Obituaries

Laurence M. Andrews Physicist

Laurence M. Andrews, 90, a physicist who worked from 1972 to 1980 on energy efficiency standards of appliances and product safety at what is now the National Institute of Standards and Technology, died Feb. 27 at Montgomery General Hospital in Olney. He had esophageal cancer.

Mr. Andrews came to the Washington area in 1941 to work at the Harry Diamond Ordnance Fuze Laboratories, where he worked on the proximity fuze, an electronic device that detonates a shell in the vicinity of a target.

In 1954, he joined Rabinow Engineering and Consulting, where he helped develop an early computer and standardized alphabet used in a letter-reading machine for the Post Office Department. A decade later Control Data bought Rabinow, and Mr. Andrews stayed with the company until joining what was then the National Bureau of Standards in 1972.

Laurence Mills Andrews was born in Sunnyside, Wash., where he spent his early life working on area farms. He was a physics and mathematics graduate of Walla Walla College and did graduate work in physics at the University of Idaho.

He built his own home in Silver Spring in the 1950s. His hobbies included organic gardening, and he was an early participant in the National Wildlife Federation's Certified Wildlife Habitat program for gardens that meet standards for providing water, shelter and food for insects and other wildlife. He was a member of Citizens Council for a Clean Potomac, an early environmental group.

He also enjoyed woodworking and made furniture, birdhouses and dollhouses.

Survivors include his wife of 67 years, Esther Andrews of Silver Spring; four children, David Andrews of Prince George's County, Linda Nishioka of Kensington, Cheryl Andrews of Charlottesville, and Kathleen Geist of West Point, Pa.; six grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

-- Adam Bernstein

Mary Kathryn E. Bonifant Board Member

Mary Kathryn E. Bonifant, 89, a former chairwoman and board member of the Charles County Board of License Commissioners, the county's liquor board, died Feb. 26 at Taylor Farm, an assisted living community in Bushwood. She had emphysema.

Mary Kathryn "KaKa" Edelen was born in Bryantown, where she lived until last year. She graduated from the old Notre Dame High School in Bryantown in 1939.