Obituaries

He was a member of the Knights of Columbus and was elected grand knight in Alaska and Virginia. As grand knight, he made sure that activities sponsored by the organization included ones that were safe and fun for children and that involved helping people in need, his family said.

Mr. Johnson loved to travel and took trips to Cape Cod, Hyannisport and other Massachusetts locations, as well as the White Mountains in New Hampshire, Maine, California, New York, Hawaii and the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

Survivors include his wife of 52 years, Anna L. Johnson of Falls Church; a sister; and a brother.

-- Joe Holley

Austin W. KiblerAir Force Colonel

Austin W. Kibler, 78, a retired Air Force colonel and an experimental psychologist who managed research programs for government agencies including the Defense Department and the CIA, died of respiratory failure June 19 at his home in Falls Church.

Col. Kibler served in the Air Force from 1953 to 1975. Toward the end of his career, he was director of the behavioral science research office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. His honors included two Legions of Merit.

After retiring, he was a senior research analyst at Decisions and Designs, a systems research and development company in McLean. From 1978 to 1987, he was a research division director at the CIA.

Austin Walter Kibler was a native of Cleveland, where he worked summers in a brickyard to pay for college.

He was a 1953 graduate of Miami University of Ohio, where he also received a master's degree in experimental psychology in 1954. He earned a doctorate in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1967.

He was a fellow of the American Psychological Association and a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

He enjoyed woodworking, gardening and baking bread as well as reading about the Civil War. He also collected antique farm tools and equipment, including a 19th-century winnow to separate chaff from grain.

Survivors include his wife of 46 years, Pat Ogden Kibler of Falls Church; two daughters, Alison Kibler of Lancaster, Pa., and Jennifer Kibler White of Greensboro, N.C.; a brother; a sister; and four grandchildren.

-- Adam Bernstein

Ethel Protheroe LaurenSecretary, Administrative Aide

Ethel Protheroe Lauren, 86, a former school secretary and administrative assistant at the National Institutes of Health, died June 10 at Burlingame Long-Term Care facility in Burlingame, Calif. She had Alzheimer's disease.

Mrs. Lauren worked as a secretary at Ursuline Academy in Bethesda and later at the National Library of Medicine. She retired in 1978. She and her family then left the area, after 26 years, and moved to Massachusetts, Florida, Nevada and California.

She was born in White Plains, N.Y., and attended Skidmore College and Katharine Gibbs College. She worked for several years at an ad agency before marrying an Air Force officer and accompanying him to various domestic postings.

While in the Washington area, Mrs. Lauren also took classes at what is now Montgomery Community College.

Her husband, retired Air Force Col. Lee Davis Lauren, died in 1986.

Survivors include three daughters, Stephanie Cheramie of Great Falls, Christina Lauren of Redwood City, Calif., and Robin Lauren of Tinley Park, Ill.; four grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

-- Patricia Sullivan

Abe LissBusinessman

Abe Liss, 90, who co-owned and operated Beacon Television Rental Co., one of the area's largest such businesses until it burned down during the 1968 riots in the District, died June 12 at the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington. He had congestive heart failure.

Mr. Liss started Beacon in 1956 in Northwest Washington with his brother Benjamin. The brothers rented to dignitaries, hospitals and airports as well as residential clients.

Abe Liss was president of the Midtown Business Association in the 1960s. After the riots, he headed a group of businessmen who unsuccessfully sued the city seeking compensation for damage done to their properties during the unrest.

The Liss brothers briefly resettled Beacon in Silver Spring before closing. Mr. Liss spent the rest of his life as a business broker, buying and selling small businesses for many immigrant families.

Abraham Liss was born in New Bedford, Mass., and moved to the Washington area at 18. He served in the Army in Europe during World War II. He was a Chevy Chase resident.

His marriage to Rosalie Feldman Liss ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of 48 years, Dolores Coran Liss of Chevy Chase; a daughter from his second marriage, Mara Consor of Rockville; two stepdaughters, Linda Sandler of Rockville and Paula Yudelevit of Deep Creek Lake, Md.; a sister, Gertrude Frankel of Boca Raton, Fla; three brothers, Philip Liss of Fort Lauderdale, Dr. George Liss of Boca Raton and Burton Liss of Arlington; and three grandchildren.

-- Adam Bernstein

Rita Rosenthal SchaeferPotter, Community Leader

Rita Rosenthal Schaefer, 84, a pottery artist who also helped found social organizations in Northern Virginia, died May 29 at her daughter's home in Fairfax City. She had ovarian cancer.

