Obituaries

He was an Army Air Forces and Army Corps of Engineers veteran of World War II and received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Rutgers University in 1949.

He was a former president of the D.C. Society of Professional Engineers and until his death was secretary of the Fossils, an organization of retired men. He was a charter member and former president of the American Wine Society's D.C.-Maryland chapter.

His hobbies included playing bridge and participating in "volksmarches," or organized hikes, as well as other walking and running events.

Survivors include his wife of 59 years, Jean Dela Franco Hessmann of Silver Spring; four children, Sherry Mauck and Sharon Augustyn, both of Silver Spring, Susan Simpson of Boulder, Colo., and Steve Hessmann of Mercer, Pa.; two brothers; and five grandchildren.

-- Adam Bernstein

Alda Tullis BrownParalegal, TV Performer

Alda Tullis Brown, 85, a retired paralegal who appeared on a locally produced television program in the 1950s, died Oct. 20 while visiting her daughter in Marietta, Ga. She had a stroke and died at Hospice Atlanta Center.

Mrs. Brown, who had lived in the District since 1942, was a stenographer with the State Department in the 1940s. From 1950 to 1952, she was an administrative assistant in the Capitol Hill office of Iowa Sen. Guy Gillette (D).

She occasionally performed as a stage and radio singer before becoming a writer, producer and on-air personality with the WTTG-TV program "Jamboree," hosted by Art Lamb. The audience-participation show was broadcast from Washington until 1957.

Mrs. Brown, who was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, was a beauty pageant contestant in her native state. In the 1960s, she was an administrative assistant at the National Science Foundation and Interior Department.

She later became a paralegal for law firms and retired in 1998 after working for several years in the legal office of Robert Zweibel.