Obituaries

-- Joe Holley

Celestine DarbyAdministrative Assistant

Celestine "Celes" Darby, 47, a substitute teacher in Charles County and former administrative assistant at The Washington Post, died March 6 at Civista Medical Center in La Plata of complications after surgery. The Maryland medical examiner has not yet ruled on the formal cause of death.

Ms. Darby worked for The Post for seven years, most recently in the office of Finance and Human Resources. She left in 2007 to substitute teach in Charles and was hoping to work for the school system full time.

She was born in Calhoun County, S.C., and graduated from Norfolk College in Norfolk, Va. She also attended Prince George's Community College in Largo.

Ms. Darby worked at the Treasury Department in the early 1980s, then became executive secretary to the president of the National Aggregates Association (now the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association). She was a legal secretary at Friedlander, Sloan and Hertz in Washington in the early 1990s and then joined the Lerner Corp. as an account manager for several years.

She was a member of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Waldorf, where she participated in the women's ministry, women's shelter and scholarship committees. She was a Waldorf resident.

Survivors include her father, Wesley Darby Jr. of Norfolk; four brothers, Albert Darby of Virginia Beach, John Wesley Darby of Waldorf, Eugene Darby of Norfolk and Shawn C. Darby of Chesapeake, Va.

-- Patricia Sullivan

Charles Max GuggenheimerSalesman

Charles Max Guggenheimer, 87, a salesman in the Washington and Baltimore areas, died of complications of cancer Feb. 28 at Beebe Medical Center in Lewes, Del. He lived in Bethany Beach, Del., and West Palm Beach, Fla.

Mr. Guggenheimer was born in Lynchburg, Va., where his family owned Guggenheimer's Department Store. As a teenager, he worked as an elevator starter for the Hub Department Store in Baltimore, where his uncle Moses Hecht was chief executive. The Hub later became part of Hecht Co.

Later, Mr. Guggenheimer was a buyer and merchandise manager for Hecht Co. for 27 years. He bought toys, furniture and carpeting. He retired from Hecht's in 1952 and became a wholesale salesman for Elias Wilf Corp., selling carpeting and rugs to merchandisers in the Washington and Baltimore areas.

He retired at 74 from Elias Wilf, where he was the star salesman and trained many associates who became senior executives with the firm.

Mr. Guggenheimer, who lived for 25 years in Rockville, attended Principia College in St Louis. He was a lieutenant in the Army Air Forces and served in the States as a bombardier from 1942 to 1945.

He was a member of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith and the Suburban Club in Baltimore.

His marriage to Doris Askin Guggenheimer ended in divorce. His second wife, Mickey Rosenberg Guggenheimer, died in 1979.

Survivors include his wife of 30 years, Florence Guggenheimer of Bethany Beach; four children from his first marriage, Ellen Dagold of Columbia, Barbara Bolt of Seven Valleys, Pa., Charles Michael Guggenheimer of Windsor, Pa., and Mindy Smeal of Chinle, Ariz.; two children from his second marriage, Janet "Gigi" Edrington of Baltimore and Sylvia Miller of Miami; two stepchildren, Dr. Robert Shalowitz of Millersburg, Ohio, and Debra Levy of Silver Spring; a brother; 12 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb