Obituaries

John I. Church CIA officer

John I. Church, 90, who worked for the CIA's directorates of administration and operations and spent much of his career in the Far East, died Jan. 22 at the Greenspring Village retirement community in Springfield. He had cerebrovascular disease.

Mr. Church worked for the CIA from 1957 to 1972, after which he settled in the Washington area. He lived in McLean until moving to the retirement community about six years ago.

John Irwin Church was a native of Boise, Idaho, and a German graduate of DePauw University in Indiana. He received a master's degree in English literature from the University of Oregon and did graduate work in Chinese at the University of Washington.

He was an Army veteran of World War II. He retired from the Army Reserve in 1972 at the rank of lieutenant colonel.

He did refugee relief work for the State Department in Hong Kong before joining the CIA.

He wrote poetry and played accordion. He enjoyed adventure travel, including camel safaris in the Australian outback and rafting down the Amazon River. He went on scientific research expeditions led by the nonprofit Earthwatch organization to Israel, Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

His first wife, the former Bette Elliott, died in 1972.

Survivors include his wife of 35 years, Marguerite Eng Church of Springfield; two children from his first marriage, John R. Church of Davidsonville and Ann Venable of Christiansburg, Va.; three stepchildren; twin brothers; nine grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

-- Adam Bernstein

Betty Baker Secretary

Betty Baker, a retired secretary who lived in the Washington area for nearly 50 years, died Jan. 25 at the Wilson Health Care Center in Gaithersburg of complications from a fall.