Retired Army Lt. Gen. James M. Gavin, 82, a former ambassador to France and an architect of the Peace Corps who was one of the greatest American combat leaders of World War II, died Feb. 23 at a Baltimore nursing home. He had Parkinson's disease.
Along the way, Gen. Gavin was twice awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army's highest award for valor after the Medal of Honor, two Silver Stars, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.
Orphaned before the age of 2, he enlisted in the Army Coast Artillery at the age of 17, with only a grade school education. He then began a remarkable career. Entering the U.S. Military Academy at West Point by examination in 1925, he graduated four years later. In 1940, he was only a captain, but he became an apostle of the new airborne doctrine. By September 1943, he was a brigadier general, and the next year he became the Army's youngest division commander in the war.
After World War II, he held staff and command assignments in this country and Europe. He was promoted to lieutenant general in 1955 and named Army deputy chief of staff and chief of research and development. In those posts, he became a critic of the Eisenhower administration's defense policies.
He was critical of the Army's failure to pursue advanced missile technology and of over-reliance on advanced hardware, especially nuclear weapons, at the expense of conventional forces. He also said that inept Pentagon policies enabled the Soviets to launch the world's first orbiting satellite.
His disenchantment with the Army was such that he reportedly turned down a guarantee of a fourth star within 14 months, and a choice of interim assignments, to retire from active duty in 1958.
He then joined Arthur D. Little Inc., a worldwide Cambridge, Mass.-based industrial research and management consulting organization, as a vice president. He rose to executive vice president, board member, president, chief executive officer and, finally, board chairman. He retired in 1977.
Before 1960, he and then-Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey proposed the creation of what became the Peace Corps. In 1961, Gen. Gavin led the inaugural parade of his friend, President John F. Kennedy, then served a short time as ambassador to France. He returned to the public eye in the mid-1960s as a persuasive and brilliant critic of the Johnson administration's Vietnam policies, based on his extensive World War II combat record.
In 1940, Gen. Gavin was assigned to West Point as a tactics instructor. While teaching that discipline, he also studied the new German panzer tactics. Combining armor, mechanized infantry and air support, the Germans had unleashed a seemingly unbeatable weapon that was in the process of overrunning much of Europe with little opposition. Gen. Gavin let it be known that airborne troops might be part of an answer.
After graduating from the Army Parachute School and the Army Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, he took command of the 82nd Airborne Division's 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. His regiment spearheaded the invasion of Sicily when it jumped into the hills behind the beaches on July 9, 1943. Two days later, Gen. Gavin won his first Distinguished Service Cross, which cited him for his display of "cool, courageous leadership" and "inspiring his men by his heroic example." He personally led a small part of the regiment against a much superior German force of infantry and armor.
On Sept. 14, 1943, with the Allied invasion of Salerno, the first assault on mainland Europe was hanging by a thread. "Operation Avalanche," the invasion to secure the great port of Naples, had taken place on Sept. 9, and Allied troops were stalled on the beaches. An anxious Allied commander, Gen. Mark Clark, called for reinforcements. British battleships from Malta trundled up to give fire support from 15-inch guns, but Clark wanted infantry, and on the beaches fast.
A measure of Allied desperation was the attempt that airborne units, including Gen. Gavin and his regiment, made to turn the tide. Flying from bases in Sicily and North Africa, airborne troops flew over the Allied armada and parachuted directly onto the embattled beach, then advanced into the fight. Nothing of the kind had been tried before.
On Sept. 22, Gen. Gavin got his first star and was named assistant division commander. D-Day found him commanding the division's three parachute regiments as they dropped well behind the beaches to prevent German reinforcements and supplies from reaching Omaha and Utah beaches. Dependent upon air resupply, the 82nd fought, completely surrounded, until relieved by advancing Allied units.
Gen. Gavin received his second Distinguished Service Cross when, during a fight on June 9, he took command of a shattered battalion, reorganized its command, and then personally led it in a counterattack. The citation for this award, noting his command from an exposed position, cited his "courage, personal bravery and outstanding leadership."
