Sunday, March 16, 2008
Dewey Calloway Nash Jr.Artist, Illustrator
Dewey Calloway Nash Jr., 66, a longtime artist and illustrator for the Air Force and other federal agencies, died of metastatic colon cancer Feb. 27 at Capital Hospice in Arlington County. He lived in Reston.
Mr. Nash worked in the federal government for 40 years before retiring from the Air Force in 2006. He was an illustrator during the early research and development phases of the A-10 and F-22 aircraft programs.
More recently, he was the lead artist and designer for the 100th Anniversary of Flight exhibition and produced more than 200 panels that were displayed at Rockefeller Center in New York and other U.S. venues before a show at Kitty Hawk, N.C., Dec. 17, 2003.
He also developed the logo for the 60th anniversary of the Air Force exhibition, which traveled to several national and international sites from 2006 to 2007.
Mr. Nash had solo shows in Dupont Circle and in several galleries in Alexandria. He was an award-winning watercolorist and a founding member of Gallery West in Old Town Alexandria. Mr. Nash also exhibited and sold his paintings at the first Reston Arts Festival in the 1990s.
He was born in Monroe, Va., and moved with his family to Northern Virginia after World War II. He grew up in Arlington and Annandale and graduated from Annandale High School, where he began selling his paintings.
He studied at American University for a year before joining the Army and serving with the 82nd Airborne Division from 1961 to 1964. After the Army, he returned to American University and attended the University of Virginia under the G.I. Bill until 1976.
At different intervals from 1969 to 2006, Mr. Nash worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Air Force. In 1979, he worked briefly as an artist for the National Wildlife Federation. While there, he created several of the federation's nature-themed Christmas cards and did illustrations for Your Big Backyard, a children's magazine.
From 1993 to 1997, he was the graphics arts division chief for the Air and Space Operations Directorate at the Pentagon.
In retirement, Mr. Nash looked forward to producing more of his nature-themed paintings in watercolors, oils, acrylics and linoleum blocks. He was inspired by his travels with his wife to Maine and the Outer Banks and cross-country sojourns throughout the West, his wife said.
His marriage to Sharron Nash ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife, Ruth "Ricky" Dahne Nash of Reston; a son from his first marriage, David Nash of Bluffton, S.C.; a stepdaughter, Alexandra Messinger of San Francisco; his mother, Margaret Finkle of Fort Myers, Fla.; three stepsisters, Linda Wright of Gainesville, Barbara Black of Coral Gables, Fla., and Carol Germain of San Antonio; and a granddaughter.
-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb
Henrietta Clodfelter LuckeMicrobiologist
Henrietta Clodfelter Lucke, 85, a retired microbiologist with the Environmental Protection Agency, died March 3 at the Renaissance Gardens health-care facility at Greenspring Village in Springfield. She had Alzheimer's disease and osteoporosis.
Mrs. Lucke was born in Lexington, N.C., and graduated in 1943 from what was the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina. During World War II, she did research on biological warfare at Fort Detrick while serving in the Navy Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or WAVES. She also served as a chief pharmacist's mate.
She returned to North Carolina to work as a public health bacteriologist for a year. In 1949, she received a master's degree in zoology, with a concentration in parasitology, from the University of Iowa.
She taught biology at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C., from 1949 to 1951, before returning to Fort Detrick in 1951 as a bacteriologist with the Army Chemical Corps.
She worked in the physiology department at George Washington University for a year, then worked as a parasitologist at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda from 1953 to 1956.
From 1956 to 1976, Mrs. Lucke was a homemaker, substitute teacher and doctor's office lab technician.
In 1976, she joined the EPA as a microbiologist in the pesticides office. She retired in 1986.
She was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Parasitologists, the Sigma Xi scientific research society, the Arlington Women's Club and the Jane Austen Society of North America. She was a deacon at Little River United Church of Christ in Annandale.
She lived in Alexandria from 1955 to 2000, when she moved to Greenspring Village. She helped organize the Greenspring Village Women in Military Service Club.
Her marriage to Robert Charles Lucke ended in divorce.
Survivors include two daughters, Jeanette D. Lau of Springfield and Mary L. Summers of Annandale; one sister; two brothers; and four grandchildren.
-- Matt Schudel
Oscar E. Collins Jr.NSA Official
Oscar E. Collins Jr., 79, a retired official with the National Security Agency, died Feb. 17 of kidney failure at Genesis ElderCare rehabilitation center in Randallstown, Md. He lived in Severn.
Mr. Collins was born in Washington and was a graduate of Dunbar High School. He attended Howard University, American University and Lincoln University of Pennsylvania.
He served in the Army, then worked in a classified capacity with NSA for 41 years until his retirement in 1994.
He was a member of the Phoenix Society, an NSA retirement group, and was concerned with animal rights and environmental issues.
Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Ann B. Collins of Severn; a daughter, Janet Honeycutt of Rockledge, Fla.; three grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
-- Matt Schudel
Ralph S. Childs Jr.Banking Executive
Ralph S. Childs Jr., 80, a retired executive with Home Federal Savings Bank, died March 7 of complications of prostate cancer at his home in Silver Spring.
Mr. Childs, labeled "the dean of Washington banking" in a 1994 Washington Post article, was born in the District and grew up in Bethesda. He attended Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School and graduated from Augusta Military Academy before serving in the Army Air Forces from 1945 to 1947, which included a year with the 9th Air Force in Europe.
He received a bachelor's degree from American University in 1952 and attended the Advanced Management School at the University of Southern California. Shortly after graduating from American, he joined Home Federal Savings and Loan as a teller. At the time, the bank was a three-person operation.
More than 40 years later, he recalled the bank's president, Frank S. Phillips, asking him what he knew about banking. "I think I can spell it," he replied.
"And the rest is history. I took my chances," he told The Washington Post.
He was named treasurer in 1964, a director in 1966 and executive vice president in 1973. He became president in 1977 and chief executive three years later.
He stepped down as president in 1989 and retired as chairman of the board in 1994, following the company's merger with First Union Corp. in a deal worth $25 million in First Union stock to Home Federal shareholders. When the acquisition was announced, the bank had $232 million in assets, $204 million in deposits and 85 employees.
Mr. Childs was an instructor for the Institute of Financial Education for 12 years and served as president of the Washington chapter in 1963-64. He also was director, vice president and executive committee member of the nonprofit D.C. Housing Industry Corp.and worked as an advocate for low-cost housing, the homeless and Meals on Wheels.
He played golf and enjoyed his backyard pool and the beach at Ocean City. He took pride in never missing a Christmas with his family, even when serving in the military. He left for Europe in late December 1946 and got back home the next year on Christmas Eve.
Survivors include his wife of 52 years, Dorothy H. Childs of Silver Spring; four children, Deborah Parsley of Silver Spring, Bruce Childs of Gaithersburg, Stephen Childs of Chesapeake, Va., and Barbara Hann of Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.; a sister; and 11 grandchildren.
-- 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