Before joining the University of Maryland in January 1998, he spent 12 years at Howard University’s School of Communications as an instructor and coordinator of the telecommunication management program. Earlier in his career, he did research and marketing work for the National Cable Television Association and the Public Broadcasting Service and NBC television networks.
A native of Detroit, he graduated from Michigan State University and received a master’s degree in education from Harvard University in 1975 and a doctorate in educational technology from the University of Maryland in 1993.
He leaves no immediate survivors.
George Adour Adrouny, 87, a retired professor of medicine at Tulane University Medical School who moved to the Washington area in 1988, died of cancer Nov. 24 at his home in Gaithersburg.
Dr. Adrouny was born in Kilis, Turkey, to Armenian parents. As a child, he escaped the slaughter of Armenians in Turkey, and moved with his family to Aleppo, Syria, in 1922.
He graduated from the American University in Beirut, where he also received a degree in pharmacy. He then was a pharmacist in Aleppo until 1951, when he came to the United States and undertook graduate study in biochemistry at Emory University. He received a doctorate in chemistry there and later worked as a research associate, then moved to New Orleans and joined the medical faculty at Tulane, where he remained until retiring in 1981.
His wife, Alice Karamanoukian Adrouny, whom he married in 1945, died in 1983.
In the Washington area, Dr. Adrouny was a member of Potomac Presbyterian Church and Armenian organizations.
Survivors include three children, Dr. Salpi Adrouny of Alpharetta, Ga., Sonia Russo of North Potomac and Dr. A. Richard Adrouny of Los Gatos, Calif.; a brother; two sisters; and four grandchildren.
Julia Pendleton Tyler, 111, the founder in 1950 of the Mission of Fredericksburg, a home for poor children that later became the Ann Hambrick Community House, died of dehydration Nov. 25 at Fredericksburg Nursing Home. She had lived at the home since the mid-1990s.
Mrs. Tyler was born in Fredericksburg, Va., and left school at age 8 to work as a domestic in Fredericksburg and Atlantic City until she married her husband, Gosnold Tyler, in 1917. He died in 1968, and all three of their children died in childbirth.
She was a homemaker in Fredericksburg until starting the home for disadvantaged children, which she led for about two decades.
A narrative of her life appeared in “Centenarians: The Story of the 20th Century by the Americans Who Lived It,” published in February by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
She was a member of Shiloh Baptist Church in Fredericksburg and the Order of the Eastern Star. Her hobbies included playing cards.
She leaves no immediate survivors.
Felix Niketa Sachanen, 78, an Air Force lieutenant colonel and intelligence officer who retired in the 1980s from the Defense Intelligence Agency, died of kidney failure Nov. 29 at his home in Woodbury, N.J. He lived in the Washington area off and on from the 1950s until he retired.
Dr. Sachanen was a native of Russia who was raised there and in Finland, Luxembourg and New Jersey. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated from Adelphi University. He received a master’s degree and doctorate, both in Russian area studies, from Georgetown University.
Dr. Sachanen served in the U.S. Army Air Forces in Europe during World War II and in Saigon during the Vietnam War. He also was posted to Turkey, Finland, Germany and Vienna. After he retired, he taught at Trenton State University.
He was a member of St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Washington.
His wife, Valentina Poluhovich Sachanen, died in 1990.
Survivors include two daughters, Christianne Bills of New York and Alexanne Kreamer of Singapore; and two grandchildren.
Information Services Manager
William B. Levis, 60, an information services manager with Marriott International Inc. in Bethesda, died Nov. 30 at Shady Grove Hospital after an apparent heart attack. The cause of death is to be determined by the Maryland state medical examiner.
Mr. Levis moved to the Washington area in 1984 after doing systems management work for the CNA and Allstate Insurance companies in Chicago. Here he worked for the CAC, SCI and ASI corporations before joining Marriott this year as manager of deployment services.
Mr. Levis was born in Jersey City, N.J. After graduating from St. Michael’s College in Vermont, he served in the Air Force.
He was a member of St. Martin’s Catholic Church in Gaithersburg.
Survivors include his wife of 38 years, Patricia Levis, and a son, Michael Levis, both of Gaithersburg; a sister; and a brother.
Katherine Davidson Walker
Katherine Davidson Walker, 78, whose book about the sights of Washington, “Walker Washington Guide,” has been in print since the 1960s, died of a cerebral hemorrhage Nov. 30 at the Hospice of Washington. She lived in Bethesda.
