Obituaries

Nettie S. KoeppelSynagogue Member

Nettie Shapiro Koeppel, 85, a member of what is now Tikvat Israel, a conservative synagogue in Rockville, and its sisterhood, died Dec. 3 at Holy Cross Hospital. She had respiratory failure.

Mrs. Koeppel worked in the 1940s and early 1950s for the Defense Department, where she became an Air Force transportation analyst.

She was a Chicago native and a 1979 business graduate of the University of Maryland. She settled in the Washington area in 1941 and was a Silver Spring resident. For the past 20 years, she wintered in Coconut Creek, Fla.

Survivors include her husband of 58 years, Morton Koeppel of Silver Spring; three children, Jeffrey Koeppel of Columbia, Larry Koeppel of Westchester, Calif., and Andrea Koeppel of North Potomac; a sister; and four grandchildren.

-- Adam Bernstein

Virginia Magill WinkleVolunteer

Virginia Magill Winkle, 95, who founded a group for people with visual impairments at her church in Washington, died of cardiac disease Dec. 17 at a daughter's home in Metairie, La.

Mrs. Winkle was honored as a "super senior" in 1999 by IONA Senior Services for founding and coordinating a program at the adult center of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. She had lost much of her sight in the early 1970s, and when she suggested to her pastor that the church ought to have a group for people who cope with vision loss, the priest said she was just the person to start it. She ran the group for 18 years.

A fifth-generation Washingtonian, Mrs. Winkle graduated from the old St. Patrick's Academy and worked for many years for C&P Telephone. In 1938, she married and became a full-time homemaker.

She returned to the workplace in 1962, after her husband, Justin "Rip" Winkle, died. She worked as a personnel director for the Reuben H. Donnelly Corp. for the next decade, until her vision problems required her to retire.

Despite that hardship, Mrs. Winkle volunteered at her church, greeting Massgoers at the late Sunday morning services. She also learned to adjust to everyday tasks and traveled to Europe with her friends.