit. (She was known as "Tony" in the Air Force, not "Tatiana.") She left the service in 1956 as a first lieutenant.

From the early 1960s until the late 1980s, Mrs. Martin worked as a homemaker and a language teacher in several New Jersey high schools. She and her husband retired to Williamsburg in 1988, where she continued her involvement in volunteer activities. Over the years, she volunteered as a translator for hospital patients, as president of her local PTA and as a coordinator for a local chapter of the American Cancer Society. She moved to Springfield in 2000.

Her husband Ralph Martin died in 2000.

Survivors include two sons, Ralph Martin of Simsbury, Conn., and George Martin of Fairfax Station; and four grandchildren.

-- Joe Holley