On Aug. 15, 1944, he was named commader of the 82nd Airborne. The next month, the division participated in the huge, if ill-planned, drop near Nijmegen in the Netherlands. The division also fought in the Battle of the Bulge and in central Germany before becoming an early occupation force in Berlin.
During the war, the 82nd Airborne was recognized as one of this country's elite divisions. It had fought in what were probably America's greatest battles of the European war. And its last commander, Gen. Gavin, became something of a legend of his own.
Known variously as "Jumpin' Jim" or "Slim Jim," he was remembered as a general who commanded from the front with a carbine in hand and as an officer renown for his calmness in battle.
After leaving the Army, he became a very successful businessman in a highly technical game. The fighting general also was recognized as a thinking general. He was active in the Council on Foreign Relations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and was a life trustee of Tufts University and a fellow of Harvard University's Center of International Affairs. He wrote such books as "Airborne Warfare," "War and Peace in the Space Age" and his 1978 memoirs, "On to Berlin."
As ambassador to France, a post he held from 1961 to 1962 and again from 1962 to 1963, he was not a notable success. Most critics pointed out that President Kennedy had managed to find an ambassador who could not speak French well and had appointed a former general. The French president, Charles deGaulle, was known to dislike non-Francophones and "military" ambassadors. And, as Gen. Gavin noted in retiring after a year, the ambassador to France had to be independently wealthy, and he was not.
Gen. Gavin was a leading architect of the successful helicopter-borne units and Army airborne tactics used in Vietnam, but he was an early critic of the conflict. He attacked the administration for fighting an unwinnable war, saying that the best military strategy to follow would be to withdraw American forces to "enclaves" in towns and along the coast that could be easily defended.
He toured Vietnam for 10 days in 1967 and returned to tell a group that "we are in a tragedy." He called for seeking negotiations "by every means available" and argued that the struggle in Southeast Asia could allow the Soviets to steal a march on us in the Middle East.
His first marriage, to Irma Gavin, ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife, Jean Emert Gavin, of the homes in Winter Park, Fla., and Wianno, Mass.; their four daughters, Caroline Gavin of Weston, Conn., Patricia Gavin of Towson, Md., Aileen Lewis of Baltimore and Chloe Beatty of Riverside, Conn.; a daughter by his first marriage, Barbara Fauntleroy of New Canaan, Conn.; nine grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.
JOHN PARKER HILLS
Lawyer
John Parker Hills, 54, a former Justice Department lawyer who specialized in pollution control and later established a private practice in Maryland, died of cancer Feb. 22 at his home in Annapolis.
Mr. Hills was born in Cambridge, Mass. He graduated from Brown University and earned a law degree at Washington & Lee University. He practiced law in Memphis before moving to the Washington area and joining the Justice Department in 1970.
A senior trial lawyer in the pollution control section of the land division at Justice, Mr. Hills tried a number of cases involving water pollution. In 1974, he was made senior staff attorney to the President's Council on Environmental Quality.
In 1975, he established a private law practice in Beltsville. He later moved his office to Upper Marlboro and then to Annapolis.
Mr. Hills was a member of the Beltsville Rotary Club, the board of the Arundel Hospice in Mitchellville, and the Shearwater Sailing Club of Annapolis. He also was a volunteer boating safety instructor for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
Survivors include his wife, Pamela P. Quinn of Annapolis; two children, John Hills of Annapolis and Mary Alice Hills of Knoxville, Tenn., and his mother, Hilda Hills, and a sister, Mary Munroe, both of Tucson.
JONATHAN S. JESSAR
Public Relations Executive
Jonathan S. Jessar, 46, vice chairman of Cassidy & Associates, a Washington public relations firm, died Feb. 22 at Sibley Memorial Hospital after a heart attack.
Mr. Jessar, who lived in Washington, was a native of Philadelphia and a graduate of Temple University. He served in the Army from 1966 to 1969. He then did public relations work in New York until 1975, when he transferred to the Washington office of Hill & Knowlton Inc.
