Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Ray W. NightingaleAgricultural Economist
Ray Wiley Nightingale, 72, an agricultural economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, died May 31 of metastatic melanoma at his home in Bethesda.
Dr. Nightingale, who worked in the Economic Research Service of the USDA, retired from the agency in 1997 after 22 years.
He was born in Danforth, Maine, and served in the Army from 1956 until 1958. He graduated from Clark University on the GI Bill in 1960. He received a master's degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1962 and a PhD at Cornell University in 1968, both in agricultural economics. His research took him and his family to New Delhi for a year.
Dr. Nightingale served as an economics professor in Lebanon at the American University of Beirut from 1968 to 1975.
He traveled extensively and enjoyed many summers with his wife and family in Greece.
He has been a Washington area resident since 1975.
Survivors include his wife of 47 years, Maria Stylianou Nightingale of Bethesda; two children, Roger Nightingale of Durham, N.C., and Malina Koerschner of Annapolis; a sister; a brother; and four grandchildren.
-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb
Raymond F. 'Bud' KeithHHS Equal Opportunity Employee
Raymond F. "Bud" Keith, 68, a senior official with the Department of Health and Human Services who also was heavily involved in promoting athletic programs for the blind and visually impaired, died June 14 at Capital Hospice in Arlington. He had prostate cancer.
Dr. Keith spent 22 years with the department, where he was an equal-opportunity specialist in the Office for Civil Rights. He retired in 1996.
Raymond Fred Keith, an Arlington resident, was a fourth-generation Washingtonian. He was blinded at 11 in a school-yard accident.
He was a 1958 graduate of the Maryland School for the Blind in Baltimore and a 1962 public relations graduate of American University. He received a master's degree in special education from Syracuse University in 1965 and a doctorate in special education from the University of Pittsburgh in 1976.
In the late 1960s, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama, where he taught and developed programs for visually impaired children.
He was president of Ski for Light, an international program for blind skiers, from 1981 to 1988 and 1994 to 1996.
He also participated in the nonprofit organization Health Sports Program, which uses outdoor sports to help rehabilitate the disabled.
"Too many disabled people are out of shape," he told The Washington Post. "We're really into improving health and the quality of life. One thing you get is more energy for the hassle of living as a disabled person. Because it is a hassle."
In 1991, he received a decoration from the Norwegian Embassy in Washington, which recognized him as a "tireless champion of sports and recreation for the handicapped."
Survivors include his wife of 13 years, Billie Jean Hill Keith of Arlington; two stepchildren, Thomas Hill of Arlington and Caroline Fortenberry of Madison, Miss.; a sister; and three granddaughters.
-- Adam Bernstein
Leonard F. CroweComputer Programmer
Leonard Fulton Crowe, 83, a former computer programmer, died May 30 at his home in Laurel. He had Parkinson's disease.
Mr. Crowe retired in 1989 from Planning Research Corp. He previously worked as a systems analyst at the Department of Energy, the Federal Power Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.
He was a native of Canon City, Colo. He graduated from the University of Colorado and came to Washington in 1970. He worked for the Department of the Army as a cryptographer and intelligence communications specialist for 13 years.
He had no immediate survivors.
-- Patricia Sullivan