Obituaries

Clyde C. BallPublic Affairs Manager

Clyde C. Ball, 86, a writer and editor for the Associated Press for 16 years who later worked as a public affairs manager with the Maritime Administration, died Jan. 28 at the Johnson Center at Falcons Landing, of complications of a hip fracture.

Mr. Ball, a Navy lieutenant in World War II and former public relations representative for the Philco-Ford Corp., came to Washington in 1970. He worked with the Interior and Commerce departments, the Federal Energy Administration and the Maritime Administration, from which he retired in 1986.

He was born in Jeffrey, W.Va., and attended Marshall University on a journalism scholarship. During World War II, he enrolled in the Navy's V-7 training program at Columbia University in 1943 and received a commission as an ensign. In 1943, he also received a bachelor's degree from Marshall and by the fall was assigned to additional training at the Coco Solo Naval Base in the Panama Canal Zone.

Mr. Ball was awarded a Purple Heart. He was cited by the secretary of the Navy and the president of the Philippines for "outstanding heroism in action against enemy Japanese forces in the Manila Bay area" while serving as navigator aboard the minesweeper YMS-6 in February 1945.

After the war, he worked with the AP in Huntington, W.Va., before transferring to Philadelphia in 1960. Three years later, he joined Philco-Ford and was the company's public relations representative when it worked with NASA on the Apollo moon landings. He was working at a company display at the New York World Fair in the late 1960s when he met and had lunch with Walt Disney, who designed an animated film for the display.

Mr. Ball was a lifetime member of the Poetry Society of Virginia and the National Association of Science Writers. He also was a longtime member and former vestryman at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Purcellville.

Mr. Ball, a longtime Northern Virginia resident, moved with his wife to Falcons Landing in Sterling in 1997.

Survivors include his wife of nearly 60 years, Mary E. "Bette" Ball of Sterling; two daughters, Christina Ball of Sterling and Marianna Ball Funk of Lansdowne; and two grandchildren.

-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb

Adrian English CharlesAdministrative Assistant

Adrian English Charles, 86, a retired administrative assistant with several federal agencies, died of complications of diabetes Feb. 3 at the Wilson Health Care Center of Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg.