Obituaries

Mr. Sterrett returned to government service in 1967 as a civilian employee of the Army. He was chief of the research division of the old regions laboratory in Hanover, N.H., for 22 years and worked on a number of research projects, including a study of the military feasibility of air-cushion vehicles. He was involved with a study of the environmental impact of the Alaska oil pipeline and was part of the research team for the Viking mission to Mars.

He attended the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville.

In 1990, he moved to the Pentagon, where he was a technical staff officer to the chief of research and development for the armed forces. In 1994, he retired to his family farm near Purcellville.

Survivors include his wife of 47 years, Margaret Baker Sterrett of Purcellville; three children, David Karl Sterrett of Nashua, N.H., Emily Elkadi of Tucson, Ariz., and Rebecca Sterrett of Bozeman, Mont.; and two grandchildren.

-- Joe Holley

Richard J. Scanlan IIIPatent Examiner

Richard J. Scanlan III, 84, a retired patent examiner and patent agent, died Dec. 31 of heart disease at his home in Lake Ridge.

Mr. Scanlan worked for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from 1960 until he retired in 1987. His assignments included details to the State Department, where he assisted in negotiations for the Patent Cooperation Treaty. He also served as president of the Patent Office Professional Association and was a liaison between the employees and management.

He was born in Detroit and enlisted in the Army Air Forces at the start of World War II. He trained as a pilot in Texas and flew B-25s and B-29s. He also drew illustrations and cartoons for the Army Air Forces yearbook.

Mr. Scanlan graduated from the Detroit Institute of Technology and Michigan College of Mining and Technology. He attended two years of law school at George Washington University.

He was a technical service representative and engineering instructor at Hudson Motor Car Co. in New York at the end of the 1940s and at American Motors in Alexandria through much of the 1950s.