Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Seth D. ZinmanLabor Department Lawyer
Seth D. Zinman, 71, who worked as a lawyer for the Department of Labor's Office of the Solicitor for 45 years, died of leukemia May 6 in hospice care at a friend's house in Washington. He was a longtime resident of Arlington County.
Mr. Zinman joined the Labor Department in 1961 and worked his way up through the ranks. He was appointed associate solicitor for legislation and legal counsel in 1975.
In that role, he was responsible for drafting significant federal laws designed to protect American workers. Among the laws were the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act, amendments to the National Labor Relations Act that broadened coverage to the nonprofit hospital care industry, the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act amendments of 1975 and 1977, and the Black Lung provisions of the Federal Coal Mine and Safety Act.
As associate solicitor, he advised several secretaries of labor during major labor disputes and work stoppages subject to the Taft-Hartley and Railway Labor Acts. He also served as the department's senior career ethics officer and the principal legal adviser to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For many years, he represented the Labor Department as a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
From 1990 until he retired last year, he served as a senior lawyer. He was a charter member of the Senior Executive Service.
Mr. Zinman received the Philip Arnow Award, the Labor Department's highest honor, and the Justice Tom C. Clark Award, given by the Washington chapter of the Federal Bar Association. Throughout his career, he was known as an outstanding mentor to lawyers in the Labor Department.
A native of Hartford, Conn., Mr. Zinman graduated from Wesleyan University and Harvard Law School.
He had a lifelong passion for music, particularly ragtime. He maintained an extensive collection of recordings and books on the subject. He was planning to deliver a series of lectures on ragtime for the Arlington Learning in Retirement Institute at George Mason University before his illness was diagnosed.
There are no immediate survivors.
-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb
Leila Fosburgh WilsonVolunteer
Leila Fosburgh Wilson, 96, a homemaker and volunteer, died of congestive heart failure April 28 at Collington Episcopal Life Care Community in Mitchellville, where she lived.
Mrs. Wilson was a docent and a member of the Advisory Council at the Textile Museum in Washington for many years.
She was born in New York and graduated from Smith College in 1934. She married a career Foreign Service officer and accompanied him on his postings to Mexico, Iran, India, England and Lebanon, culminating in Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War. She lived in Washington from 1968 to 1989, when she moved to Mitchellville.
While overseas, Mrs. Wilson volunteered in local schools and orphanages, and with women's groups and Planned Parenthood.
She was a member of St. John's Georgetown Episcopal Church in the District, the Sulgrave Club and Chevy Chase Club.
Her husband, Evan Morris Wilson, died in 1984.
Survivors include two daughters, Leila W. Brown of Portland, Ore., and Martha L. Wilson of Arlington; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Margaret N. WhitneySecretary
Margaret N. Whitney, 97, a secretary who retired from the Air Force Department in the early 1970s, died April 21 at the Falcons Landing retirement community in Sterling after a fall.
Starting in the early 1950s, Mrs. Whitney had worked for Rep. Edgar W. Hiestand (R-Calif.), the National Education Association, General Textile Mills and Welex Electronics.
She was a member for 78 years of Washington's New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, where she had been president of the women's association and a choir singer.
Margaret Nolan was born in Sherman, Tex., and raised in Albuquerque. She settled in the Washington area in the late 1920s and did statistical research work at the U.S. Maritime Administration.
She spent much of her retirement in Southern California and moved in with her son in Reston about four years ago.
Her husband of 54 years, Arch Whitney, died in 1990.
Survivors include a son, Lee Whitney of Reston; a sister; and two grandchildren.
-- Adam Bernstein
Martin Ralph Styer Jr.Charter Boat Captain
Martin Ralph Styer Jr., 87, a charter fishing boat operator and former builder, died of an aneurysm April 25 at his home in Fort Pierce, Fla.
Mr. Styer, a native of Kensington, operated his fishing business out of Florida and Ocean City, Md., where he regularly participated in the annual marlin tournament. He attended Randolph Macon Academy in Front Royal, Va., until leaving to enlist in the Army Air Force during World War II.
Serving as a waist gunner on a B-24, he was twice shot down. The first time, over Zagreb, Croatia, he evaded capture with the help of local resistance fighters. The second time, in July 1944, he was captured and held in a German prisoner of war camp near the Baltic Sea. He was among prisoners marched more than 500 miles west the next year to avoid liberation by the Russians. When he was released, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart and the Air Medal.
Mr. Styer returned to Kensington and opened a cement business and later became a builder of custom homes. He attended the University of Maryland and taught seamanship courses there before moving in the late 1960s to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he started his fishing business. He also managed a seafood distribution company there.
Survivors include his wife of 67 years, Doris Boman Styer of Fort Pierce; two daughters, Shirley Watson of Kensington and Linda Bodine of Columbia; a sister, Elizabeth Styer Duvall of Bethesda; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Francis Joseph SouzaWoodies Manager
Francis Joseph Souza, 84, a retired operations manager at Woodward & Lothrop in Landover and Wheaton, died of congestive heart failure April 28 at his home in Clinton.
Mr. Souza worked for Woodies, the now-closed retailer, for 29 years, retiring in 1991.
