Friday, July 4, 2008
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
Lillian DorfmanReal Estate Agent
Lillian Dorfman, 80, a Bethesda area real estate agent who spent much of her career with Shannon & Luchs Co., died June 25 at Suburban Hospital of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Mrs. Dorfman spent 28 years in real estate before a cerebral hemorrhage forced her to retire in 2000 from Weichert Realtors, which had acquired Shannon & Luchs in 1993. She won professional honors for her work.
After winning a design contest at 17, she was a dress designer in New York and Philadelphia before settling in the Washington area in 1959.
She taught color theory and design for a Montgomery County adult education program in the 1960s and exhibited fabric collages at the Franz Bader Gallery in Washington.
Lillian Wildansky, the daughter of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, was born in New York and raised in Colchester, Conn.
She attended the City College of New York and New York University as well as a fashion school in New York.
In later years, she enjoyed gardening, painting still lifes and landscapes, and sewing calico bears for newborns of friends and relatives.
She was a longtime Bethesda resident and spent the past five years at the Summerville assisted living community in Potomac.
Her husband, William Dorfman, whom she married in 1950, died in 1977.
Survivors include three children, Jonathan Dorfman of Rockville, Jennifer Mellgren of Grenoble, France, and Joel Dorfman of Potomac; two sisters; and six grandchildren.
-- Adam Bernstein
Arthur R. DornheimForeign Service Officer
Arthur R. Dornheim, 87, a Foreign Service officer who retired in 1977 and spent 11 years as an executive with the Japan-America Society of Washington, died June 23 at Suburban Hospital of pneumonia.
Mr. Dornheim joined the State Department in 1949 and became a Foreign Service economics officer. His assignments included Hong Kong; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Taipei, Taiwan.
In retirement, he became the first full-time staff member of the Japan-America Society. He served as executive director and later as associate director.
He also worked in the children's department at a Bethesda bookstore and was treasurer of the Battery Park Citizens Association in Bethesda.
Arthur Rieper Dornheim, a Bethesda resident, was born in Manhattan, N.Y., and grew up in Bronxville, N.Y. He was a 1942 graduate of Yale University.
He attended the Navy's Japanese language school during World War and served in the Pacific as a translator and escort of Japanese prisoners. After the war, he was involved in the occupation of Japan and received a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University.
A son, Michael Dornheim, died in 2006.
Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Charleen Egan Dornheim of Bethesda; a son, Daniel Dornheim of Los Angeles; and a sister.
-- Adam Bernstein
Michael S. EagneyCarpenter
Michael S. Eagney, 53, who had been a self-employed carpenter in the Washington area since the late 1970s, died of renal failure June 23 at Anne Arundel Medical Center.
Michael Stephen Eagney, an Upper Marlboro resident, was born in Washington and raised in Bowie. He attended Bowie High School and served in the Navy from 1974 to 1978.
His marriage to Nancy Gentile Eagney ended in divorce.
Survivors include three children, Michael Eagney of Edgewater, Fla., and Sara Eagney and Kevin Eagney, both of North Beach; his mother, Monica Malone of Upper Marlboro; two brothers, Shawn Eagney of Davidsonville and Matt Eagney of Bowie; a sister, Stephanie White, also of Edgewater; and three granddaughters.
-- Adam Bernstein
Barbara A. HattonPersonnel Specialist
Barbara A. Hatton, 75, a retired personnel specialist with the Air National Guard, died June 30 of lung cancer at Blue Ridge Hospice in Winchester, Va. A longtime Burke resident, she had lived for the past two years in Bluemont, Va.
Mrs. Hatton was born Barbara Ann Fogle in Alexandria and was a graduate of St. Mary's Academy there.
She began her career as a civilian employee of the Air National Guard in 1961 and held positions at Andrews Air Force Base, the Pentagon and, most recently, in Crystal City.
Among other duties, she managed records for pilot training programs. She received awards for outstanding performance before her retirement in 2002.
Her husband of 28 years, Robert E. Hatton Sr., died in 1979.
Survivors include two children, Diane Lynn Baskin of Clifton and Robert E. Hatton Jr. of Centreville; two sisters, Gwen Hales of Bluemont and Gail R. Fogle of Manassas; and three grandchildren.
-- Matt Schudel
Charles E. KavenaghGraphic Artist
Charles E. Kavenagh, 83, a former head of graphics at the ABC News bureau in Washington who then worked as a graphic artist for WUSA (Channel 9) from 1981 to 1990, died June 25 at the Washington VA Medical Center. He had pneumonia.
