Obituaries

Grace A. RafajForeign Service Officer

Grace A. Rafaj, 80, a retired Foreign Service officer, died March 11 of a heart attack at her home in Arlington County.

Ms. Rafaj was born in Scranton, Pa. She joined the Foreign Service in 1948 and was an administrative officer in overseas postings in Beirut; Moscow; London; Rome; Kabul; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Brussels; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Kinshasa, Zaire; Bogota, Colombia; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; New Delhi; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; and Seoul.

She continued to travel the world after retiring in 1981.

Survivors include a brother and four sisters.

-- Matt Schudel

Mark Lawrence SchillerElevator Adjuster

Mark Lawrence Schiller, 51, an elevator adjustor, died of blunt force trauma after falling into an elevator shaft March 10 at a work site at Fifth and K streets in Southeast Washington.

He was born in Washington and raised in Silver Spring. He graduated from Montgomery Blair High School and went to work for the elevator company then owned by Westinghouse and now Schindler Elevator.

Mr. Schiller, a sports car and NASCAR enthusiast, loved motorcycle riding with his son.

His marriage to Gail Schiller ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of 27 years, Gaye E. Schiller; a son from his second marriage, Paul M. Schiller of Frederick; his parents, Lawrence and Mary Schiller of St. Petersburg, Fla.; and two sisters, Melanie Caperones of Mechanicsville and Debi Harvey of Ellicott City.

-- Patricia Sullivan

Robert A. SchuttNSA Employee

Robert A. Schutt, 88, a retired employee of the National Security Agency, died March 22 of congestive heart failure at his home in Springfield.

Mr. Schutt was born in Yonkers, N.Y., and graduated from Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y. He served as a Navy communications officer during World War II. He worked at Woodward & Lothrop department store before being recalled to the Navy for the Korean War.

He then worked at NSA from the early 1950s until his retirement in 1979.

He was a member of Mount Calvary Community Church in Alexandria and the volunteered with the Good News Jail & Prison Ministry of Fairfax County.

His wife of 56 years, Margaret Schutt, died in 1998.

Survivors include a son, Kenneth R. Schutt of Springfield; two grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

-- Matt Schudel

Ruth Moate WalkerVolunteer

Ruth Doris Moate Walker, 86, who volunteered with charity organizations and at retirement homes, died March 27 of pneumonia at Inova Fairfax Hospital. She lived in McLean.

Mrs. Walker was born in Yakima, Wash., and came to the Washington area in 1946. She lived in Arlington until 1963, when she moved to McLean.

She volunteered with the United Way, American Cancer Society and Camp Fire USA. For more than 20 years, she gave Hawaiian hula dancing performances at retirement homes.

Her husband of 66 years, Harold Walker, died in 2006.

Survivors include three children, Kathryn Walker of McLean, James Walker of San Diego and Janet Walker of Vienna; a sister; a brother; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

-- Matt Schudel