Obituaries

Donald C. McCandless Real Estate Appraiser

Donald C. McCandless, 87, a commercial and industrial real estate appraiser who specialized in railroad rights-of-way, died June 6 at the Casey House in Rockville of bacterial meningitis. He was a Sandy Spring resident since 1980.

From 1967 to 1989, Mr. McCandless ran his own company, Donald C. McCandless and Associates, and clients included U.S. Steel, General Electric, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and Penn Central Transportation Co. From 1959 to 1967, he was senior vice president and director of the Washington office for the Real Estate Research Corp.

Donald Carson McCandless, a native of Philadelphia, received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., in 1943 and served in the Marine Corps in the South Pacific from 1943 to 1946.

After the war, he was a high school teacher near Philadelphia before moving to Chevy Chase in 1949. He was a real estate agent in Bethesda and later an appraiser for the General Services Administration.

He was a member of the Counselors of Real Estate and the Appraisal Institute. He served on the board of directors of Greater Sandy Spring Green Space, a preservation organization, and on the advisory committee of the Maryland Historic Trust.

He sang with a variety of choral groups including the Rockville Chorus and the Choral Arts Society of Washington.

His marriage to Mary Jane Wright ended in divorce.

His wife of 24 years, Margaret Baker McCandless, died in 2007. A son from his first marriage, Donald W. McCandless, died in 2006.

Survivors include two children from his first marriage, Marjorie J. Siegelman of Germantown, and David C. McCandless of Nantucket, Mass.; seven grandchildren; and one great-grandson.

-- Lauren Wiseman