Obituaries

Margareta Anna Norberg was a native of Stockholm and a 1962 graduate of Stockholm University. She moved to the Washington region in the mid-1960s and lived in Arlington before moving to Reston in 1998.

In 1972, she became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Her husband of 42 years, Kenneth E. Jacobs, died in September.

Survivors include one brother.

-- Lauren Wiseman

Cornelius Thomas Kane Priest, Theology Professor

Cornelius Thomas Kane, 82, a priest and retired professor of moral theology at Catholic University, died March 1 of complications following a stroke at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He was a resident of the District until 2008, when he moved to a nursing facility in Wellesley Hills, Mass.

A priest for almost 57 years, Father Kane received his doctorate in sacred theology in 1953 from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. He taught in the Houses of Formation of his Dominican Province from 1953 to 1956 and again from 1958 to 1962.

He taught at Trinity Washington University for two years before joining the theology faculty at Catholic University, where he served as department chairman for a number of years before retiring in 2001.

He also served for many years as director of the Dominican Rosary Shrine of St. Jude, at St. Dominic Church in Washington, and as chaplain of the Washington Redskins Touchdown Club.

Father Kane was born Cornelius Francis Kane in Dorchester, Mass. One of nine children, he had three brothers who also became priests and two sisters who became nuns.

After graduating from high school in North Cambridge, Mass., he enrolled at Providence College in Rhode Island, where he was a student for two years before entering the novitiate of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in Somerset, Ohio, in 1945. As a Dominican, he was given the religious name Thomas, although to his many nephews and nieces he was known as Uncle Connie.

He made his profession of vows Aug. 5, 1946, and was ordained a priest at St. Dominic Church on June 12, 1952.

Survivors include a sister.

-- Joe Holley

Samuel Kavruck GWU Professor

Samuel Kavruck, 94, a professor emeritus of education at George Washington University and former division chief at the old U.S. Office of Education, died of respiratory failure Feb. 24 at the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington in Rockville. He was a Washington resident.

Dr. Kavruck spent his early career at the Civil Service Commission (now the Office of Personnel Management) and the U.S. Office of Education (now the Department of Education), where he was division chief of the dropout prevention program from 1965 to 1975.

Beginning in 1961, Dr. Kavruck occasionally taught at GWU as an associate or adjunct professor while he held his federal government jobs. He was a member of the faculty from 1975 until his retirement in 1984, when he was designated emeritus. During his time at George Washington, he also taught courses at American University and the University of Maryland.

Samuel Kavruck was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. After working in his father's tailor shop during high school, he attended City College of New York, where he earned a bachelor's degree in biology in 1937 and a master's degree in psychology in 1939. He received a master's degree and a doctorate, both in education, from GWU.

During World War II, he served in the Army as a specialist in psychology and the German language. He later became a captain in the Air Force Reserve.

In 1963, he took a two-year sabbatical from the U.S. Office of Education to work for the United Nations in Rome. He edited the Washington Counseletter, a newsletter for educators, from 1975 to 1995.

He was a prolific painter and won an award from the Corcoran School of Art for one of his landscapes. He took pleasure in writing poetry and song lyrics. He had been a member of the American Psychological Association since 1940, and of the Tifereth Israel Congregation, a Conservative synagogue in Washington, for about 50 years.

His wife of 62 years, Angela Sherman Kavruck, died in 2003.

Survivors include two children, Deborah Kavruck and Barton Kavruck, both of Washington.

-- Alexander F. Remington

Roger C. Kormendi Economist, Professor

Roger C. Kormendi, 59, a founder of a financial advisory business in Washington, who also taught at the business schools of the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan, died Feb. 25 at his home in Washington. He had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a degenerative brain disorder.

Dr. Kormendi was an economist who did research in finance and public policy and was the author of more than 50 scholarly articles and books. In 1991, he co-founded Kormendi\Gardner Partners, a Washington financial consulting and investment firm that helped arrange complex financial partnerships between the public and private sectors. His clients included federal agencies and foreign governments.

