Man Fatally Shoots Wife, Self at Retirement Home

"Our hearts and prayers go out to their family and to all of the residents and staff who cared so much for these fine people," the statement said.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier, who was at the scene yesterday, declined to release information, saying that she was respecting the wishes of the couple's two children.

"It's a tough situation on the family, I'm sure," Lanier said.

The Funkhousers lived in Georgetown before moving to Ingleside, friends said. They had a third child, Phillip Hayes Funkhouser, who died at 14 in 1961 in a car crash in Wyoming, where he had been working for the summer. He was a student at St. Albans School for Boys.

Richard Funkhouser served in the Army during World War II and had a distinguished career in the Foreign Service after the war. He served in positions at U.S. embassies in Paris; Bern, Switzerland; Brussels; Luxembourg; Bucharest, Romania; Damascus, Syria; Moscow; and Saigon.

President Richard M. Nixon appointed him as ambassador to Gabon, a position he held for a year. In 1971, he was sent to Vietnam as head of the Civil Operations and Rural Development Support Program.

He then worked as an international affairs consultant based in Scotland. From 1981 to 1983, he was director of international activities for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Staff researcher Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.