Saturday, January 5, 2008
Joseph A. SivignyArmy Officer, School Counselor
Joseph Anthony Sivigny, 99, an Army lieutenant colonel who retired in 1961 and spent 16 years as director of the counseling department at Robert E. Peary High School in Rockville, died Dec. 2 at Inova Mount Vernon Hospital. He had a heart ailment.
Lt. Col. Sivigny, a native of New Haven, Conn., moved to Washington in the late 1930s and became a teacher and coach at the former Montgomery Hills Junior High School in Silver Spring.
After serving with the Army in Europe during World War II, he returned briefly to Montgomery Hills as principal before rejoining the military.
He served in the Transportation Corps and spent a year on an expedition to the Greenland ice cap. His final active-duty assignment was at Fort Meade, and his decorations included the Bronze Star Medal.
After leaving Peary High School in the late 1970s, he spent several years as an owner and operator with other family members of a gift shop in Leesburg, Unique Affordables.
He graduated in the early 1930s from the Arnold College for Hygiene and Physical Education in New Haven and, after his military retirement, received a master's degree in education from the University of Maryland.
Lt. Col. Sivigny was a former Potomac resident and since 2000 had lived at the Fairfax, a retirement community at Fort Belvoir.
He held season tickets for the Washington Redskins since the franchise moved from Boston in 1937.
His wife, Thelma DeHart Sivigny, whom he married in 1938, died in 2003.
Survivors include three children, retired Army Lt. Col. Michael J. Sivigny of Burke, Michelle E. Huck of London, Ky., and retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. Patrick A. Sivigny of Occoquan; six grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
-- Adam Bernstein
Philip N. BridgesNSA Code-Breaker
Philip Newell Bridges, 92, a code-breaker for the National Security Agency and predecessor agencies for 30 years, died Dec. 7 at his home in the Montgomery County community of Ashton. He had acute tubular necrosis, a form of kidney failure.
Mr. Bridges, who retired in 1973, was a member of the Phoenix Society, an organization of retired NSA employees, and edited several of its publications. He also started a printing business focused on scholarly quarterlies.
He was born in New York and raised in Leonia, N.J. His father, geneticist Calvin B. Bridges, was a close and renowned associate of Thomas Hunt Morgan, who won the 1933 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering in the role played by the chromosome in heredity.
After his father's death in 1938, Mr. Bridges received a grant from the Carnegie Institution to complete his father's work mapping the chromosome of the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. He also published the findings.
At the time, Mr. Bridges was a recent Phi Beta Kappa biology graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut and had received a master's degree in zoology from Columbia University.
During World War II, he was recruited by the Navy as a civilian cryptanalyst and continued in that profession until retirement.
His wife of 64 years, Marjorie Lismer Bridges, died in 2006.
Survivors include three daughters, Barbara Bell of Harrisburg, Pa., Carolyn Bridges of Cromwell, Conn., and Janet Cauffiel of Gaithersburg; a sister; and a granddaughter.
-- Adam Bernstein
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.
Survivors include two daughters, Mary-Claire Uselding of Des Moines and Kathleen Hoyt of Metairie; six grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Anna CirilloHomemaker, Volunteer
Anna Cirillo, 89, a homemaker who ran her church's religious gift shop, died of congestive heart failure Dec. 26 at her home in Fairfax County.
She was a member of St. Michael's Catholic Church in Annandale and ran the gift shop there for many years. She also worked at the Greater Annandale Recreation Center in the 1960s. Most recently, she was a member of the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Annandale.
She was born in New York City and became a seamstress. She moved to the Washington area in 1956.
Her husband of 58 years, Joseph A. Cirillo, died in 1996.
Survivors include five children, Dr. Nicholas B. Cirillo of Fairfax City, Julie Anna Cirillo and Frances Kennedy, both of Fairfax County, Rosary Eidietis of Niles, Mich., and Madeline Archer of Pittsburgh; nine grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Wilma M. BlocklinNurse
Wilma M. Blocklin, 88, a retired nurse, died Jan. 1 of congestive heart failure at St. Catherine's Nursing Center in Emmitsburg. She had lived for the past 10 years in New Market.
Mrs. Blocklin was born in Sallisaw, Okla., and was a graduate of the Emory University School of Nursing in Atlanta. She was a registered nurse and worked in an Atlanta hospital before serving as a Navy nurse from 1944 to 1948. Her nursing duties in the Navy took her to the Philippines, and she received the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal.
Mrs. Blocklin lived in Potomac for many years and enjoyed gardening and golf. She was a member of Christ Episcopal Church in Rockville and later of Grace Episcopal Church in New Market. Her memberships included the Georgetown Club, the University Club and Congressional Country Club.
Survivors include her husband of 59 years, Hans G. Blocklin of New Market; four children, Dorothy A. Seder of Damascus, Peter L. Blocklin of Falls Church, Michael F. Blocklin of Fort Myers, Fla., and Stephen W. Blocklin of Larchmont, N.Y.; and seven grandchildren.
-- Matt Schudel
Mary Chave ManleyTechnical Editor
Mary Chave Manley, 92, a former Defense Department technical editor, died Dec. 28 of cardiovascular and pulmonary disease at Inova Mount Vernon Hospital. She lived in the Waynewood community of Fairfax County.
Mrs. Manley settled in the Washington area in 1965 and was a technical editor with the Army intelligence service for more than a decade. She was also a volunteer Girl Scout leader and held leadership positions with the Waynewood Women's Club and the Garden Club of Waynewood.
Mrs. Manley was born in Chicago and graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She was a captain in the Women's Army Corps during World War II and served in New Guinea, the Philippines and Japan.
From 1947 to 1965, she and her husband, a military officer, lived in the United States and abroad during his various postings. She enjoyed traveling in Asia and Europe.
Her husband of 32 years, retired Army Col. Eugene Hailey Manley, died in 1979.
Survivors include three daughters, Mary Sapp of Miami, Pam Bartlett of Alexandria and Nancy Manley of Elko, Ga.; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
-- Matt Schudel