Roger Charles Kormendi was born in New York and grew up in Fairfax County. He was a 1967 graduate of Woodson High School and graduated with high honors from the University of Virginia in 1971. He received a doctorate in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1977.

He began teaching in the graduate business school at the University of Chicago in 1975 and in 1984 was a founder of the Mid-America Institute for Public Policy Research. His research projects on financial matters led to such publications as "Public Policy in Flux" (1986) and "Black Monday and the Future of Financial Markets" (1989).

His institute's publication, "Crisis Resolution in the Thrift Industry" (1989), included recommendations adopted by Congress in legislation responding to the crisis in the savings and loan industry. Later, when he was in business, he helped negotiate the federally assisted acquisition of a failed thrift.

Dr. Kormendi spent 13 years on the faculty of the University of Michigan. He settled in Washington in 1996 and had a second home in Clearwater, Fla.

His marriage to Paula Stone ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of less than a year, Traci Jefferson of Washington and Clearwater; and three sons from his first marriage, Andre Kormendi of Ypsilanti, Mich., Peter Kormendi of Fairfax County and Alex Kormendi of Arlington County.

-- Matt Schudel

Kathleen Thompson 'Kitty' Kyle Nurse, Volunteer

Kathleen Thompson "Kitty" Kyle, 86, a retired nurse and American Red Cross volunteer, died Feb. 18 at her home in Warrenton of pneumonia. She was a former Falls Church resident.

Born Joyce Kathleen Willard in Huddleston, Va., she received her nursing degree in 1944 from Kanawha Valley Hospital in Charleston, W.Va. While taking graduate courses at the University of Virginia, she met and married Dr. Acors William Thompson, a medical student who later specialized in cardiology and internal medicine.

The couple moved to Falls Church in 1946, where he set up his practice, and she helped him run the office. She also was active in numerous charitable drives for the Fairfax/Falls Church office of the American Red Cross. Her husband died in 1979. In 1984, she married Clem Kyle.

Mrs. Kyle was a nine-time golf champion at River Bend Golf and Country Club in Great Falls.

Survivors include her husband of 25 years, of Warrenton; three daughters from her first marriage, Lynn Kahle of Falls Church, Judy Gore of Warrenton and Deb Carter of Walnut Creek, Calif.; a brother; and six grandchildren.

-- Joe Holley

Susan H. Laurents Sallie Mae Events Planner

Susan H. Laurents, 51, who spent the past 29 years as a meeting and event planner for Sallie Mae, the student loan company, died Feb. 25 at Capital Hospice in Arlington.

Mrs. Laurents had lung cancer and made a public service video about the disease that aired nationally. She also developed a Web site, www.helplungcancer.com.

Susan Hope Waldheim was born in Glen Cove, N.Y., and grew up in El Paso. She settled in the Washington area in the late 1970s and most recently was a Centreville resident.

Her marriage to Paul Mabini ended in divorce.

Survivors include her husband of 21 years, Robert B. Laurents Jr. of Centreville; her parents, Harry and Irma Waldheim of Houston; two brothers; and a sister.

-- Adam Bernstein

Ann D. McBride Church Member

Ann D. McBride, 100, a member of the Catholic Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Washington, died March 7 at the Methodist Home of the District of Columbia. The cause of death was listed as senescence.

Mrs. McBride spent most of her adult life in Mansfield, Ohio, where she was a social worker and elementary school teacher at St. Peter's School, a Catholic school. She settled in Washington in the early 1990s.

Ann Marie Dolan was a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., where she graduated in 1929 from St. Joseph's College. She did graduate work at the New York School of Social Work.

She enjoyed playing bridge and having an evening glass of Scotch.

Her husband of 53 years, James J. McBride, died in 1989. A son, James J. McBride Jr., died in 1979.

Survivors include three daughters, Deirdre Radanovic of Washington, Sheila Beaupre of Jacksonville, Fla., and Mary Ellen Mellen of Colchester, Conn.; 11 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

-- Adam Bernstein