Obituaries

Caroline FreelandCivic Activist

Caroline Freeland, 89, the first female chairman of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, died of respiratory failure Oct. 4 at Carriage Hill of Bethesda.

Mrs. Freeland served eight years, eight months and eight days on the commission, from 1963 to 1971, during a time in which the county's park system grew from 7,600 to 16,000 acres.

She was appointed in 1975 by President Gerald R. Ford to the National Capital Planning Commission and the same year was appointed by the secretary of the Interior to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Commission.

A Bethesda urban park was named for her in 1983. At its dedication, Mrs. Freeland was praised for helping pass the Bethesda-Chevy Chase master plan and 14 other master plans. While she was a commissioner, the idea of clustering residential development to preserve open space became part of county law.

She received the Charles G. Stott Award from the Allied Civic Group and an award from the Potomac Valley chapter of the American Institute of Architects for her work on environmental improvements.

Mrs. Freeland was born in Augusta, Ga. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1939. She moved to the Washington area in 1945 and lived in Bethesda. She was elected to the Republican State Central Committee in 1958.

She received a master's degree in city and regional planning from the University of Northern Colorado in 1973.

She was a member of the Chevy Chase Club, a former member of the board of Suburban Hospital and a past president of the Bryn Mawr Alumnae Association of Washington. She also was a charter member of the American Planning Association.

Her husband, T. Paul Freeland, died in 1988.

Survivors include her daughter, Caroline Freeland Raymond of Venice, Fla.; and a granddaughter.

-- Patricia Sullivan