Tuesday, May 6, 2008; B07

Walter Camp Jr.Store Executive

Walter Camp Jr., 79, who was president of one of Washington's first health food stores, Vita Food Co., died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound May 1 at his home in Silver Spring.

A native Washingtonian, Mr. Camp was a multi-sport athlete at Roosevelt High School, where he set the 100-yard dash track record before graduating in 1947.

After entering the U.S. Merchant Marine, he sailed on Cities Service oil tankers throughout the Caribbean until he was drafted for the Korean War. His shortwave radio experience as a teenager during World War II led him to an assignment in the Army Signal Corps' GHQ Longlines group.

He attended the University of Miami in Florida, where in his spare time he indulged his love of the outdoors with Everglades adventures in his Klepper kayak, learned to fly in an Aeronca airplane and socialized as a member of the Cavaliers.

He returned to Washington about 1957 and joined his parents in the family health-food business, Vita Food, where he and his brother worked until their retirements and the store's closing in 1989.

Mr. Camp was active in diverse community interests. The son of German immigrants, he was a member of the Washingtonia Schuhplattler Verein, which performs traditional Bavarian Schuhplattler dances, German drinking songs and Alpine bell-ringing. He also broadcast German music on WGTS radio.

He maintained the Hillandale Community Swimming Pool, served as Boy Scoutmaster of Troop 87 and volunteered at the Montgomery County Police Training Academy. He did target shooting at the Berwyn Rod and Gun Club and shot trap at the Prince George's County Trap & Skeet Center.

Mr. Camp was a voracious reader of maritime, biographical and military history, and he possessed an astonishing memory for details. He often regaled others with stories from his reading and his life that seemed fantastic but were in fact true and entertaining, his family said.

A favorite was the tale of playing a game of capture-the-flag on the roof of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in northeast Washington, his family said, which occurred during World War II when only the Crypt Church had been constructed.

Throughout his life, Mr. Camp continued his boyhood interests in stamp collecting and listening to shortwave radio broadcasts from around the world.

In retirement, he cultivated a backyard dedicated to birds, butterflies and squirrels, with attractions and foods for each.

He enjoyed boating and fishing on the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers. As a boy in the 1930s, he once rode his bicycle from Emerson Street in Washington all the way to Pine Whiff on the South River in Edgewater, in Anne Arundel County.

Survivors include his wife, Zora Camp of Silver Spring; a son, Walter T. Camp of Virginia Beach; and a brother, Ronald Camp of Silver Spring. A daughter, Anna Camp, died in 1987.

-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb

James Elmer Lowe, 81, a retired highway and construction engineer with the D.C. Department of Transportation, died April 23 at Capital Hospice in Arlington of complications of brain surgery. He lived in Manassas.

Mr. Lowe was born at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and grew up in Washington. He graduated from Eastern High School and spent summers working as a deckhand with the Sea Scouts, a youth sailing program.

He served in the Army Air Forces from 1945 to 1947 and, for a time, guarded German prisoners of war. He joined the D.C. Transportation Department in 1947 and worked as an on-site construction supervisor. He assisted on the design and construction of the Anacostia Freeway and other highways in the District. He retired in 1980.

From 1951 to 1960, he had a second job as a stock clerk at a Grand Union grocery store in Alexandria.

Mr. Lowe lived in the Lincolnia Park neighborhood of Fairfax County for 47 years and was a fixture at neighborhood Christmas and Fourth of July gatherings.

He was a member of the Masons, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the National Rifle Association and the American Legion. In his youth, he was a member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill and later was a member of St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Annandale.

Survivors include his wife of 60 years, Mary Murphy Lowe of Manassas; three children, David G. Lowe of Stafford, Claudia D. Scordellis of Leesburg and Steven M. Lowe of Toms Brook, Va.; and eight grandchildren.

-- Matt Schudel

Robert G. Zimmerman, 64, a sales representative for TruGreen lawn care and landscaping service, died April 29 at Prince George's Community Hospital of injuries sustained in a car accident in January. He lived in Waldorf.

Before working several years for TruGreen in the Waldorf area, Mr. Zimmerman spent most of his career as a salesman for car dealerships in Prince George's County, including Ourisman Chevrolet and Rosenthal Chevrolet.

He was born in Upper Darby, Pa., was raised in Cheverly and graduated from Bladensburg High School. He was in the Army for about four years and was stationed in Germany.

His marriages to Barbara Zimmerman and Marilyn Zimmerman ended in divorce.

Survivors include his companion of 10 years, Gloria Sandberg of Waldorf; two sons from his first marriage, Mark R. Zimmerman of Odenton and Lance A. Zimmerman of Crofton; and three grandchildren.

-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb

Anne Heenan, 100, clerk-typist at the National Institutes of Health from 1960 to 1970, died April 27 at Asbury Methodist Village's Wilson Health Care Center in Gaithersburg. She had congestive heart failure.

Through the 1970s, Mrs. Heenan did administrative work for Bauman Bible Telecasts, which produced religious programming and distributed it to churches, television stations, prisons and military bases.

Anna Bristo was born in Oil City, Ontario, and raised in Sarnia, Ontario. She moved to the Washington area in 1931, and she became a U.S. citizen in 1941.

She was a member of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, where she was a crib room volunteer.

She was a former Woman's Club president in the Bethesda neighborhood of Green Acres-Glen Cove. She was also a member of the Chevy Chase Woman's Club.

In the 1970s and 1980s, she toured Christian sites in Europe and the Middle East. Her avocations included growing roses.

In 2001, she moved to Asbury Methodist Village from Bethesda.

Her husband of 30 years, Fred H. Heenan, died in 1959.

Survivors include two children, Don Heenan of Atlanta and Dona Peterson of Miami; and a grandson.

-- Adam Bernstein

Sue Claxon Fisher, 69, an interior decorator who restored historic homes and decorated the Watergate Hotel in Washington in the early 1990s, died May 2 of ovarian cancer at Suburban Hospital. She lived in Bethesda.

Mrs. Fisher, who owned Sue Fisher Interiors, was known for historic home restorations in Garrett Park and Boston, Mass. She lent her expertise to the Watergate Hotel from 1991 to 1993. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. on K Street also was a client.

She was born in Washington, lived in Atlanta and Chicago while a child and attended elementary through high school in Chevy Chase. She graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in 1956 and attended the University of Maryland.

From 1962 to 1968, she lived in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey. She went to Turkey as a Foreign Service spouse and later worked there as a secretary to a government contractor. She learned to speak Turkish fluently.

She was an active member of her high school reunion committee and maintained close contact with classmates worldwide.

Mrs. Fisher coached a Montgomery Soccer boy's team for 14 seasons. She was honored as Mother of the Year by the PTA at Wyngate Elementary School, where she volunteered from 1974 to 1979.

She was an avid golfer and a member of the Army-Navy Country Club.

Survivors include her husband of 47 years, William Douglas Fisher of Bethesda; two children, Charles D. Fisher of Poolesville and Laura S. Fisher of Frederick; two children she helped raise, Kristen S. Messenger of Rockville and Lisa P. Messenger of Bethesda; and three grandchildren.

-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb