Obituaries

He was an air attache at the U.S. embassies in Moscow and Warsaw before his final active-duty assignment, with the Defense Intelligence Agency.

After his military retirement in 1977, he spent about five years as a Soviet affairs specialist at the defense contractor BDM Corp.

Col. Skuby was born in Brooklyn, N.Y.; his father was a Russian Orthodox priest.

He completed high school in Ambridge, Pa. He was a graduate of the University of Maryland and received a master's degree in international relations from George Washington University. He also graduated from the Armed Forces Staff College, Defense Intelligence School and the Air War College.

He was fluent in Russian and Polish.

His military decorations included the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star, four awards of the Air Medal and the Air Force Commendation Medal.

He was a member of St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Washington, where he was a former parish council president and secretary. He was a lifelong member of the Fellowship of Orthodox Christians in America.

Survivors include his wife of 56 years, Eleanor Jankura Skuby of Springfield; two sons, Mark Skuby of Mount Laurel, N.J., and Coast Guard Capt. Timothy Skuby of Chestnut Hill, Mass.; two sisters; and six grandchildren.

-- Adam Bernstein

Joseph T. DavisIRS Official

Joseph T. Davis, 81, who was assistant commissioner for policy and management at the IRS before retiring in 1992, died Aug. 6 of Alzheimer's disease in a nursing home in Boise, Idaho. He was a former resident of Washington.

Mr. Davis was born in Nashua, N.H., and graduated from Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. He joined the Navy during World War II, and after completing his service he worked as a civilian for the Navy and was chief of civilian operations in Barstow, Calif., and in the Philippines.

In 1970, Mr. Davis joined the executive program of the IRS and was the assistant regional commissioner in San Francisco. He moved to Washington with the IRS in 1973.

He attended graduate school at Georgetown University.

In retirement, he was a consultant to the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue. He moved to Idaho in 2000.

His marriages to Cora Genten and Peggy Davis ended in divorce.

Survivors include seven children from his first marriage, Howard Davis of Oakland, Calif., Patricia Cobb and Peggy Davis, both of Boise, Mary Davis of Tempe, Ariz., Betsy White of San Diego, Rick Davis of Star, Idaho, and John Davis of Seattle; two children from his second marriage, Sarah Davis of Baltimore and Natalie Davis of Silver Spring; and 10 grandchildren.

-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb

Thelma W. PetersClerk-Typist

Thelma Walker Peters, 92, a clerk-typist in Walter Reed Army Medical Center's human resources department in the early 1970s who retired from the Labor Department in 1980, died July 22 at Copper Ridge, a nursing facility in Sykesville, Md.

She had Alzheimer's disease and dementia and had also suffered complications from a stroke. She was a Silver Spring resident.

Mrs. Peters was born in Springdale, W.Va., and completed business college in Charleston, W.Va., in 1936. She settled in the Washington area in 1939 and became a telephone operator for the old Bell Telephone Co.

In the 1940s, Mrs. Peters worked for the D.C. police department, where she became an administrative secretary.

She briefly was a secretary at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory before spending years as a homemaker.

Mrs. Peters was a member of Woodside United Methodist Church in Silver Spring and did volunteer work at East Silver Spring Elementary School.

Her avocations included sewing and gardening.

Her husband, Lewis B. Peters, whom she married in 1949, died in 1972.

Survivors include a daughter, Dolores Peters "Lola" Davis of Clarksburg; a sister, Wanda E. Gregory of Kingsville, Md.; and two brothers, Chester W. Walker and W. Earl Walker, both of Springdale.

-- Adam Bernstein

Edward W. KraheCartographer, Cyclist

Edward Winters Krahe, 79, who spent 36 years as a government cartographer and retired from the Defense Mapping Agency in 1983, died Aug. 10 at a daughter's home in Parkton, Md. He had multiple myeloma.

Mr. Krahe spent much of his career with the Naval Oceanographic Office in Suitland before his section was consolidated into the mapping agency in Brookmont.

After retiring, he organized weekly bicycle rides with fellow retirees. He was a founding member of the Oxon Hill Bicycle Club and had pedaled 4,000 miles across the country during a nationally organized bicycle trip to celebrate the U.S. bicentennial in 1976.

Mr. Krahe was born in Kittanning, Pa., and spent part of his childhood with his extended family on the family farm at Alum Rock, Pa., during the Depression.

In 1934, his family moved to Washington, and he graduated from Eastern High School in 1946. As a young man, he was an Eagle Scout.

During the Korean War, he served in the Navy as a shipboard electronics technician in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean.

Mr. Krahe was a self-taught auto mechanic, sailor and blacksmith for his family's horse. He learned to fly a private plane and owned a 1947 British-made BSA motorcycle.

He participated in the Big Brother mentoring program and also was a member of the National Capital Lyme Disease Association. He had developed the disease.

He had homes in Clinton and Shrewsbury, Pa.

Survivors include his wife, Mary Lou Goodall Krahe, whom he married in 1953, of Clinton and Shrewsbury; four children, Chris Krahe of Cheltenham, Daniel Krahe of Golden, Colo., Kathy Shaffer of Parkton and Diane Krahe of Missoula, Mont.; two sisters, Connie Wilcox of Porterville, Calif., and Karen Daniels of Waldorf; and one grandson.

-- Adam Bernstein

Paul CascaranoJustice Department Official

Paul Cascarano, 76, a retired official with the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice, died Aug. 8 of a heart attack at Reston Hospital Center. He lived in Alexandria.

Mr. Cascarano joined the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, the research and development branch of the Department of Justice that was later renamed the National Institute of Justice, in 1968. He was named an assistant director of the agency in 1985 and helped create training and dissemination programs to help criminal justice agencies apply new research to their crime-fighting.

He developed regional training programs and national conferences that brought together professionals from many fields, including police detectives, emergency room doctors, prosecutors and mayoral representatives.

Mr. Cascarano oversaw development of new technology programs, including standards for the testing and certification of police body armor. He also supervised publications and the development of a series of videos about crime control.

He was instrumental in the development and operation of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service database.

After his retirement in 1999, he became a volunteer with the Travelers Aid Society at Reagan National Airport.

Mr. Cascarano was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and served in the Army from 1952 to 1954. He was a graduate of the City College of New York and received a master's degree in business administration from the City University of New York in 1957. Before joining the National Institute of Justice, he was a systems analyst at Systems Development Corp. in Santa Monica, Calif.

Survivors include his wife of 50 years, Ann Cascarano of Alexandria, and two brothers.

-- Matt Schudel