Obituaries

Mr. Weadon was born in Brisbane, Australia, and grew up in Westport, Conn. He graduated with a government degree in 1968 from Cornell University, where he sang in the Cornell Glee Club, managed the club's year-long world tour and was the president of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He also served on the Cornell University Trustee Council.

After his graduation, he served for four years in the Navy, on destroyer duty with the Seventh Fleet off the coast of Vietnam and in operations involving the Navy SEALs within the country. He completed his tour as flag lieutenant to the admiral commanding the Military Sealift Command, Far East.

Mr. Weadon received a degree from the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco in 1975 and a master's degree from the Harvard Business School Adjunct Program at the Iran Centre for Management Studies in Tehran in 1976.

In 1984, he opened a firm, Weadon and Associates, in Washington, although he occasionally joined larger firms interested in expanding their international trade portfolio. He was a consultant to international technology companies and the Commerce and Defense departments.

He opened law offices in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Beijing and Hanoi and was the first attorney granted clearance by the U.S. Treasury Department to practice law in Vietnam. He also set up a foundation to support Vietnamese orphans.

He was an adjunct professor of foreign trade law at George Mason University and Golden Gate University Law School and lectured at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on international high-tech ventures. He also contributed articles to scholarly journals, newspapers and blogs, often on issues involving Iran and the Middle East.

In a 2004 opinion article in the Providence Journal, co-authored by William O. Beeman, Mr. Weadon wrote that "Iran has outmaneuvered the United States diplomatically regarding its nuclear program, and there is little that neoconservatives within and surrounding the Bush administration can do about the situation except gnash their collective teeth." Mr. Weadon called on the United States to begin dealing rationally with Iran on nuclear-containment issues.

Survivors include his wife of 13 years, Suzanne Hayden Cameron Weadon of the District; a stepson, Albert "Allen" F. Cameron IV of the District; and a sister.

-- Joe Holley

Bernice Aletha CharlesHomemaker, Church Member

Bernice Aletha Charles, 82, a homemaker and church member, died after a heart attack March 4 at Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park.

Mrs. Charles was a member of the Takoma Park Seventh Day Adventist Church, the Word of Hope Ministries and the volunteer group Beverly Enterprises.

She was born in Hyde Park, Guyana, and had been an elementary school teacher in her country before moving to the Washington area in the early 1980s.

Her husband, Alexander Charles, died in 2001.

Survivors include three sons, Aubrey Charles of Silver Spring, Monteith Charles of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Lindon Charles of Silver Spring; four daughters, Hazel Charles of Cayo, Belize, Jay Charles of Takoma Park, Marilyn Charles of Laurel and Cheryl Boston of Brooklyn, N.Y.; nine grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

-- Patricia Sullivan