Ida Craven Merriam, 92, a retired assistant commissioner for research and statistics of the Social Security Administration, died of pneumonia April 8 at Prince George's Hospital Center. She lived in Mitchellville.

Dr. Merriam, a Philadelphia native, lived in Washington from 1936 until entering the Collington Episcopal Life Care Center in Mitchellville three years ago.

She began working in Social Security in 1936, when she joined what became the Social Security Administration's research and statistics bureau. She rose to become head of the bureau's division of coordination studies, then became assistant director of the research and statistics bureau in 1947.

Dr. Merriam became director of what had become the research and statistics division in 1955, then served as assistant commissioner from 1955 until retiring in 1972. She was a consultant to the commissioner until 1976.

During her years at Social Security, she led groundbreaking studies on disability and health insurance, drafted major reports for congressional committees, directed the publication of Social Security technical studies and statistics, and was a member of a technical assistance mission to Thailand.

Dr. Merriam was one of six winners of the 1966 Federal Woman's Award. She also had received the Department of Health, Education and Welfare's Distinguished Service Award and was named a fellow of the American Statistical Association.

She had served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Human Resources and the Journal of Social Policy.

Dr. Merriam was a 1925 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wellesley University, where she majored in English and history. After studying economics at the University of Chicago, she transferred to the old Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government in Washington. She received an economics doctorate from Brookings in 1928.

After that, she served on the editorial staff of the Encyclopedia of Social Sciences in New York and was an assistant economics professor at Connecticut College for Women.

Her husband, Mylon Merriam, whom she married in 1933, died in the mid-1980s. She leaves no immediate survivors. WILLIAM HENRY BROWN Water Registrar

William Henry Brown, 82, retired D.C. water registrar, died of heart ailments April 7 at Suburban Hospital.

Mr. Brown, who lived in Bethesda, was born in Washington and graduated from McKinley Tech High School.

In 1970 he retired as D.C. water registrar after 37 years with the city government.

He was former treasurer of the Adult Club at St. Bartholomew's Catholic Church in Bethesda. From 1956 to 1963, he was active in the Parent-Teacher Association of Immaculate Conception Academy in Washington.

Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Dorothy M. Brown of Bethesda; two daughters, Dorothy B. Byrd of Fruitland, Md., and Janet L. Gean of Rockville; four grandchildren; and a great-grandson. ROBERT K. RAUTH Jr. Consultant

Robert K. Rauth Jr., 37, a senior consultant and partner at the Services Group, an international development consulting firm, died of cardiac arrest April 6 at his home in Alexandria. He had lived in the Washington area for nine years.

Mr. Rauth was born in Evanston, Ill. He was a graduate of Northwestern University and received a master's degree in international management from the American Graduate School of International Management in Arizona.

Earlier in his career, he taught geography and economics at Clarendon College in Jamaica and was a researcher for the Cato Institute.

He was a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Alexandria.

Survivors include his wife, Leslie Pietrzyk of Alexandria; his parents, Robert K. Rauth Sr. and Marilyn Rauth of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; two sisters, Susan Lathers of Rochester, Minn., and Elizabeth Rauth of Tempe, Ariz.; and a brother, Jeffrey Rauth of Bloomfield Hills. NANCY L. LANGLEY U.S. Senate Clerk

Nancy L. Langley, 50, a retired U.S. Senate clerk, died of an aneurysm April 6 at her home in St. Augustine, Fla.

Mrs. Langley was born in Washington and graduated from Lackey High School in Indian Head.

She was a paralegal at Washington law firms in the late 1970s and early 1980s, then began working on Capitol Hill, where she retired late last year as chief clerk of the subcommittee on federal services of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

On retiring, she moved from Fort Washington to St. Augustine.

Survivors include her husband, Robert K. Langley of St. Augustine; two children, Dana Michele Langley of Arlington and Robert Christopher Langley of Waldorf; her mother, Virginia Lee "Peachie" Cook of Bryans Road; and a sister, Betty Jo Modlin of Indian Head. ELIZABETH M. BLAND Associate Curator

Elizabeth M. Bland, 84, who retired in 1975 as associate curator of the Byzantine collection at the Dumbarton Oaks study center, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease April 7 at Georgetown University Hospital. She lived in Washington.

Mrs. Bland was a native of the District and a graduate of the Madeira School. She was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Vassar College and also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.

She taught in North Carolina and worked for a New York art dealer and the Library of Congress before coming to work at Dumbarton Oaks, then owned by Mildred Barnes Bliss and Robert Woods Bliss, in 1937. The Bliss mansion was turned over to Harvard University three years later.

Mrs. Bland's husband, Eugene H. Bland, died in 1991. Survivors include a son, Richard M. Bland of Washington. LAWRENCE M. HOLMAN Army Lieutenant Colonel

Lawrence M. Holman, 85, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and intelligence specialist, died April 7 at Commonwealth Care Center in Fairfax. He had a brain tumor.

Col. Holman, who lived in Alexandria, was born in Newton, Kan. He began his military career in a cavalry unit at Fort Riley, Kan., in 1932. During World War II, he served in Europe and was awarded a Bronze Star.

After the war, he was an Army intelligence specialist and was posted in Arlington, where he retired in 1957.

After his military retirement, Col. Holman was an Army civilian intelligence specialist until retiring from civilian service in 1967.

He was a Mason and a member of the Retired Officers Association.

Survivors include his wife, Elsie R. Holman of Alexandria. A son, Gary W. Holman, died in a 1959 jeep accident while serving as a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. TOBY B. SINGER Art Teacher

Toby B. Singer, 65, a longtime area performer and artist who retired in 1995 as an art teacher after 23 years with the Montgomery County public schools, died of pancreatic cancer April 6 at the Washington Home.

In 1972, she joined the faculty of what is now Cabin John Middle School, where she taught for 13 years. She then transferred to Wayside Elementary School until her retirement.

In 1992, she was named Best Art Teacher of the Year by the Maryland Art Education Association.

Mrs. Singer, a native of Ontario, attended Brooklyn College before coming to Washington in 1953. She was a 1972 graduate of American University.

She taught piano for a few years and later sang as an alto for several seasons with the Choral Arts Society. During the 1960s, she organized and conducted the Community Singers Children's Choir and the Temple Sinai Junior Choir.

Later, she conducted the Ohr Kodesh Choir in Bethesda for nearly three decades and performed on "The Jewish Hour" television show. She also held several shows of her sculptures and crafts in Washington and Pennsylvania.

Survivors include her husband of 47 years, Louis Singer, of Washington; two children, Karen Singer of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Jonathan Singer of Vienna; her mother, Sarah Borenstein of San Diego; a brother; and a granddaughter.RUTH KING SMITH Dry Cleaner

Ruth King Smith, 87, who retired in 1972 as owner of King-Kerley Cleaners in Falls Church and Vienna, died April 7 at the Hospice of Northern Virginia. She had congestive heart failure and pancreatic cancer.

Mrs. Smith was a native of Branch, Ark., who moved to the Washington area in 1939 to work as a secretary in the Women's Bureau of the Labor Department. She and her second husband, Hugh Kerley, began operating a dry cleaning plant and store in 1947.

Mrs. Smith was a longtime resident of Lake Barcroft who moved to the Jefferson retirement facility in Arlington in 1992. She was a member in Falls Church of Culmore United Methodist Church, the Chamber of Commerce, Soroptimists and Kiwives.

Her first husband, Russell Hess, died in 1934, and Mr. Kerley died in 1959.

Survivors include her husband, John M. Smith of Arlington.