In 1980 he took a leave of absence and served as chief of staff of communications for the Reagan-Bush campaign. In 1981, he was a founding member of Gray & Co., a public relations firm. Two years later he became executive vice president and director of the Washington office of Burson-Marsteller. He joined Cassidy & Associates in 1989.
Mr. Jessar was a member of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, the Ward Foundation, the International Club and the Capitol Hill Club.
Survivors include his wife, Gayle Harrison Jessar of Washington; his mother, Betty Jessar of Philadelphia; a sister, Judy Stauffer of Edgewater Park, N.J., and two brothers, David Jessar of Dresher, Pa., and Philip Jessar of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
LINWOOD E. SIMMONS JR.
D.C. Police Officer
Linwood Edward Simmons Jr., 53, a D.C. police officer for 10 years before retiring in 1969 as a detective, died Feb. 22 at a hospital in Charleston, S.C., after a heart attack. He lived in Summerville, S.C.
He spent part of his years with the D.C. police working out of the 10th Precinct. Mr. Simmons was a native of Washington and graduate of Eastern High School. He was a graduate of the Baptist College of Charleston and veteran of the Marine Corps.
After moving to South Carolina in 1970, he served for a time as police chief of the towns of North Charleston and Gaffney, S.C. At the time of his death, he owned a used-car dealership in Summerville.
Mr. Simmons had been a member of the Vienna Baptist Church.
Survivors include his wife, Barbara K., two sons, Bucky and Duke Wayne Simmons, and two daughters, Kathy Reid and Scarlett Wactor, all of Summerville; his mother, Mary Simmons of Suitland; a brother, Robert, of Arlington; two sisters, Peggy Lloyd of Forestville, and Carol Garner of Suitland; and four grandchildren.
ELWYN ARTHUR MAUCK
Teacher and Volunteer
Elwyn Arthur Mauck, 80, a retired teacher at the University of Maryland and with the State Department who also was a volunteer at the Smithsonian Institution, died Feb. 10 at Southern Maryland Hospital in Clinton. He had cancer.
Mr. Mauck, who had lived in Indian Head since 1976, was a native of Iowa. He graduated from Cornell College in Iowa and received a master's degree and a doctoral degree in public administration at Columbia University.
He came to the Washington area during World War II and taught public administration at the University of Maryland and later at Johns Hopkins University before going to the State Department in 1953.
He taught in education programs in Brazil, Turkey, Korea, Taiwan and Nigeria. He left the State Department in 1967 to join the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. He retired in 1976.
Survivors include his wife of 42 years, Mary Helms Mauck of Indian Head, and one sister, Maryls Wyatt, and one brother, Virtus Mauck, both of Hudson, Iowa.
ROBERT D. FRANCIS
Trade Manager
Robert D. Francis, 65, a retired foreign trade manager with the Department of Agriculture, died of cancer Feb. 21 at his home in Greenbelt.
Mr. Francis was a native of Pennsylvania and came to the Washington area during World War II, when he joined the Agriculture Department. He later went into the Army and served as a paratrooper in Europe.
As a foreign trade manager he organized trade fairs and exhibits in Europe, Asia and Africa. Since his retirement in 1983, he had been a consultant with Glahe International Inc., a Washington trade fair and exhibit company.
Mr. Francis was a member of the Riverside Baptist Church in Fort Washington and the American Legion.
His marriage to Jeanette Francis ended in divorce.
Survivors include two children, Thomas Randal Francis of Sterling and Jan Carol Kline of Los Angeles; his mother, Mary J. Francis of District Heights, and a sister, Evelyn Lashway of Greenbelt.
CHRISTINE T. FENTON
Church Member
Christine T. Fenton, 93, a member of the Little Flower Catholic Church in Bethesda and an area resident for 51 years, died of respiratory ailments Feb. 22 at the Sacred Heart Home in Hyattsville, where she had lived since 1986.
Mrs. Fenton was a native of London. She came to the United States in 1905 and settled in Boston. She later worked there in the garmet industry and was active in the garmet workers union and the suffragette movement.