Mrs. Walker initially published the book herself and has since revised it six times. She was an officer of the International Visitors Information Service and a trustee of the former Experiment in International Living, now called World Learning.
It runs cultural exchange and educational programs.
Mrs. Walker was a graduate of Vassar College and a director of the college alumni association. She did nursing work in her native New York during World War II and moved to Washington in 1953.
Her husband, John Walker, died in 1982.
Survivors include four sons, Christopher Walker of Middleburg, Peter Walker of San Francisco, David Walker of Mill Valley, Calif., and Jonathan Walker of Chevy Chase; three sisters; and six grandchildren.
Jean Cockrell Cowie, 80, who chaired the Smithsonian docent and Children’s Theatre committees of the Junior League of Washington, died Nov. 27 at Manor Care nursing home in Potomac. She had dementia.
Mrs. Cowie was a native of Dallas who attended Duke University and graduated from the University of Texas. She moved to the Washington area in 1946.
She was a member of the American Cancer Society.
Her husband of 33 years, Dean Bruce Cowie, died in 1979.
Survivors include three children, Dean Bruce Cowie Jr. of Marietta, Pa., Carol Cockrell Cowie of Annapolis and Douglas Randolph Cowie of Silver Spring; a stepdaughter, Katherine Dorman of Squantum, Mass.; a sister, Josephine Thorton of Washington; and three grandchildren.
Kelly Campbell, 78, a former Defense Department official who was detailed to NATO as a special assistant in the office of the adviser before retiring in 1981, died of complications from cancer Nov. 5 at his home in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Mr. Campbell, who lived in the Washington area from 1954 to 1990, spent the majority of his professional life in the civil service, beginning as a budget examiner with the Office of Management and Budget.
He next served on the staff of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee and then moved to Paris to join NATO’s infrastructure committee.
He worked for the Environmental Protection Agency’s federal water quality administration, and after three years in the private sector, rejoined OMB in 1970.
He was an OMB management analyst, representative to the San Francisco and New York federal regional councils and deputy division chief for intergovernmental relations before returning to NATO in 1974.
He was born in New York City. After serving as a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, he graduated from Columbia University and received a master’s degree from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
His interests included singing, writing and traveling. He was a past member of the Washington Cathedral Men and Boys Choir and the Washington Bach Consort.
His first wife, Grace Campbell, died in 1988.
Survivors include his wife, the former Birgit Nielsen, of Cooperstown; four children from his first marriage, Kevin Campbell of New Hope, Pa., David Campbell of Ivy, Va., Janice McDermott of Malden, Mass., and Ellen Campbell of Lewisburg, Pa.; a stepdaughter, Jeanne Biga of Nice, France; and six grandchildren.
Jeanette G. Rubinstein, 84, a lawyer in the Labor Department’s solicitors office from the early 1960s until her retirement in 1978, died of ovarian cancer Nov. 23 at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Fla. She was a resident of the Washington area, primarily Bethesda, from 1948 until moving to Hollywood in 1978.
Mrs. Rubinstein was born in Norfolk and grew up in Roanoke. She graduated in the mid-1930s from Roanoke College and received a law degree from George Washington University in 1940.
She was a Veterans Administration lawyer in the 1940s in New York and then Washington. She was a homemaker in the 1950s.
Her hobbies included playing bridge.
Her husband of 43 years, Nathan Rubinstein, died in 1984.
Survivors include a son, Joel Rubinstein of Greenbelt; a daughter, Molly Rubinstein of Oceanside, Calif.; a brother, retired Air Force Col. Julius Goldstein; and a grandson.
Computer Information Specialist
Kimberly Michelle Thorne, 38, a computer information and management specialist and a resident of Bowie, died of heart disease Nov. 29 at her family’s home in her native Hampton, Va.
Ms. Thorne settled in the Washington area in 1980 and began her professional career with American Management Systems. In 1990, she joined the staff at Information Data Systems, where she remained until November 1998.
She was a member of Glendale Baptist Church in Landover and its hospitality committee.
Survivors include her mother and stepfather, Elsie and Willie Mitchell, and a sister, Sorayal Thorne, all of Hampton; and her paternal grandmother, Alethia Wilson of Rocky Mount, N.C.
Robert C. Gooding, 81, a Navy vice admiral who retired in 1976 as commander of Naval ship systems and Naval sea systems commands, died of liver cancer Nov. 30 at Goodwin House West Hospice in Falls Church.
Adm. Gooding, a longtime Alexandria resident, served in the Navy for 31 years. He was a member of the U.S. Naval Academy class of ’42, which graduated in 1941 because of World War II. In the war, he served in the radar, main battery and engineering departments of a battleship in the Atlantic and Pacific.
