Harold K. Light; FBI Agent and A Crack Shot

Harold Kenneth "Hal" Light, 86, a retired FBI special agent who oversaw construction of the FBI Academy at Quantico, died Dec. 18 of complications from cancer surgery and a stroke at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del.

A former Fairfax resident, he also was the agent tapped by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to manage the extradition of James Earl Ray to the United States from London, where he had been arrested as the alleged assassin of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Mr. Light carried with him that day in 1968 an international warrant signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson and Secretary of State Dean Rusk authorizing him and two fellow agents to take charge of Ray. He recalled in later years his concern on the flight back about whether rioting or other civil disturbances might break out when they landed in Memphis, where King had been assassinated a few months earlier. As it turned out, the arrival was uneventful.

Mr. Light was born in Plainfield, Ind., and grew up in Indianapolis. He graduated with a business administration degree from Butler University in 1942 and attended Indiana Law School in Indianapolis. He served in the Army during World War II and was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone.

He joined the FBI in 1948 and worked in the Indianapolis, Atlanta and New York field offices before being assigned to the Washington area in 1956.

An expert marksman and initially a firearms instructor at the FBI Academy, he once split a bullet on the blade of an ax on a children's TV show. During shooting demonstrations at FBI field days at Quantico, he was one of the instructors who would borrow a diamond ring from a member of the audience and use it as a mirror to shoot with his back turned to the target. He later designed the firing range at the FBI Academy, as well as the first Hogan's Alley, the mock streetscape used as a training facility.

Appointed special agent in charge at the FBI Academy, he was responsible for supervising the design and construction of the new facility at Quantico. Work began in the late 1960s; the academy was dedicated in 1972.

He retired from the FBI in 1972 and moved to Newark, where he became associate director of the Delaware Museum of Natural History in Wilmington. He retired again in 1978.

In 1977, he was appointed chairman of the Delaware State Council on Police Training. He also served on the Delaware State Public Safety Committee. He was a member of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI.

Active in Wilmington community affairs after his second retirement, he received the Governor's Outstanding Volunteer Award in recognition of his service on behalf of the Evergreen Alzheimer's Day Center in 2005.

A piano player who loved to vocalize, he was active with barbershop singing in Wilmington and earlier in Fairfax, where he was a member of the Fairfax Jubil-Aires Chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America. He also sang baritone with a Fairfax quartet called the Titanics.

His first wife, Jean Maxine Light, died in 1995. His second wife, Frances Light, died in 2006. A son, Tom Light, died in 1968.

Survivors include three children from his first marriage, Terry Light of Oak Hill, Va., Nancy Light McGarry of Ashburn and Joanne Light of Newark; a sister; and five grandchildren.