Obituaries

Jean D. CaldwellCommunity Activist

Jean D. Caldwell, 86, a community activist in Alexandria, died of a heart attack June 1 at Inova Alexandria Hospital.

Mrs. Caldwell, who had lived in Alexandria since 1958, was a founder of the NorthEast Citizens Association and participated in various projects to beautify Alexandria and make the city more livable. She was a leader of an effort to save the George Washington Memorial Parkway in the 1960s and 1970s.

Mrs. Caldwell was born in Seattle and grew up in Arkansas. She was a graduate of Arkansas College (now Lyon College) in Batesville, Ark., and came to Washington in 1943. She worked at the law library of the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1951.

Her husband of 46 years, Randolph F. Caldwell, died in 2001.

Survivors include a daughter, Anne Christoffel of Arlington; and a grandson.

-- Matt Schudel

Alejandro Francisco CastroSurgeon

Alejandro "Alex" Francisco Castro, 89, a colon and rectal surgeon who was a former chairman of the surgery department at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, died of congestive heart failure May 30 at the Mayo Clinic Hospice in Rochester, Minn.

Dr. Castro practiced for almost 40 years in the Washington and Bethesda areas. He was on the staff of Suburban Hospital from 1947 to 1985 and was team physician to the Washington Redskins in the 1950s.

He was born in El Salvador. His father, Dr. Hector David Castro, was the ambassador from El Salvador to the United States for 30 years and was a founding delegate of the United Nations in 1945.

Dr. Castro lived in the United States from the age of 1 to 8, returned to his homeland and then came back to this country at age 16 to become a naturalized citizen. He was often his mother's escort to diplomatic parties, which gave him a broad range of diplomatic exposure and a lifelong dislike of champagne.