E. Stuart Scharf

Real Estate Business Owner

Edward Stuart Scharf, 66, who owned and operated Commercial-Investors Realty, which specializes in apartments and office buildings in suburban Maryland, died March 22 at his home in Chevy Chase.

A spokeswoman for the Maryland medical examiner's office said Mr. Scharf died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and the death was ruled a suicide. Mr. Scharf had terminal liver cancer, his family said.

Mr. Scharf started his real estate business in 1980 after working as a top salesman for Panorama Realty, working in real estate with his brother and owning Amoco franchises in Richmond and Fredericksburg.

He was born in Washington and raised in Montgomery County, where he was a 1960 graduate of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School.

He was a marketing graduate of American University and briefly worked for his father's construction-cost consulting firm.

He wrestled in high School and became an Amateur Athletic Union weightlifter as a young adult. Later, his enthusiasm for classic cars led him to join the Rolls-Royce Owners' Club.

His marriages to Mary Ellen Shepherd Scharf and Anna Levine Scharf ended in divorce.

Survivors include two daughters from his first marriage, Beth Scharf of Lafayette, Ind., and Heather Scharf of Brooklyn, N.Y.; a brother, Robert Scharf of Chevy Chase; and a grandson.

-- Adam Bernstein