Obituaries

Charles K. ChaplinAdministrative Law Judge

Charles K. Chaplin, 88, a former chief administrative law judge of the old Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Review Commission, died of a brain tumor June 25 at his home in Leisure World in Lansdowne, Va.

Mr. Chaplin joined the old Veterans Administration in 1946 and was working for the Board of Veterans' Appeals before he was named an administrative law judge at OSHA in 1972. He retired in 1980.

He was born in Coatesville, Pa., and moved to Washington in 1937 after his high school graduation. He worked for the now-defunct Public Building Administration and attended college at night, graduating from George Washington University with a bachelor's degree in law in 1942. He later received a master's degree in law at GWU.

The Army gave him a three-day deferment to take the bar exam, and by the time he was notified that he had passed, he was inducted.

Mr. Chaplin served in England and France during World War II as chief quartermaster of an air depot, feeding 4,000 soldiers each day and keeping the truck caravan known as the Red Ball Express supplied with gasoline.

He was scoutmaster of a Boy Scout troop in Falls Church, initiating its first 50-mile hike along the Appalachian Trail in 1962, a trek recorded by a photographer for Life magazine.

Mr. Chaplin taught a course in social justice at St. James Catholic Church in Falls Church through a religious education program for high school students. He also volunteered in the mid-1970s for the George C. Marshall High School Band Parents Association, raising money for the program. For 27 years, he was a volunteer with the Fairfax County library system.

Mr. Chaplin was a member of St. James for 56 years. After moving to Lansdowne, he joined Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church in Potomac Falls.

Survivors include his wife of 63 years, Virginia Chaplin of Lansdowne; two children, Charles Luke Chaplin of Monrovia and Karen Killmeyer of Vienna; two brothers; three sisters; and two grandchildren.

-- Patricia Sullivan