Friday, September 14, 2007
Robert Irvin MillerRedskins Statistician
Robert Irvin Miller, 78, the former coordinator of construction for the Fairfax County public schools who also kept statistics for the Washington Redskins for more than 40 years, died Sept. 6 of complications from pulmonary fibrosis at Prince William Hospital in Manassas. He lived in Gainesville.
Mr. Miller was born in Dunn Loring and was a graduate of Fairfax High School. He played professional baseball for five years in the 1940s as a shortstop in the Detroit Tigers' minor-league system.
When he returned to Northern Virginia, he spent 15 years as a construction superintendent with the E.H. Glover Inc. construction company. He later worked as the coordinator of school construction in Fairfax until he retired in 1991.
In about 1950, Mr. Miller became an assistant statistician for the Redskins. He later became chief statistician, tabulating all the team's official statistics, until he retired in 1991. He was also the statistician for the University of Maryland football team for several years.
He was a longtime resident of Great Falls and coached Babe Ruth League baseball teams in Great Falls for 12 years. Some of his teams won league titles.
He was a member of Manassas Baptist Church.
Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Joanne Miller of Gainesville; three sons, Kenneth Miller of Davidsonville, Gary Miller of Frederick and Scott Miller of Bristow; a sister, Charlotte Miller of Herndon; and five grandchildren.
-- Matt Schudel
Thomas J. Ames Sr.Magazine Publisher
Thomas Jean Ames Sr., 77, who published direct marketing magazines, died Aug. 12 at Inova Fairfax Hospital of sepsis syndrome and pneumonia. He lived in Fairfax County.
Mr. Ames was chief executive of Hometown Magazines from 1993 until his death.
He was born in Seattle and served in the Civil Air Patrol and in the Naval Air Reserve.
He worked as a bank clerk in Seattle before becoming a sales manager for Pacific Fruit and Produce. He rose to branch manager of Pacific Fruit offices in Yakima, Wash., Salt Lake City and Portland, Ore.
In 1967, he was the Portland district sales manager for Nation's Business magazine, the official publication for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He moved to Washington in 1970 to be national sales director of the magazine and was responsible for more than 350 sales professionals nationwide.
He left that position in 1980 and continued to work as a sales official for various organizations, including a lobbying association of small businesses.
His memberships included the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in Alexandria, the Kena Shriners in Fairfax and the National Capital Dahlia Society. He also belonged to Oakton United Methodist Church in Fairfax.
Survivors include his wife of 58 years, Audrey E. Ames of Fairfax; four children, Laura L. Ames of Portland, Kathleen A. Haywood of Woodbridge, Patricia I. Whitney of Helena, Mont., and Thomas J. Ames Jr. of Purcellville; 11 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb
Charles F. DirlamHHS Administrative Law Judge
Charles Francis Dirlam, 77, a chief administrative law judge for what became the Department of Health and Human Services, died Sept. 10 at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville. He had malignant arrhythmia.
In 1970, Mr. Dirlam joined what was then the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He was chief administrative law judge of its Washington office from 1972 until his retirement in 1996.
Earlier in his career, he was assistant general counsel of the Subversive Activities Control Board, a now-defunct federal agency; a Washington lawyer in private practice; and an FBI special agent in Oklahoma City.
He was a native of Carbondale, Pa., a 1953 graduate of the University of Scranton and a 1957 graduate of Georgetown University law school.
He was an Army veteran of the Korean War and worked for the CIA while in law school.
He was a member of St. Raphael's Catholic Church in Rockville. He had homes in Potomac and Bethany Beach, Del.
Survivors include his wife of 43 years, Catherine Ellis Dirlam of Potomac; two children, Ellen Jones of Silver Spring and Mark C. Dirlam of Gaithersburg; and five grandchildren.
-- Adam Bernstein
Walter J. DykeArmy Officer
Walter J. Dyke, 86, a retired Army major who survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Aug. 31 at his home in Mollusk, Va. He had Alzheimer's disease.
Maj. Dyke, who was born in Chicago, enlisted in the Army in 1941 and was stationed at Hickam Field in Hawaii when the Japanese attacked the field as part of a larger attack on the nearby U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Then a corporal, Maj. Dyke was assigned to drive communications equipment to a secure location and was wounded in the attack.
He attended Officer Candidate School and became an officer assigned to the Seventh Signal Brigade. He served aboard the USS Mount McKinley, an amphibious force flagship in the Pacific.
After World War II, Maj. Dyke had assignments in Greece, Korea and Japan. He retired from the Army in 1964. He then worked as a project manager with the Navy Department for 15 years.
He lived in Alexandria and later Annapolis before moving last year to Virginia's Northern Neck.
