Saturday, May 24, 2008
Barbara Ann Wauhop Turner
CIA Employee, Church Member
Barbara Ann Wauhop Turner, 73, who was a secretary at the Central Intelligence Agency and was an active member of Knox Presbyterian Church in Falls Church for more than 40 years, died of cancer May 12 at her home in Fairfax.
Mrs. Turner was born in Glen Morgan, W.Va., and moved with her family to Washington in 1947. She graduated from Anacostia High School and began work as a clerk typist with the Department of the Navy's Bureau of Ships in 1952.
In 1956, she married Dale Turner, who worked with the CIA, and accompanied him on assignments to the Philippines and Italy. She joined the agency in 1957 and did administrative and secretarial work for a group of communications engineers. She retired in 1989.
She was a Girl Scout leader, Sunday school teacher and homemaker, and she enjoyed volunteer work and time at the beach.
She lived in Anacostia and Falls Church before moving to Fairfax in 1978.
Survivors include her husband of 52 years of Fairfax; a daughter, Tamara Lemmons of Herndon; and a grandson.
-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb
David C. 'Gus' Swaggard
Construction Business Owner
David C. "Gus" Swaggard, 58, who owned and operated D.C. Swaggard Construction, which built residential and commercial properties in the Washington area from 1980 to 2006, died April 24 at Inova Fairfax Hospital. He had leukemia.
Mr. Swaggard did his commercial building through an affiliation in the late 1980s with KenWard Associates. The projects included the Leesburg Professional Center and Mount Zephyr Business Center in Fairfax County.
He had been a supervisor at Nash Construction of Marshall, Va., since 2006.
David Charles Swaggard was a native of Washington, Pa., and a 1971 graduate of the California University of Pennsylvania.
He then moved to the Washington area and taught architectural drafting and industrial arts at Woodbridge High School, where he also was a wrestling coach.
He was a Lorton resident and a member of Sydenstricker United Methodist Church in Springfield. In the 1990s, he coached Little League Baseball and soccer at the Springfield Youth Club. He played men's league baseball until his death.
Survivors include his wife of 33 years, Dorothea Johnston Swaggard, and their son, Travis C. Swaggard, both of Lorton; two brothers; and a sister.
-- Adam Bernstein
W. Thomas Suttle
IEEE Managing Director
W. Thomas Suttle, 59, who retired in 2004 as managing director of the Washington-based Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA, died April 26 at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He had gastrointestinal bleeding, pneumonia and respiratory failure.
Mr. Suttle joined the staff of IEEE-USA, a trade association, in 1977. He became managing director of the U.S. activities division in 1995 after previously serving as staff director for professional activities.
Walter Thomas Suttle was a native of Suttle, Ala., a community founded by his family. He was a 1971 cum laude political science graduate of Sewanee -- the University of the South in Tennessee.
In 1975, he received a master's degree in international studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington.
He was an Air Force intelligence officer from 1971 to 1973 based at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.
His main home was in Washington, and his memberships included the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in the District.
Survivors include his companion of 28 years, John Moshier of Washington and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; a brother; and a sister.
-- Adam Bernstein
Lillian Duncan Strickler
Homemaker, Church Member
Lillian Duncan Strickler, 87, a homemaker and member of Trinity United Methodist Church in McLean, died of multiple organ failure May 22 at Inova Fairfax Hospital. She lived in Gainesville, Va.
Mrs. Strickler was born in Columbia, S.C., and moved to the Washington area more than 50 years ago.
A daughter, Robin Hixon, died in 2007.
Survivors include her husband, Charles Lester Strickler of Gainesville; five children, Susan Sloan of Salem, S.C., Christina Moores of Bristow, Va., Shelley Metropol of Lexington, S.C., Stacey Strickler of Los Angeles and Charles Gregory Strickler of Houston; two brothers, Thomas W. Grimes of Alexandria and Whitey Grimes of Chapel Hill, N.C.; 14 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
-- Patricia Sullivan
William J. Simon
Transportation Executive
William J. Simon, 95, an executive with a transportation consulting firm, died of congestive heart failure May 10 at Carriage Hill of Bethesda, where he lived.
Mr. Simon worked for the Highway Users Alliance from 1948 to 1974, when he retired.
He was born in Belleville, Ill., graduated from the University of Illinois and received an advanced degree in management from Harvard University in 1935. He served in the Navy during World War II in the South Pacific.
After the war, he moved to the Washington area. He served on the Chevy Chase View town council in the early 1960s. He was also a member of Warner Memorial Presbyterian Church in Kensington.
His wife, Ruth Gerth Simon, died in 1996.
Survivors include four children, Terrell Simon Murphy of Stamford, Conn., Robert Gerth Simon of New York City, Wendy Lee Simon of Silver Spring and Edwin Chatfield Simon of Atlanta; six grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Clarence J. Sargent
CIA Geophysicist
Clarence J. Sargent, 91, a geophysicist with the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence from 1951 to 1973, died of cardiac arrest May 19 at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
Geophysics is a branch of earth science. During Mr. Sargent's CIA career, he assessed foreign technology advancements in military radio navigation and detection as well as satellite communication systems.
On one assignment, he set up communication monitoring stations in Iran.
Clarence John Sargent, a Fairfax County resident, was a native of Negaunee, Mich., and a 1939 mathematics graduate of Northern Michigan University. He later did graduate work in physics and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other schools.
He served in the Army Air Forces during World War II as a navigator for long-range bombers in the Pacific. During the war, he also helped start a navigation school at what is now Rosecrans Memorial Airport near Saint Joseph, Mo.
He settled in the Washington area after the war and became a Bureau of Standards geophysicist.
He was a member of Fairfax United Methodist Church, the Order of the Elks and the American Legion.
His avocations included golfing.
Survivors include his wife of 63 years, Nell Kisloski Sargent of Fairfax County; two daughters, Joan Griffey of Fairfax County and Barbara Rohweder of Leonardo, N.J.; a sister; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
-- Adam Bernstein
Dorothy S. Byrne
Church Treasurer, Volunteer
Dorothy S. Byrne, 71, a member and former treasurer of St. Stephen's United Methodist Church in Burke, died May 15 at her home in Annandale. She had brain cancer.
Mrs. Byrne, whose husband served in the Navy, was a former president of a club for the wives of officers in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. She was also a former president of the Stone Haven Civic Association in Annandale. Fairfax County Supervisor Sharon S. Bulova (D-Braddock) nominated Mrs. Byrne as volunteer of the year in 1990 for her work on a comprehensive land-use plan for the Annandale District.
Dorothy Schopp was born in the Bronx, N.Y., and spent her high school years in Waterloo, N.Y.
She was a 1958 cum laude graduate of Syracuse University, where she concentrated on journalism advertising. Soon after she graduated, she and her husband became owners and operators of the Gowanda (N.Y.) News and Observer newspaper.
She later accompanied her husband on his military assignments and at one point was columnist for the NATO base newspaper in Keflavik, Iceland. They settled in the Washington area in 1976.
Survivors include her husband of 50 years, retired Navy Capt. Edward M. Byrne of Annandale; two children, Kathryn Byrne-Laube of Richmond and Edward M. Byrne Jr. of Golden, Colo.; a brother; and a sister.
-- Adam Bernstein