Friday, December 21, 2007
Thomas B. EllsworthNaval Officer
Thomas B. Ellsworth Jr., 68, a retired naval officer and business executive, died of respiratory failure Dec. 16 at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church. He lived in Alexandria.
Capt. Ellsworth served in the Navy for 30 years, retiring in 1992 as assistant to the director of naval intelligence for Soviet studies. An expert in the history of merchant shipping, he then joined Booz Allen Hamilton as a national security adviser.
He was born in Norwalk, Conn., and graduated from Yale University. He entered the Officer Candidate School, was commissioned an ensign and served tours on the picket ship USS Investigator, radar station ship USS Protector and destroyer USS Mahan. In 1970, Capt. Ellsworth was designated a restricted line officer in intelligence and assigned to the Naval Reconnaissance and Technical Support Center in Suitland.
He served as an intelligence adviser in Vietnam, as an assistant naval attach¿ in Moscow, deputy director of intelligence at the U.S. European Command Center in Stuttgart, and many other posts.
He received a master's degree in public administration from George Washington University in 1984.
His marriage to Alice Low ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife of 26 years, Adele Bemus Ellsworth of Alexandria; two children from his first marriage, Thomas Ellsworth III of Raleigh, N.C., and Laura Ellsworth of Los Angeles; three stepdaughters, Marti Hope Gonzales of Minneapolis, Linda Hope of San Francisco and Karen Hope of Baltimore; and two granddaughters.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Maidee Coffman DemingSilkscreen Artist
Maidee Coffman Deming, 88, a silkscreen artist and Washington native, died Dec. 14 of lung cancer at her home in Georgetown.
Mrs. Deming was a graduate of McKinley Technology High School and the University of Maryland, where she was a member of the Kappa Delta sorority.
During World War II, she worked at the Library of Congress and the Office of Price Administration.
After her children were grown, Mrs. Deming became a silkscreen artist. She specialized in designing cards of Georgetown houses and street scenes and also designed textiles. She sold her work at the Artist's Mart, an artists' cooperative in Georgetown, and was a member of the Cherry Tree Textile Design Guild.
Mrs. Deming studied French for a number of years and enjoyed traveling throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. She also visited and supported many Washington museums.
Survivors include her husband of 64 years, Andrew S. Deming of Washington; four sons, A. Stacy Deming of Frederick, Daniel W. Deming of Accokeek, Victor H. Deming of Washington and Willoughby H. Deming of Portland, Ore.; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
-- Matt Schudel
John S. KellyNuclear Expert
John S. Kelly, 85, a nuclear physicist who held executive positions with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, died Dec. 14 of heart ailments at his home in Austin.
Mr. Kelly came to the Washington region in 1948 when he joined the Navy Department as a designer of technical equipment for submarines. He joined the Atomic Energy Commission in 1956 and, the next year, became the first director of its Plowshare Division, which explored peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
He retired because of poor health in 1972, moved to Texas and spent several years as an energy consultant.
Mr. Kelly was born in Louisville and grew up in LaGrange, Ky. He served in the Army Signal Corps during World War II. He was a graduate of Western Kentucky University. He did graduate work in physics at Ohio State University.
He worked for a munitions manufacturer in Cumberland, Md., before coming to the Washington. He lived in Damascus and Rockville.
Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Juanita Kelly of Austin; five children, Jack Kelly of Dripping Springs, Tex., Nancy Belz of Oakton, Mary Crites of Lubbock, Tex., Barbara King of Hutto, Tex., and Carolyn Lindell of Austin; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
-- Matt Schudel