She came to this area in 1939 and settled in Bethesda. She was a member of the Potomac Valley Homemakers and the Brookmont Garden Club.
Her husband, Frank P. Fenton, died in 1948.
Survivors include three daughters, Helene Willoughby of Nassawadox, Va., Patricia Cohill of Grand Rapids, Mich., and Anne Herdt of Geneva; two sons, John H. Fenton of Bethesda and Gerald T. Fenton of Churchton, Md., 22 grandchildren, and 19 great-grandchildren.
ROSEZELMA H. REED
D.C. Public School Teacher
Rosezelma Hunigan Reed, 58, an elementary teacher with the D.C. public schools from 1970 until retiring for health reasons in February 1989, died of cancer Feb. 21 at Providence Hospital. She lived in Washington.
She had served on the faculties of Payne, Bowen, and Truesdell Elementary schools.
Mrs. Reed was a native of Tulsa, and a graduate of Lincoln University in Missouri. She received a master's degree in education at George Washington University. She lived in Washington in the mid-1950s, when she was a librarian with the State Department and the Library of Congress. She then lived in the South and Midwest before returning here in 1970.
She was a member of Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington.
Her marriage to Lawrence A. Reed ended in divorce.
Survivors include a son, Ryan L., of Atlanta; and her mother, Bessie Latimer of Tulsa.
JOHN C. McAULEY
Government Auditor
John C. McAuley, 69, an internal auditor with the Defense Department for 23 years before retiring in 1977, died of a heart ailment Feb. 22 at a hospital in Orlando, Fla. He lived in Leesburg, Fla.
Mr. McAuley, who moved to Florida from New Carrollton in 1986, was a native of Washington. He was a graduate of McKinley Technical High School and received accounting degrees from Benjamin Franklin and Southeastern universities. An Army veteran, he served in Europe during World War II and in Korea.
He had been a senior warden at St. John's Episcopal Church in Beltsville.
Survivors include his wife, Agnes, of Leesburg; three sons, Robert Y., of Vista, Calif., Thomas J., of Davis, Calif., and Scott M., of Beltsville; and his mother, Clara D. McAuley of Vienna.
O.B. "BILL" LLOYD
NASA Official
O.B. "Bill" Lloyd, 74, the director of NASA's public information office from 1961 until he retired in 1979, died Feb. 20 at a nursing home in Morehead City, N.C. He had Alzheimer's disease.
Mr. Lloyd, who had lived in North Carolina since retiring, was a native of Illinois. He graduated from Northwestern University. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Chicago and Texas and later for a public relations firm in New York before becoming United Press bureau chief in Austin, Tex., in 1948.
He came to Washington in 1959 as a staff member for Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Tex.) Mr. Lloyd worked there until he joined NASA. In 1969 he received NASA's execptional service award.
His marriage to Jane McRae Lloyd ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife, Dolores Anne "Dee" Lloyd of Vandemere, N.C.; two children by his first marriage, Mark Lloyd of Norcross, Ga., and Ann Root of Sandy Hook, Conn.; and six grandchildren.
HAROLD JOHN BIEDERMAN
Investment Executive
Harold John Biederman, 71, a retired secretary-treasurer of the Steuart Investment Co., died of heart ailments Feb. 16 at Washington Hospital Center.
Mr. Biederman, who lived in Lanham, was a native of Pennsylvania. He came to this area in the mid-1930s. He graduated from Eastern High School and received a business degree from Benjamin Franklin University.
He joined Steuart Petroleum Co. during World War II. Later in the war he entered the Army and served in Europe. He returned to Steuart Petroleum after the war and was secretary-treasurer there before he transferred to the Steuart Investment Co. in the early 1980s. He retired in 1984.
Mr. Biederman was a Boy Scout troop leader in Hyattsville and a member of the High Adventure Committee. In 1979, he received the Boy Scouts' Silver Beaver Award.
