Obituaries

He later served as a bombardier and navigator with the 509th Composite Group, under the command of Col. Paul Tibbets. Tibbets was the pilot of the Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb, on Hiroshima.

Turoff, who was second lieutenant at the time, was part of one of the 15 crews that trained in secrecy in Wendover, Utah, in preparation for the mission of dropping two atomic bombs in Japan in 1945.

After the war, he returned to his hometown and sold wine for a local family business. He was then recruited back into the Air Force and was placed on loan to the Central Intelligence Agency.

He was stationed in Greece in 1953 because of his fluency in English, Macedonian, Bulgarian and Greek.

In the 1960s, he was based in the San Francisco area as a CIA officer and worked with scientists, academics and other notables to gather information and school them in Cold War intelligence practices.

He served a tour in Saigon during the Vietnam War. In 1963, he received a bachelor's degree in political science and international relations at San Francisco State University.

He retired from the military in 1975 and was a real estate agent in Arlington for the next 10 years.

Col. Turoff had a life-long interest in history and could be relied upon for extemporaneous, learned and passionate discussions of virtually any historical event, his family said. He was also proud of his Macedonian heritage; he spoke the language, made the food of that region and attended Macedonian conventions.

He and his wife frequently attended reunions of the 509th Composite Group.

Col. Turoff was a member of St. Agnes Catholic Church in Arlington.

His marriages to Arline Turoff and Virginia Turoff ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife, Jeanne Turoff of Arlington; three daughters from his first marriage, Clare Turoff of San Rafael, Calif., Mary Turoff of Aptos, Calif., and Kristie Turoff of Alamo, Calif.; a daughter from his second marriage, Stephanie Turoff Richey of McLean; a sister; three brothers; and seven grandsons.