Ms. Schaefer came to Fairfax in 1961 and worked as a professional potter throughout her life. She served several terms as president of the Washington Kiln Club and exhibited widely throughout the region. She was affiliated with the Scope Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria. In recent years, she began making sculptures, as well as pottery.

Mrs. Schaefer also was a founder and director in the mid-1960s of Camp Horizons in Harrisonburg, one of Virginia's first integrated day camps. She was also a founder of the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia.

Ms. Schaefer was born in New York and was part of the city's avant-garde music and art scene in her younger years. From 1950 to 1961, she lived in Los Angeles, where she was a counselor with the American Friends Service Committee. She took pottery courses at UCLA.

Her husband of 50 years, Willis Carlton Schaefer, died in 2005.

Survivors include three children, Elizabeth Schaefer Wassel of Fairfax City, Dr. David Schaefer of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and Paul Schaefer of Durham, N.C.; two stepchildren, Sally Schaefer Klass and Eric Schaefer, both of Fairfax County; and 10 grandchildren.

-- Matt Schudel

Elizabeth WaltersGovernment Clerk

Elizabeth Nimmerrichter Walters, 90, clerk at the Census Bureau and then the Federal Trade Commission in the 1960s and early 1970s, died June 11 at her home in Silver Spring. She had pancreatic cancer.

Mrs. Walters was born in Brandywine, a community in Prince George's County. She was a graduate of the old Baden High School, also in Prince George's, and the old Mabelle Honour beauty school in Washington.

She worked in the late 1930s and early 1940s at a beauty salon in Northwest Washington.

She was a member of St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Silver Spring.

Her husband, retired Army Master Sgt. Randolph E. Walters, whom she married in 1939, died in 2004.

Survivors include a daughter, Judith A. Walters of the District.

-- Adam Bernstein

Dorothy Hayes BranningSchool Nurse

Dorothy "Dottie" Hayes Branning, 81, who worked as a school nurse in Montgomery County for more than 20 years, died June 11 at her home in Gaithersburg. She had cardiovascular disease.

She worked at Watkins Mill Elementary School in Montgomery Village and Sequoyah Elementary School in Derwood before retiring in the late 1990s.

More recently, she was a longtime volunteer for her friends at Asbury Methodist Village. She also was a board member of her homeowners association and an active member of Covenant United Methodist Church in Montgomery Village.

Mrs. Branning was born in Williamsport, Pa. She graduated from nursing school in Sayre, Pa. She married in 1947 and lived in Endicott N.Y., until 1966, when IBM transferred her husband to Gaithersburg.

She enjoyed daily talks with her sons to hear about her grandchildren's activities, playing cards with friends and neighbors and going to the movies and walking in the malls.

Her husband, Harry F. Branning, died in 1970.

Survivors include five sons, Stephen Branning of Decatur, Ala., Harry Branning of Glastonbury, Conn., Thom Branning of Liberty Township, Ohio, Will Branning of Camarillo, Calif., and Eric Branning of Potomac; 11 grandchildren; and three great grandchildren.

-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb

Melvin BlecherGeorgetown Professor, Lawyer

Melvin Blecher, 85, a professor emeritus of biochemistry and molecular biology at Georgetown University Medical Center who became an intellectual property lawyer, died June 18 at Washington Home hospice. He had congestive heart failure.

From 1961 to the late 1980s, Dr. Blecher was a biochemistry and molecular biology professor at Georgetown. As a researcher, he developed a specialty in causes of diseases such as diabetes. He wrote or contributed to more than 130 articles and three books.

Dr. Blecher received a law degree from Georgetown at 63, after taking night classes. He worked several years at the law firm of Foley & Lardner in the District before beginning his solo practice in 1998.

As an intellectual property lawyer, he focused on biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, molecular genetics and laboratory medicine. He also wrote and lectured on those subjects. He continued working until three weeks before his death.

Dr. Blecher was born in Rahway, N.J., and served as an Army combat engineer stateside during World War II.

He was a chemistry graduate of Rutgers University and received a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania medical school. Subsequently, he served on the medical faculties of Columbia University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, both in New York.

Dr. Blecher was a visiting professor at the National Institutes of Health and several European colleges, including Cambridge University.

His marriages to Doris Blecher and Marlene Blecher ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of 35 years, Jocelyn M. Hicks of the District; two children from his first marriage, Jonathan Blecher of Coral Gables, Fla., and Marjorie Levin of Trumbull, Conn.; and four grandsons.

-- Adam Bernstein