Early in his career, Mr. Kavenagh was a cartoonist and sketch artist for the New York Herald Tribune. He later joined ABC News in New York and transferred to its Washington bureau in the late 1960s.
Charles Edgerton Kavenagh was born in Trenton, N.J., and finished high school in Princeton, N.J. He was a graduate of what is now Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
During World War II, he served in the Army Air Forces in Europe and participated in the Normandy invasion. He later was assigned to forces fighting in China, Burma and India. His awards included the Air Medal.
His marriage to Nancy Kavenagh ended in divorce.
Survivors include his companion of 32 years, Ruth Holly of Washington.
-- Adam Bernstein
Harriet R.T. LewisExecutive Coach
Harriet R.T. Lewis, 50, who had been owner and operator since 1995 of Critics' Choice, an executive coaching and consulting business in Falls Church, died June 14 at her home in Falls Church after a heart attack.
Miss Lewis developed government clients for Critics' Choice, including the Agency for International Development, as well as Johns Hopkins University and what is now the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.
Harriet Roberta Tina Lewis was a native of Shaker Heights, Ohio, and a sociology and music graduate of Miami University. In college, she played classical tuba and was part of the brass choir.
She later received a certificate in executive coaching from George Washington University.
She settled in the Washington area about 1990 as vice president of ministries for pregnancy centers operated by the Christian Action Council, an organization later renamed Care Net and that counsels women on alternatives to abortion.
Miss Lewis was an elder at Washington Community Fellowship on Capitol Hill and involved in musical activities at several ministry programs and fellowships.
She had no immediate survivors.
-- Adam Bernstein
James DeVaine McKinney Jr.Energy Lawyer
James DeVaine McKinney Jr., 76, a partner in the law firm of Ross, Marsh and Foster, died June 25 at his home in Arlington of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Mr. McKinney represented energy companies, particularly natural gas pipeline firms, before the Federal Power Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission during his 49-year career.
He successfully argued a case in 1983 on behalf of seven pipeline companies before the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned an earlier FERC decision. Mr. McKinney also made numerous presentations to Congress.
He was born in Muscatine, Iowa, and served in the Army in the Korean War. He graduated from the University of Iowa and received a law degree there in 1958. Shortly after becoming a lawyer, he joined Ross, Marsh and Foster in Washington, and rose from associate to partner in three years. He later became a senior partner and retired in 2007.
Mr. Smith was a former secretary and board member of the Energy Bar Association, an organization for energy lawyers. He enjoyed tennis, fine wine, Broadway show tunes and classical music.
Survivors include his wife of 42 years, Betty Guy McKinney of Arlington; three children, Jim McKinney of Arlington, Cynthia Drayton of Valley Forge, Pa., and Jennifer Long of Richmond; a brother; and eight grandchildren.
-- Patricia Sullivan
E. William TatgeForeign Trade Executive
E. William Tatge, 82, a retired oil company, Peace Corps and foreign trade executive, died June 30 at his home in Bethesda. He had liver cancer.
Mr. Tatge spent his early career doing marketing and political affairs work for Mobil, mostly in the Middle East and North Africa.
Starting in 1965, he spent much of the rest of his career alternating among federal agencies, including the Peace Corps and the Commerce Department.
He was a chief of the Peace Corps's Francophone Africa division before joining Commerce in 1971 and becoming principal commercial officer and director of the U.S. Trade Center in Milan, Italy.
In subsequent years, he was the Peace Corps's acting director of the Africa region and Paris-based counselor for commercial affairs for the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service.
After retiring from the federal government in 1986, he spent four years in Brussels directing the state of Ohio's European office.
Edward William Tatge was a native of Evanston, Ill., and a 1947 graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
In 1948, he received a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Mr. Tatge settled in the Washington area in 1990 and was a board member of the Washington Bach Consort. His memberships included the Cosmos Club and world affairs organizations.
He also was a referral counselor, helping Montgomery County's government select and place volunteers.
Survivors include his wife, Gigliola Breda Tatge, whom he married in 1949, of Bethesda; five children, George Tatge of Florence, Italy, Catherine Tatge of Cornwall Bridge, Conn., Barbara Tatge of Bethesda, Jean Tatge of New York, and Pamela Tatge of Madison, Conn.; a brother; three half-brothers; a half-sister; and nine grandchildren.
-- Adam Bernstein