Obituaries

Mr. Meyer, a former resident of Rockville, started working as an engineer with the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington during World War II, where he was a principal in rebuilding and shrinking German jet engines, which led to many advances in aviation and rockets.

He left the Naval lab in 1951 to work at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, then in Silver Spring, for five years, helping to design and launch rockets into space. He transferred to the General Electric Air and Space program in Valley Forge, Pa., in 1956, where he designed and developed missile systems logistics until 1972.

Mr. Meyer continued to work in physics and aerospace engineering at Vitro Laboratories in Wheaton from 1973 to 1980 and then with EG&G in Rockville until he retired in 1994.

A native of Penniman, Va., Mr. Meyer graduated from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. where he also received a master's degree in physics in 1948.

In 1998, Mr. Meyer and his wife, whom he met while he was a teaching assistant at Bucknell, moved to Charlottesville.

He enjoyed music and sang baritone, bass and tenor in his church choirs, although his true love was singing in barbershop quartets and choruses. He was a member of several barbershop groups: the Montgomery Counts and the Knights of the Round Table in Maryland (the latter specialized in singing valentines) as well as the Mainliners in Pennsylvania. He and his wife also enjoyed square dancing and belonged to several groups.

Survivors include his wife, Marion Meyer of Charlottesville; five daughters, Peggy Kinner of Syracuse, N.Y., Katharine Rankin of Fayetteville, N.C., Mary Meyer of Bethesda, Naomi Aitkin of Charlottesville and Ruth Meyer of Charlottesville; eight grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

-- Patricia Sullivan