He was born in Fall River, Mass., and served in the Navy in Japan and Washington. After his military service, he joined the department store chain.
He was a member of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Clinton, and was also a volunteer at the Andrews Air Force Base hospital.
Survivors include his wife of 50 years, Angelina Souza of Clinton; a son, Kenneth Souza of Clinton; a stepson, Robert Freitas of Frederick; and three grandchildren.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Celia Anne KramerPhysician
Celia Anne Kramer, 69, an internist who practiced in the Washington area for more than 30 years, died of metastatic lung cancer May 2 at her home in Potomac.
Nutrition-conscious and athletic, Dr. Kramer had survived both thyroid cancer and bladder cancer before lung cancer was diagnosed in late 2006.
She was board-certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology, and was a fellow of the American College of Physicians.
She was a native Washingtonian and graduated from Washington-Lee High School in 1955. She married her high school sweetheart three years later. She had two daughters and graduated from the University of Maryland in 1970 and from its medical school in 1974.
She completed an internship and became a diplomate in the National Board of Medical Examiners in 1975. She finished a residency in internal medicine two years later and a fellowship in gastroenterology at Washington Hospital Center in 1979.
Dr. Kramer ran the medical clinic and was vice chairman of the internal medicine section at the Washington Hospital Center until 1984, and she was an internist with the Group Health Association for the next 10 years.
She later returned to the hospital and retired from private practice in 1998 with Associates in Medicine in Vienna and Fairfax.
In retirement, she enjoyed annual ski trips, European travel and becoming fluent in both French and Spanish. She was a past treasurer of the Capital Golden Skiers club and sang with an a cappella group, Just in Time, which is part of the Heart of Maryland chorus. She last sang with the group April 19.
Survivors include her husband of 49 years, Robert Kramer of Potomac; two daughters, Laura Kramer of Chevy Chase and Ellen Kramer Eisenberg of Castle Rock, Colo.; a sister; and two granddaughters.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Alan A. KistlerAFL-CIO Official
Alan A. Kistler, 87, a career AFL-CIO official in Washington who retired in 1986 after 13 years as director of organizing and field services for the union, died May 10 at his home in Silver Spring. He had congestive heart failure.
Mr. Kistler helped oversee the union's field representatives nationwide and worked on political action campaigns, recruiting new members and organizing support for strikers.
He was recruited to the old Congress of Industrial Organizations after becoming a strike leader at a Pittsburgh steel mill where he worked in the early 1950s.
After the American Federation of Labor merged with the CIO, he worked on membership recruitment in the Organization Department.
During his career, he was president of the AFL-CIO Employees Federal Credit Union.
Alan Anthony Kistler was a Pittsburgh native and served in the Army in Europe during World War II. On the G.I. Bill, he graduated from the University of Chicago, where he also received a master's degree in public administration.
He served on the Greenbelt City Council from 1955 to 1959 and was the mayor from 1959 to 1961. More recently, he lived in Silver Spring, where he was a member of St. Andrew Apostle Catholic Church. He also was in the Knights of Columbus.
His wife, Marie Connolly Kistler, whom he married in 1948, died in 1999.
Survivors include three children, Kevin Kistler of Bethesda and Mary Anne Winters and Margaret Brown, both of Silver Spring; a brother; and eight grandchildren.
-- Adam Bernstein
Marion Catherine GriffinVolunteer
Marion Catherine Griffin, 83, a homemaker and volunteer, died April 12 at Central Continuing Care in Mount Airy, N.C. She had Alzheimer's disease.
Mrs. Griffin was a member of St. John Catholic Church in McLean and volunteered with the SHARE Food Network.
She was born in Springfield, Mass., and attended Northern Virginia Community College. She married a Marine officer and accompanied him to assignments around the world. They settled in the Washington area in 1966. She moved to Los Angeles in 2003 and to North Carolina in 2005.
Her husband, retired Capt. Joseph Alan Griffin, died in 2002.
Survivors include two children, Grace Kish of Mount Airy and Chris Griffin of Los Angeles; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Robert Harry FullerBusiness Owner
Robert Harry Fuller, 83, owner of a Takoma Park radio and television shop for 29 years, died of prostate cancer May 4 at his home in Riva, in Anne Arundel County.
Mr. Fuller, an electronics repairman for years, owned and operated Oakview Radio & TV from 1955 until 1984.
He was born in Hazleton, Pa., and attended a Baltimore vocational school to become an auto mechanic. He worked as a riveter with the Glenn L. Martin Co. in Baltimore before serving in the Navy in Panama from 1944 to 1946.
He then attended a school for radio and television repair while working as an auto mechanic in Baltimore. By 1951, Mr. Fuller was working as a television repairman at Western Auto Supply in Baltimore.
He enjoyed boating, fishing and reading the newspaper, as well as jigsaw puzzles, yardwork, gardening and feeding birds.
Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Cherie E. Gregory Fuller of Riva; six children, Danny Fuller of Huntingtown, Steve Fuller of Lake Anna, Va., Dennis Fuller of Laurel, Andy Fuller of Riva, Pam Ferguson of Baltimore and Patti Brady of Riva; a brother; three sisters; 14 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
-- Patricia Sullivan