After further studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he received engineering-related assignments, including one as technical director of Polaris and Poseidon weapons systems.
He was born in New Orleans and raised in Pittsburgh and Alexandria, where he graduated from Alexandria High School.
After his military retirement, he served as chairman of Columbia Research Corp., a government computer software contractor in Crystal City, and worked as a consulting engineer.
He was past president of the American Society of Naval Engineers and a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.
His honors included the Legion of Merit and the Distinguished Service Medal.
Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Joyce Waller of Falls Church; a son, Rob Gooding of Atlanta; and three grandchildren.
J. Richard Lee, 76, a CIA researcher in oil and gas resources from 1951 to 1980, died of heart and lung disorders Nov. 20 at Inova Alexandria Hospital. He lived in Springfield.
After retiring, Mr. Lee spent a decade as a consultant to the CIA.
He was born in Bethlehem, Pa., and graduated from Lehigh University in the 1940s with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry.
He served in the Navy during World War II and worked for Esso gas company as a chemist from 1948 to 1951.
An avid golfer, he was a member of Springfield Golf and Country Club. He also belonged to Church of the Nativity in Burke.
His first wife, Gertrude R. Pfeil, died in 1976.
Survivors include his wife of 22 years, Barbara J. Lee of Springfield; two daughters from his first marriage, Sara E. Lee of Fairfax and M. Linda Lee of Greenville, S.C.; a son from his first marriage, J. Richard “Rick” Lee of Cary, N.C.; three stepsons, Charles Screen of Burke, Donald Screen of Dallas and John Screen of Surfside Beach, S.C.; four stepdaughters, Jennifer Ours of Alexandria, Stephanie Murphy of Annandale, Christine Lepper of Eugene, Mo., and Suzanne Caesar of New Orleans; 15 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Jacob Gordon, 83, a Washington lawyer who retired about 12 years ago, died of complications related to multiple myeloma Nov. 24 at Suburban Hospital. He lived in Rockville.
Mr. Gordon was born in Washington. He graduated from Eastern High School, attended Columbus Law School and received a law degree from Washington College of Law. He began practicing law in Washington in 1941.
During World War II, he served in the Army, then returned to his Washington law practice.
He was a former chairman of the Committee on Relations with the Municipal Court for the D.C. Bar Association and a past president of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington. He was past D.C. Circuit governor of the American Trial Lawyers Association.
He was a volunteer teacher of civics, politics and government to residents of the Jewish Foundation for Group Homes, and he was a member of B’nai Israel Congregation in Rockville and a charter member of Norbeck Country Club.
Survivors include his wife of 60 years, Jean Ely Gordon of Rockville; two children, Ruthie Eisen of Bethesda and Bobby Gordon of Potomac; a sister, Lea Herman of Silver Spring; a brother, Frank Gordon of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and four grandchildren.
Sherry Sandefer Harris, 71, who retired in 1991 as a senior editor at the American Council on Education and who helped translate papers of Thomas Jefferson written in French, died of cancer Dec. 2 at the Hospice of Washington. She lived in Bethesda.
Mrs. Harris was a volunteer on a project of the National Archives that resulted in the publication “The Emerging Nation: Foreign Relations of the U.S. Under the Articles of Confederation, 1780-1789.” She translated diplomatic papers written by Jefferson while he was ambassador to France.
Mrs. Harris was born in Tennessee and raised in Washington. She was a graduate of Central High School and Louisiana State University. She did graduate work in English literature at George Washington University.
In the 1950s, she was an editor at the American Automobile Association and in the 1970s, when she joined the American Council, she also was associate editor in chief of “The New American Encyclopedia.”
Mrs. Harris was a member of the vestry, Altar Guild and other groups at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Washington. She was a founding member of the Centennial branch of the American Association of University Women and a member of the Wagner Society of Washington and the Woman’s National Democratic Club.
Survivors include her husband of 41 years, Stanley J. Harris Jr. of Bethesda; two daughters, Eliot H. Edgar of Bethesda and Noell H. Sottile of Chevy Chase; a sister; a half brother; and four grandchildren.
Gerald Carp, 75, former airport security researcher with the Federal Aviation Administration, died of cancer at Casey House hospice in Rockville. He lived in Potomac.
He attended Hamilton College and the University of Nebraska and was a graduate of City College of New York in his native New York. He received a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. He served in the Army during World War II and retired from the Army Reserve.
