Obituaries

-- Adam Bernstein

Stephen Michael ShafferState Department Official

Stephen Michael Shaffer, 61, who directed the State Department's Office of Research, died Dec. 11 of cancer at Inova Fairfax Hospital. He lived in Arlington County.

Dr. Shaffer worked briefly at the Defense Department before joining the Office of Research at the U.S. Information Agency in 1980. He was an analyst and division chief in the office's European division before being named deputy director in 1991.

In 1999, USIA merged with the State Department. Two years later, Dr. Shaffer became director of the Office of Research in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and in 2005 he was named to the State Department's Senior Executive Service.

He directed the State Department's foreign opinion and media analysis program. He led efforts to conduct polling in the Balkans in the 1990s and later in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Dr. Shaffer was born in San Francisco and grew up in Boulder, Colo. He graduated from the University of Colorado and received a doctorate in international relations from the University of Michigan in 1975.

He taught at Michigan and the University of Denver before coming to Washington in 1975 as an assistant professor at George Washington University.

Dr. Shaffer collected memorabilia associated with space exploration and volunteered with the Capital Hospice in Arlington.

His marriage to Lisa Robock Shaffer ended in divorce.

Survivors include a daughter, Allison Shaffer of Arlington; his mother, Ann Shaffer of Boulder; and two brothers.

-- Matt Schudel

Jack McCue WoolardTax Law Specialist

Jack McCue Woolard, 86, a retired tax law specialist with the Internal Revenue Service, died of aspiration pneumonia Dec. 12 at Brakebill Nursing Home in Knoxville, Tenn. He was a former Wheaton resident.

Mr. Woolard was born in Charlottesville and grew up in the District. During the Depression, he helped his father sell coal and ice from a horse-drawn wagon. He graduated from McKinley Technical High School in 1940 and attended Strayer Business College in 1941 and Columbia Technical Institute, where he studied drafting, in 1942. From 1941 to 1944, he worked as a machinist at the Naval Gun Factory at the Washington Navy Yard.

He enlisted in the Army in 1944 and fought with the 95th Infantry Division, 377th Regiment, Company F. A "Victory Division" combat soldier, he was also one of the "Iron Men of Metz," so named for the 1944 battle for the fortresses surrounding Metz, France. He was awarded a Bronze Star.

After Mr. Woolard was discharged in 1946, he graduated with a commercial science degree in 1948 from Benjamin Franklin University (now part of George Washington University). He joined the IRS that year and worked with the agency for 40 years.

Mr. Woolard was a member of Fifth Baptist Church when he lived in the District. In the 1950s, he moved to Wheaton, where he attended First Baptist Church, serving as treasurer, deacon and scoutmaster. He moved to Knoxville in 1998.

Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Ruth-Dell Woolard of Knoxville; four children, Russell E. Woolard of Knoxville, Mark A. Woolard of Marietta, Ga., Jennifer L. Jarnigan of Newport, Tenn., and Zoe Woolard of Middletown; a sister, Barbara Murray of Salisbury; 14 grandchildren; and one great-grandson.

-- Joe Holley