Sunday, January 6, 2008
A.E. Griffith Bates Jr.Systems Analyst, Volunteer
A.E. Griffith Bates Jr., 77, a former systems analyst for the Defense Mapping Agency and a longtime volunteer for Greenpeace, died of pulmonary fibrosis Jan. 1 at the Community Hospice of Washington.
Mr. Bates logged more than 25,000 hours of volunteer work with Greenpeace after his retirement in 1991. He set up the environmental advocacy organization's archive system for images, documents and memorabilia at a time when the group had no internal record-retention systems. He also volunteered in the finance department, not considered a glamorous post for volunteers.
The nonprofit group Public Citizen gave Mr. Bates its fifth annual Phyllis McCarthy Public Interest Service Award just over a month ago for his volunteer service.
Mr. Bates was born in Pittsburgh and raised in Wheeling, W.Va. He attended West Virginia University. He enlisted in the Army during his senior year and served in the Korean War as a forward observer in the 23rd Infantry Regiment. After his discharge, he graduated from college and then worked at Graybar Electric in Knoxville, Tenn., from 1954 to 1963.
He moved to Washington in 1963 and eventually worked for the Defense Mapping Agency until his retirement.
Mr. Bates moved to California in 2004 but returned to Washington the next year and resumed his volunteer work. He had season tickets to the Baltimore Orioles' Sunday games but switched allegiance to the Washington Nationals when they came to town. For years, he spent every Saturday at the National Archives, researching the activities of his Army group in the Korean War.
His marriage to Ruth Beeler ended in divorce.
Survivors include a sister.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Virginia Dee FairmanNational Park Service Employee
Virginia Dee Fairman, 91, a retired employee of the National Park Service and longtime Arlington County resident, died Dec. 19 at Iliff Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Dunn Loring. She had inanition, or marked age-related weakness.
Mrs. Fairman was born Virginia Dee Seaton in Kansas City, Mo. In the mid-1930s, she received an associate's degree from what was then the University of Kansas City.
In 1942, during World War II, she moved with her mother to Arlington and began work as a clerk-typist at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria. She also worked for the Department of the Army at the Pentagon before joining the National Park Service, an agency of the Interior Department.
At the Park Service, she helped prepare manuscripts for publication. She became a history buff and enjoyed visiting parks and historic sites she had learned about in the course of her work. She retired in the late 1970s.
Mrs. Fairman was a 55-year member of Walker Chapel United Methodist Church in Arlington, and she enjoyed putting her sewing and cooking skills to work on behalf of church fundraisers.
Survivors include her husband of 55 years, L. Eugene "Gene" Fairman of Arlington; three children, Jerry Fairman of Annandale, Larry Fairman of Palm Harbor, Fla., and Gail Fairman Chlon of Norcross, Ga.; and five grandchildren.
-- Joe Holley
Margaret Buchanan HickeyTeacher
Margaret Buchanan Hickey, 90, a former substitute teacher in Arlington County's public schools, died Dec. 28 at Brighton Gardens of Columbia senior home. She had Alzheimer's disease.
Mrs. Hickey preferred teaching math, but as a substitute teacher in the junior and senior high schools, she was assigned to any class that needed a teacher, from auto repair to art class to boys' gym. She always found a way to include a bit of mathematical theory into her classes, her sons said, believing that everyone needs to understand a little algebra.
Born in what is now Hendersonville, Tenn., she was raised on a family farm and graduated from Vanderbilt University, where she also received a master's degree in math in 1941. She taught high school math and worked for a federal government board that monitored migrant workers who moved from the rural South to the urban North.
She moved to the Washington area in 1946 and was a founding member of Arlington's Trinity Presbyterian Church. She was a member of the Williamsburg Women's Club and a volunteer for Meals on Wheels. She also traveled widely, visiting more than 40 countries.
Her husband, Thomas J. Hickey, died in 1985.
Survivors include two sons, Thomas J. Hickey of Clarksville and Robert Hickey of New York; and two grandchildren.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Ardis G. MurphyPrivate-Duty Nurse
Ardis Greenman Murphy, 86, a Camp Springs resident who was a private-duty nurse at Washington area hospitals from the 1950s to the 1990s, died Dec. 22 at Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton. She had Alzheimer's disease and diabetes.
Mrs. Murphy was a native of Cadillac, Mich., and a graduate of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and Battle Creek Community Hospital's nursing school in Michigan.
She served in the Army Nurse Corps in Germany at the end of World War II.
Her marriage to Cornelius J. "Bud" Flaesch ended in divorce.
Survivors include her husband, Patrick Murphy of Camp Springs, whom she married in 1969; three children from her first marriage, Suzanne Thomas of Churchton, Md., Lia Melinda Bello of Taos, N.M., and Jon Flaesch of Elkridge; a stepdaughter, Patricia Stuecker of Phoenix; a sister; two brothers; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
A stepdaughter, Merlene Rayford, died in 2001.
-- 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