Early in his career, Mr. Carp taught electrical engineering at CCNY and was a research engineer with the Army. He later worked for General Electric Co., moving to the Washington area in 1966. He was a branch chief with the Drug Enforcement Administration before joining the FAA in 1977.
After his retirement in 1981 as a branch chief at the FAA, he was an engineer with Mitre Corp. and Science Applications Inc.
He held patents for a radiation detection system and other devices. He wrote for technical journals.
His interests included sailing, woodworking and lapidary.
Mr. Carp was a member of the IEEE, Sigma Xi honorary society, Washington Philosophical Society, Bethesda Jewish Congregation and the Sailing Club of Washington.
Survivors include his wife of 51 years, Lisa Carp of Potomac; two daughters, Roberta Rowley of Clifton and Lois Geer of Silver Spring; two sisters; and four grandchildren.
Mattie Stone Gresham, 87, a retired dental hygienist, died of cancer Nov. 29 at her home in Leisure World in Silver Spring, where she lived since 1966.
Mrs. Gresham, who worked 18 years in a private dental practice in her native Alabama, attended New York City Community College before settling in Washington in the mid-1950s.
For about 10 years until 1966, she worked at the Pentagon as a dental hygienist for the Defense Department.
She was a member of Leisure World’s Interfaith Chapel and Golf and Green Committee.
Survivors include her husband of 43 years, Edward L. Gresham of Leisure World.
Ida Mae Ustad, 50, who joined the General Services Administration as a summer intern in 1971 and spent the last three years as deputy associate administrator for acquisition policy, died of cancer Nov. 29 at Hebrew Home of Greater Washington. She lived in Silver Spring.
Ms. Ustad was born in Sioux Falls, S.D., and was a paraplegic since age 16 after a car accident.
She graduated from Kansas State Teachers College in 1971 and worked for the GSA in Kansas City, Mo., before moving to the Washington area in 1976.
She was a president and board member of Park Sutton Condominium Association and member of the National Contract Management Association.
She received the GSA’s Meritorious Service Award in 1985, Vice President Gore’s Hammer Award for management reform in 1995 and the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service in 1997.
Survivors include three sisters, Agnes Patti of Takoma Park, Naomi Peterson of Emporia, Kan., and Ruby Plate of Vermillion, S.D.; and two brothers, Milton Ustad of Beresford, S.D., and Melvin Ustad of Madison, S.D.
John T. ‘Jack’ Simons Sr.
Printer and Native Washingtonian
John T. “Jack” Simons Sr., 87, a retired government printer who at one time ran a poultry stand at Washington’s old New Center Market on Fifth and K streets NW, died of pneumonia Nov. 24 at Hillhaven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Adelphi.
Mr. Simons, who had lived in Silver Spring since 1956, was a native Washingtonian and a graduate of McKinley Technical High School and American University. After working for an insurance company, he took a job at the Commerce Department printing plant, then worked as a printer for other federal agencies before opening Sim Chix Farms in the early 1940s.
He operated the poultry stand for about 10 years before returning to civil service work, this time in supervisory and managerial jobs at printing plants. He retired in 1970 as deputy director of printing at the Transportation Department.
He was a charter member of St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Silver Spring.
Survivors include his wife of more than 63 years, the former Ruth Eisinger of Silver Spring; their three children, John T. Simons, Ken Simons and Elda Banks, all of Silver Spring; a sister, Ella Mae Earp, of Frederick; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Erna Berta Baer, 89, a former resident of Ring House in Rockville and member of B’nai Israel Congregation, died of pneumonia Nov. 21 at the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington. She had dementia.
Mrs. Baer fled her native Germany in 1938 to live in New York, where she later worked as a fur finisher. She moved here in 1990.
Her husband, Herbert Baer, died in 1955. Survivors include two daughters, Hannah Baer of Hagerstown and Anne Loewentritt of Gaithersburg; five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
Jerry Edgar Peacock, 50, an intelligence analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency for the past 20 years, died of melanoma Dec. 1 at Alexandria Hospital. He lived in Springfield.
Mr. Peacock, a Washington native, was a graduate of the Page School on Capitol Hill, the Citadel in South Carolina and the Army War College. He served in the Air Force from 1972 to 1978, including a tour as a pilot in Vietnam. He attained the rank of captain.
He was a 33rd degree Mason and a member of the George C. Whiting Masonic Lodge of Washington. He had coached West Springfield Little League baseball in the 1990s. His hobbies included skiing.