Survivors include his wife of 49 years, Charlotte Thompson Biederman of Lanham; four children, George M. Biederman of Lanham, Douglas L. Biederman of Greenbelt, Cheryl Schumaker of Seabrook, Md., and Paula A. Biederman of Columbia; his mother, Erva Biederman of McLean; a sister, Caroline Holliday of McLean; and four grandchildren.
HAROLD A. JEWETT
Du Pont Attorney
Harold Alden Jewett, 92, a patent attorney for the Du Pont Co. for 25 years before retiring in 1962, died Feb. 23 at the Veterans Administration Hospital here. He had pneumonia.
Mr. Jewett, who lived in Washington, was born in Fredonia, N.Y. He received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Cornell University in 1922 and a law degree from Harvard University in 1930. He was an Army pilot during World War I.
He taught chemistry at Cornell from 1921 to 1923, then worked as a professional musician in New York and Boston. For a time, he was a pianist with Paul Whiteman's Collegians before leading his own orchestra. In the 1930s, he practiced law in New Jersey.
He came to Washington and joined Du Pont in 1937. He worked at the company's corporate headquarters in Wilmington, Del., from 1941 to 1944, then returned here. He then conducted patent searches and worked with technical literature in the company's legal department in Washington until retiring.
His wife, Eunice, died in 1986. Survivors include a son, Eugene Alden Jewett of Alexandria.
ANNA BARTELS PORTER
Navy Yeomanette
Anna Bartels Porter, 95, a longtime Alexandria resident who was a Navy yeomanette in World War I, died of cardiopulmonary arrest Feb. 22 at the Hermitage retirement home in Alexandria.
A native of Baltimore, Mrs. Porter grew up in Alexandria. She graduated from Miss Chandlee's Arlington Institute. As a young woman she worked briefly as a secretary at the National Geographic Society.
Mrs. Porter was a volunteer at the blood bank of the Alexandria Red Cross and a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
Her husband, Lewis Gordon Porter, died in 1952.
Survivors include two children, Lewis Gordon Porter Jr. of Signal Mountain, Tenn., and Elizabeth Porter Sibold of Alexandria; 10 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.
GERTRUDE C. LITSCHERT
DAR, Eastern Star Member
Gertrude C. Litschert, 101, a chapter regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a matron of the Brookland Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, died of a heart ailment Feb. 22 at Powhatan Nursing Home in Falls Church where she had lived since 1985.
Mrs. Litschert was a native of Indiana and moved to Washington in 1921. She had been a member of the DAR's District of Columbia State Committee. She also belonged to the Daughters of Colonial Wars.
Her husband, Franklin P. Litschert, died in 1950. Survivors include her son, Robert G. Litschert of Falls Church; three grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
DONALD A. GANNON
Grocery Chain President
Donald A. Gannon, 86, a retired president of the Stop & Shop grocery stores and an area resident since 1985, died Feb. 23 at Manor Care nursing home in Potomac from complications after a series of strokes.
Mr. Gannon, who lived in Gaithersburg, was a native of Vermont and a graduate of the University of Vermont. He worked as a buyer for the A&P food stores in Chicago, Milwaukee and Kansas City before joining Stop & Shop in Boston in 1944. He became president in 1964. He retired in 1972 and lived in Vermont until he moved to this area.
Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Dorothy Ellis Gannon of Gaithersburg; a son, John G. Gannon of Mattapoisett, Mass.; a daughter, Susan G. Gannon of Potomac; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
MARGARET ELIZABETH WOOTTEN
Cafeteria Manager
Margaret Elizabeth Wootten, 83, a retired cafeteria manager at Burtonsville Elementary School, died of cancer Feb. 21 at her home in Burtonsville.
Miss Wootten was born in Laurel. She graduated from Fairland High School in Fairland, Md., and attended Towson State College.
From 1929 to 1949, she was cafeteria manager at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
She then went to work at Burtonsville Elementary, and retired there in 1972.
Miss Wootten was a member of the Liberty Grove United Methodist Church in Burtonsville.
Survivors include two brothers, Edward and Howard L. Wootten, and one sister, Virginia Lochstamphfor, all of Burtonsville.