He enjoyed cooking, fishing and dancing. He also remodeled several houses, doing the plumbing, carpentry, roofing, bricklaying and electrical work.
Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Dorothy Dyke of Mollusk; two sons, Kevin Dyke of Mollusk and Daniel Dyke of Reston; and two grandchildren.
-- Matt Schudel
James W. FastenrathFEMA Official
James W. Fastenrath, 77, a former official with the Federal Emergency Management Agency who also collected Haitian art and operated an antiques shop in West Virginia, died Sept. 2 of cancer at Georgetown University Hospital. He lived in Washington.
Mr. Fastenrath began his federal career in 1957 with the old Civil Service Commission in Chicago. He later transferred to the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency in Grand Rapids, Mich., before taking a position with the agency in Washington in 1966.
That office later became part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency when FEMA was created in 1979. He retired in 1987 as FEMA's assistant director of policy and programs.
Mr. Fastenrath was born in Kalamazoo, Mich. He served in the Marine Corps during the Korean War and was a veteran of the battle of Chosin Reservoir. After his military service, he graduated from Western Michigan University.
Mr. Fastenrath enjoyed art and antiques of all kinds and collected 20th-century American prints, folk art, pottery and vintage radios and clocks. For many years, he had a vacation home in Haiti, and he amassed a large collection of Haitian art.
He and his second wife, Anne Grimmer, had an 18th-century log house in Middleway, W.Va., and operated an antiques shop there for about 20 years before selling it in 2006. They also had a home in New Orleans.
His first marriage, to Alice Childress, ended in divorce.
In addition to his wife, of Washington, survivors include a sister.
-- Matt Schudel
Richard H. HeidermannFHA Official
Richard H. Heidermann, 78, a former official with the Federal Housing Administration, died Aug. 31 of congestive heart failure at Mount Carmel Medical and Rehabilitation Center in Burlington, Wis., where he had lived for the past year. He was a former Washington resident.
Mr. Heidermann arrived in Washington in 1958 as an assistant to Rep. Gerald T. Flynn (D-Wis.). He later worked as a lawyer with the housing division of the Air Force and as a lawyer and administrator with FHA.
He retired and moved to Tampa in 1982.
Mr. Heidermann was born in Burlington and graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee. He graduated from Marquette's law school in 1952, served in the Army for two years and practiced law in Burlington from 1954 to 1958.
He enjoyed stamp collecting, art, theater, history and steam locomotives.
He leaves no immediate survivors.
-- Matt Schudel
Thomas Brown HieberTreasury Officer
Thomas Brown Hieber, 93, a former branch chief with the Treasury Department, died Aug. 15 of stroke-induced dementia at Capital Hospice in Arlington. He lived in Greenbelt.
Mr. Hieber settled in Washington in 1940 and worked briefly with the Department of Agriculture before joining the Treasury Department. He retired in 1973.
Mr. Hieber was born in Pittsburgh. One of seven children, he was orphaned when he was 9. He and three siblings were sent to an orphanage near York, Pa., a younger sister was adopted and two older brothers were left to fend for themselves.
When he was a junior in high school, Mr. Hieber came to Washington to live with an older brother and graduated in 1933 from the old Central High School.
He then returned to Pittsburgh, where he managed ice cream stores and attended business school.
Except for short periods in the 1950s when he was transferred to Colorado and Georgia, he had lived in Greenbelt since 1942.
At age 50, Mr. Hieber took up golf and scored holes-in-one when he was 66 and 77.
He was a member of the Lions Club and enjoyed playing Santa Claus at the group's holiday fundraisers.
His wife of 58 years, Mildred R. Hieber, died in 1999. A son, Thomas W. Hieber, died in 2001.
Survivors include three children, Marion L. Vaughn of Halethorpe, Md., Janet E. Hieber of Greenbelt and James C. Hieber of Springfield; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
-- Matt Schudel
Ruth Ann S. JohnsonPhone Operator, Volunteer
Ruth Ann Selig Johnson, 73, an AT&T phone operator in Washington in the 1980s and early 1990s who did volunteer work for the American Red Cross and Inova Fair Oaks Hospital, died Sept. 7 at Inova Fairfax Hospital after choking on food.
Mrs. Johnson, a Burke resident, was born in Fort Smith, Ark. She married in 1957 and worked for the phone company while accompanying her husband on his military assignments. They settled in the Washington area in the early 1980s.
She was a member of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield.
Survivors include her husband, retired Army Col. Alex J. Johnson of Burke; four children, Mark Johnson of Manassas, Cynthia Garlick of Burke, Laurie Johnson-Kahn of Miami and Susan Weston of Gainesville, Va.; and five grandchildren.
-- Adam Bernstein