Tuesday, October 16, 2007
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
Jeffrey MerriamDevelopment Specialist
Jeffrey Merriam, 53, an international development specialist, died Oct. 8 at Inova Fairfax Hospital. He had multiple myeloma. He lived in Lorton.
Over the years, Mr. Merriam had worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, Chemonics International, Planning and Development Collaborative International, Planning and Learning Technologies, and the World Council of Credit Unions. His work took him to southern and northern Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, including Russia, Siberia and Ukraine, and the South Pacific.
Mr. Merriam was born in Oakland, Calif., and grew up in a foreign service family living in the District, Alexandria, Munich, Amman, Jordan, and Istanbul. He graduated from Groveton High School in Alexandria and received his bachelor's degree from Washington College on Maryland's Eastern Shore. He received a master's degree in international development from the University of Chicago in 1978 and an MBA from George Washington University in 1986.
He married in 1978, and he and his wife worked as United Nations volunteers in Lesotho in southern Africa.
Mr. Merriam enjoyed fly-fishing, hiking, birding and, most of all, dog walking in Canaan Valley, W.Va., and North Hero, Vt.
Survivors include his wife of nearly 30 years, Mary MacNair Merriam of Lorton; two daughters, Stephanie Merriam and Sarah Merriam, both of Lorton; his father and stepmother, Duke and Caroline Merriam of Washington; a sister; and two brothers.
-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb
Leontine Connolly TansillAcquisitions Assistant
Leontine "Tina" Connolly Tansill, 94, who was an acquisitions assistant at the Congressional Research Office of the Library of Congress for 25 years, died Sept. 23 at her home in White Plains. She had pulmonary edema following a heart attack.
At the Library of Congress, Mrs. Tansill also directed and performed in shows, including chorale performances. She was a member of the Library's cooking and gardening clubs. She retired in 1979.
She was born Leontine Felicity Gallahorn in Washington and at age 5 survived the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. She graduated from St. Cecilia's Academy. In her senior year, she won a singing competition that led to her singing and playing her ukulele on live radio in the Washington area for several years.
In her youth, she became a junior suffragette when her two older sisters took her to a rally in Washington to demand the vote for women a year before its 1920 passage into law, her family said.
During the Depression, she supported herself and her family for a time as a legal secretary after receiving a degree from the Washington School for Secretaries. The lawyer she worked for recognized her sharp mind and offered to pay her tuition to attend law school, which she declined because she found the work tedious.
Mrs. Tansill was a member of the Lioness Club and the Buckley Club, a youth-mentor program at St. Francis Xavier Parish. She sang with the Sweet Adelines and the Silver Bells. She was a member of the Red Hot Mamas of the Red Hat Society.
She also was a member of the Richard R. Clark Senior Center in La Plata and the 2-N-1 Club. She sang in various choirs at each church she joined throughout her lifetime.
Her marriage to Vincent P. Connolly ended in divorce. Her husband, William Tansill, died in 2002.
Survivors include, two children from her first marriage, Michael Connolly of White Plains and Patricia Connolly Seaman of Beltsville; seven grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.
-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb