Unhappy Customer, 79, Dies After Bid to Stop Verizon Van in Vienna

She said he had been somewhat lost since he his wife died.

"Poor Bill," she said. "He had a lot of anger once his wife passed."

Cornelius also had a disabled daughter who lived with him, Wright said. He had been struggling with state officials over his daughter's care, several neighbors said.

"I bet this Verizon situation is the straw that broke the camel's back," Strawn said.

Cornelius had told them that he was committed to the neighborhood and never wanted to leave. He would attend holiday parties and often stop to chat with passersby.

"He was a talker," said Deborah Larson, 57.

He would frequently sit in a chair on the front porch of his two-story colonial-style home and read books or a newspaper, they said. Sometimes he would listen to music. The whole neighborhood attended his wife's funeral.

"He was trying to hold it all together," Larson said.

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.