Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Richard T. 'Dick' OlsonAdvertising Salesman
Richard T. "Dick" Olson, 74, a retired newspaper advertising salesman, died March 20 of lung cancer at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda. He was a Chevy Chase resident.
Mr. Olson was born in Vineland, N.J., and served in the Marine Corps in 1950-51. After he was discharged, he moved to the Washington area and became an advertising salesman for the Washington Star. When the newspaper folded in 1981, he worked in the same capacity for the Journal Newspapers. He retired in 1998.
He was a fundraiser with the Variety Club during his tenure at both newspapers. A member of Manor Country Club in Rockville, he enjoyed golf, bridge and fishing.
Survivors include his wife of 54 years, Geraldine "Geri" Olson of Chevy Chase; a son, Eric Olson of Downingtown, Pa.; two sisters, Christine Sarna of Woodbridge and Barbara Pippin of Laurel; and a grandson.
-- Joe Holley
Alice K. SachaklianNSA Crypto-Linguist
Alice K. Sachaklian, 87, a retired crypto-linguist at the National Security Agency, died March 13 at the Johnson Center at Falcons Landing, a military retirement community in Potomac Falls. She was a longtime McLean resident before moving to Potomac Falls in 1996.
Mrs. Sachaklian was born Alice Arusyag Keosaian in the Bronx, N.Y., to Armenian immigrants. She received an undergraduate degree in German and art at Hunter College in 1940 and did graduate work in German at Columbia University.
She began a career in government service in 1942 at the Office of Censorship in New York. In 1945, she traveled in a convoy of 50 ships across the Atlantic, the final convoy of World War II, and experienced V.E. Day in Paris on May 8 of that year.
She moved to the Washington area in 1947 and began her career as a crypto-linguist and crypto-analyst at the NSA, holding positions in postwar Germany and in Washington. She achieved the rank of GS-15 Division Chief. At her retirement in 1978, she received the Department of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award, the highest honor for a civilian. She was a life member of the Phoenix Society, an organization of retired NSA professionals.
Mrs. Sachaklian and her husband were members of Soorp Khatch (Holy Cross) Armenian Apostolic Church in Bethesda, where she participated in the Ladies Guild. The couple also were active in Armenian cultural activities and were benefactors of cultural programs to foster Armenian heritage and religion and to promote the visibility of the Armenian people.
In 2003, Mrs. Sachaklian established two funds in her and her husband's names: the Antelias (Lebanon) Seminary Fund, to foster religious education, and the Armenian Review Fund to sustain the publication of a scholarly literary journal. In 2004, the Armenian Prelacy, Eastern United States, named her its Woman of the Year.
Her husband, retired Air Force Col. Harry A. Sachaklian, died in 2002.
Survivors include a sister.
-- Joe Holley
Arleeta Carol ScillianSecretary, Church Member
Arleeta Carol Scillian, 91, a secretary, homemaker and church member, died of congestive heart failure Feb. 29 at Wilson Health Care Center in Gaithersburg.
Mrs. Scillian worked for Vitro Laboratories in Aspen Hill from 1960 through the mid-1980s. She was also a member of Woodside United Methodist Church in Silver Spring for 56 years and taught Sunday school there. For many years, she also ran the food pantry, which provided emergency relief for needy families.
She was born in Chandler, Okla., and attended Seminole Junior College in Oklahoma before moving to Washington during World War II.
Her husband, Glenn Scillian, died in 1988.
Survivors include three children, Linda Lowery of Alexandria, James Scillian of San Francisco and Gary Scillian of San Diego; two brothers; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Stanislaw K. ToczekNeurosurgeon
Stanislaw K. Toczek, 84, a neurosurgeon in private practice and at Georgetown University Hospital for almost 40 years, died of congestive heart failure March 5 at his home in Glendale, Calif.
Dr. Toczek came to the Washington area in 1964, set up a practice in Arlington County and served briefly as chief medical officer in neurosurgery at D.C. General Hospital. In 1968, he became clinical associate professor in neurosurgery at Georgetown, where he worked until his retirement in 2002. He also was a consultant to the National Institutes of Health. He moved from Alexandria to California in 2003.
He was born in Haczow, Poland, and survived World War II as a youngster. After the Russians occupied Poland, he was warned to leave his home town, so he moved to Wroclaw in the western territories. There, professors and staff of the University of Lwow re-created the university, known for its high academic standards, at the University of Wroclaw, where Dr. Toczek received his medical degree. He studied neurosurgery in Warsaw, where he received a specialty certification.
He worked five years as an adjunct professor in the Warsaw Academy of Medicine's neurosurgery department and in 1960 received a Rockefeller Foundation postdoctoral fellowship to the University of California at Los Angeles. Warned not to return to Poland because of politics, Dr. Toczek taught and consulted in San Francisco and Palo Alto, Calif., before coming to the Washington area.
He was twice president of the local chapter of the Friends of John Paul II Foundation.
Survivors include his wife, Ariadne Toczek of Glendale; two children, Dr. Maria Toczek and Andrzej Toczek, both of Glendale; and two grandchildren.
-- Patricia Sullivan
William Clark HainsworthAccountant
William Clark Hainsworth, 82, a retired government accountant and a skater extraordinaire, died March 17 of pulmonary fibrosis at his home in Crofton.
In years past, Mr. Hainsworth was a regular roller skater at the Riverside Stadium rink, one of the largest in the country when it opened in the late 1940s. He met his wife while both were skating at the rink, located beside the Potomac where the Kennedy Center stands today. The Hainsworths continued pair dancing on skates into their 80s.
Mr. Hainsworth was born in Bridgeport, Conn., and served as a Navy pharmacist's mate during World War II. He was among the first who came ashore at Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day.
After the war, he settled in Washington and ran several businesses, including a hobby shop in Southeast. In the early 1960s, he received a degree from Strayer University and went to work as an accountant for the Consumer Products Safety Commission. He later joined the Agency for International Development. He retired in 1985.
In addition to skating, Mr. Hainsworth enjoyed line and ballroom dancing. He was a charter member of the Community United Methodist Church of Crofton, a life member of the Maryland Terrapin Club, a mason and a member of the Elks.
Survivors include his skating partner and wife of 62 years, Ellen Hainsworth of Crofton; three children, Becky Kirwan of Chesterfield, Va., Bonny Sunderland of Clayton, N.C., and Barby Gill of Davidsonville; seven grandchildren; and 15 great-grandchildren.
-- Joe Holley
Lucy Scott BerglandForeign Service Officer
Lucy Scott Bergland, 85, a retired Foreign Service officer, died March 20 of leukemia at her home in the District.
Ms. Bergland was born in Wilmington, Del., and graduated in 1946 from Radcliffe College. She joined the Foreign Service shortly after college and served in Ireland, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Cameroon, Egypt, Nigeria, Angola and South Africa.
After her retirement in the early 1970s, she enjoyed travel, cooking and entertaining. She also enjoyed theater, music and the movies, as well as Vermont wildlife and her garden, pond and apple trees. An inveterate reader, she volunteered at the Bryn Mawr Lantern Bookshop in Georgetown.
There are no immediate survivors.
-- Joe Holley