Survivors include his wife of 20 years, Marilyn, of Springfield; and three sons, Jerry Jr., Hunter L., and Christopher R., all of Springfield; and his father, William E. Peacock, of Falls Church.
Army Officer, Computer Official
Jerry Eugene Hendrick, 67, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and former Hewlett-Packard Co. official who had been active in Rotary International, died of lung cancer Dec. 1 at his home in Vienna.
He spent 20 years in the Army before retiring in 1973 from the office of the adjutant general. He worked for Hewlett-Packard for 22 years retiring from that electronics company in 1995.
Col. Hendrick, who was born in Charlotte, served a tour in Germany and two in Vietnam during his Army career. He received two awards of the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, and the Army Commendation Medal.
He joined Hewlett-Packard as a regional human relations official in Rockville and became manager for the sales and support in the eastern half of the country before retiring.
In retirement, he had been active in the Rotary in such projects as finding volunteer physicians for clinics in Haiti. He would help organize the trips and accompany physicians when they traveled. Also in retirement, he studied the German and Spanish languages.
His marriage to Winnifred Bullock ended in divorce.
Survivors include a brother and two sisters.
Communications Specialist
Thomas Charles DeMarr, 69, a Clinton native who was a Defense Department communications specialist from 1951 until retiring in 1985, died of a heart ailment Dec. 2 at his home in Accokeek.
His government service had included tours with the Army Strategic Communications Command and assignments in Korea, Japan and Germany dealing with secure communications problems.
Mr. DeMarr, who served in the Army from 1946 to 1949, lived in Forestville and Fort Washington before moving to Accokeek in 1965. He was a founder and past president of the Accokeek Area Lions Club and a life member of Lions International.
Survivors include his wife of 48 years, Maryann, of Accokeek; two sons, Glenn, of Springfield, and Darrell, of Waldorf; two daughters, Deborah Grigsby of Port Republic, Md., and Melanie Samakow of Prince Frederick, Md.; his mother, Lettie V. DeMarr of Brandywine; three brothers, Willie, of Aquasco, Walter, of Cheltenham, and Lloyd, of Waldorf; three sisters, Helen Bowers of Brandywine, and Ella Mae Rees and Carrie Taylor, both of Colorado Springs, Colo.; and six grandchildren.
Annie Dowe Smith, 65, who served on the Montgomery College disabilities committee, which advised administrators on a curriculum for disabled students, died of heart disease Nov. 30 at her home in Bethesda.
Mrs. Smith, who had lived in the Washington area since 1962, volunteered with other organizations. She was editor of a newsletter for the Maryland Alliance of Advocates for the Handicapped and the resource person for a Suburban Hospital support group that primarily helped patients recovering from heart attacks.
She was born in Laconia, N.H., and graduated from the University of New Hampshire, where she was elected Phi Beta Kappa. She received a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Nebraska and continued graduate studies in sociological research at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Her interests included hiking, opera and art.
Survivors include her husband, Jean Paul Smith of Bethesda; two daughters, Kimberly J. Smith of Arlington and Melanie K. Smith of New York City; and a sister.
Dorothy P. Mewshaw, 91, a retired National Security Agency Russian language analyst and lifelong Savage resident, died of cardiac arrest Dec. 3 at her home.
Mrs. Mewshaw, a former clerk and secretary with the Reconstruction Finance Corp. and Agriculture Department, worked at the National Security Agency for about 10 years before retiring in 1966.
She was a member of Daughters of the American Revolution and the United Methodist Church of Savage. She also was an organist at Methodist churches in Savage for 50 years.
Her husband of 36 years, Harold E. Mewshaw, died in 1978.
There are no immediate survivors.
Jack L. Friedlander, 85, a retired lawyer who specialized in real estate and commercial law, died of cardiac arrest Dec. 1 at Sibley Memorial Hospital. He had homes in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Chevy Chase.
Mr. Friedlander was born in Alexandria. He was a graduate of Central High School and Columbus Law School, now part of Catholic University. He was a certified public accountant in the 1930s and then co-founded the law firm of Friedlander & Melrod in the 1940s.
He and his son Steve later helped found Friedlander, Misler, Friedlander, Sloan and Herz.
Mr. Friedlander was president of Woodmont Country Club, a volunteer with Big Brothers and a member of the Washington Hebrew Congregation, the D.C. and American Bar associations, the Amity Club and the Masons.
His wife, Adelaide Friedlander, died in 1982. Survivors include two children, Phyllis Feder of New York and Steve Friedlander of Potomac; nine grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
