Judith P. Hoyer, 57, coordinating supervisor of early childhood education for the Prince George's County schools and the wife of Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), died Feb. 6 at her home in Mechanicsville. She had stomach cancer.
Mrs. Hoyer, who also had a home in Mitchellville, was born in Washington and raised in Prince George's, where she graduated from Suitland High School. She received a bachelor's degree from Towson State University and master's degree in early childhood education from the University of Maryland.
She began her career as a teacher at North Forestville Elementary. She later was a team leader in a pilot teaching program at Skyline Elementary School in Morningside and an education resource teacher for early education.
She wrote a multisensory language arts curriculum for primary grades and conducted research on the use of sign language to improve the language skills of hearing students. She was named supervisor for early education in 1986 and coordinating supervisor three years later.
Mrs. Hoyer was a member of the advisory board of the county's "Even Start" educational program, the national board of the Epilepsy Foundation and the boards of the Wolf Trap Institute on Early Learning Through the Arts, Doctors Community Hospital in Greenbelt and the Stephens Engineering firm.
She was president of the Prince George's County Arts Council. She also was chairwoman of the trade scholarship committee of the county Board of Trade and president of the board's Education Foundation. She was a member of Broadview Baptist Church in Temple Hills.
In addition to her husband, of Mechanicsville and Mitchellville, survivors include three daughters, Susan Taylor of Lutz, Fla., and Stefany Hemmer and Anne Hoyer, both of Arnold; her mother, Murilian "Jill" Pickett of La Plata; and two grandchildren.
JOSEPH D. NOSHPITZ
Psychiatrist
Joseph D. Noshpitz, 74, a child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who was a founding member and past president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, died Jan. 28 at his home in Washington. He had heart ailments.
Dr. Noshpitz had practiced psychiatry in Washington since 1960 and also had been psychiatrist in chief in the Department of Psychiatry at Children's Hospital. He was a clinical professor of psychiatry, behavioral sciences and child health and development at George Washington University Medical School, and he had served on the faculties of the medical schools of Howard and Georgetown universities and the University of Maryland.
He was a former president of the American Association for Children's Residential Centers.
Dr. Noshpitz had written extensively in the area of child psychiatry and development, and he had lectured widely in the United States, Australia, Israel, South America, Greece and France. He had served on the President's Commission on Mental Health and the National Consortium for Child Mental Health Services.
He was born in New York and graduated from the University of Louisville, where he also received his medical degree. After World War II, he was an Army medical officer in Japan, where he worked with patients suffering from radiation illnesses.
He trained in psychiatry at the Menninger School of Psychiatry in Topeka, Kan., and he did child and adult psychoanalytic training at the Baltimore-D.C. Psychoanalytic Institute, where he served on the faculty.
From 1956 to 1960, Dr. Noshpitz was chief of the children's service at the National Institute of Mental Health.
Survivors include his wife, Charlotte Sorkine Noshpitz of Washington; a son, Claude Noshpitz of Santa Cruz, Calif.; two sisters; and a grandson.
GERALD LONG
Golf Pro
Gerald Long, 82, a golf professional who was the manager and pro at the East Potomac Park golf course at Hains Point in Washington from 1952 to 1976, died Jan. 30 at Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, Fla., of complications after a stroke. A resident of Centreville, he was visiting relatives in Florida.
Mr. Long was born in Christiansburg, Va. Before World War II, he was a golf pro at country clubs in Roanoke and Buffalo, N.Y.
During the war, he served in the Army in North Africa, where he was wounded in action and taken prisoner. For 26 months, he was a prisoner of war in North Africa and Europe. He received a Purple Heart. After the war, Mr. Long settled in Washington. He was the golf pro at the Rock Creek course from 1945 until 1952. From 1976 to 1984, he was head pro at Cedar Crest Country Club in Centreville. Since 1984, he had been pro emeritus at Chantilly National Golf and Country Club.
His marriage to Nellie Long ended in divorce.
Survivors include four children, Gerald W. Long of Pensacola, James O. Long of Panama City, Fla., John S. Long of Centreville and Jo Ann Horton of Centreville; two brothers, Walter N. Long of Falls Church and Robert G. Long of San Diego; a sister, Lena Slusser of Fairmont, W.Va.; and three grandchildren.
JAMES BERNARD McCURLEY
REA Official
James Bernard McCurley, 90, an engineer who retired in 1970 from the Rural Electrification Administration as chief of the electric operations and standards division after 24 years with the Agriculture Department, died of pulmonary failure Feb. 3 at Bethesda Naval Hospital. A resident of the Washington area since 1954, he lived in Chevy Chase.
Mr. McCurley was an engineer in his native Baltimore during the 1930s. He was a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and received a master's degree in engineering from Yale University. He received a doctorate in engineering at Johns Hopkins.
He served in the Navy and taught at the Naval Academy during World War II. He remained in the Naval Reserve as a captain until 1966.
Mr. McCurley was a member of All Saint's Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase, Columbia Country Club, Columbia Yacht Club and the Society of Colonial Wars.
Survivors include his wife, Margaret De Hoff McCurley of Chevy Chase; two children, James McCurley Jr. of Baltimore and Margaret McCurley Gilliam of Derwood; and two granddaughters.
JOHN GEORGE WALDMANN
Machinist
John George Waldmann Jr., 75, a machinist who retired from the Goddard Space Flight Center in 1976, died Feb. 5 at the Charlotte Hall Veterans Home in Charlotte Hall. He had pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease.
Mr. Waldmann, who lived in Stevensville, Md., was born in Baltimore.
Before World War II, he began his federal career as a machinist at the Washington Navy Yard.
During the war, he served in the Navy aboard PT boats in the Pacific. He returned to the Navy Yard after the war, then in the early 1960s transferred to Goddard, where he remained until retiring.
He was a Mason and a member of the American Legion.
Survivors include his wife, Mary L. Waldmann of Stevensville, and a sister, Ruth L. Groves of Catonsville, Md.
FRANCES LEWIS PETTIT
Bookkeeper
Frances Lewis Pettit, 93, a bookkeeper at the American Red Cross from the mid-1920s to the mid-1940s, died of a heart attack Jan. 31 at Holy Cross Hospital. She lived in Silver Spring.
Mrs. Pettit was born in New Jersey and raised in Washington. She was a graduate of Business High School and Strayer College.
She was a member of St. Jerome's Catholic Church in Hyattsville. Her husband of 44 years, Russell Pettit, died in 1969. Survivors include a daughter, Vera Green of Silver Spring; three grandsons; and six great-grandchildren.
MARGARET LANSDOWNE PEGGY' HUNT
Payroll Accountant
Margaret Lansdowne "Peggy" Hunt, 74, a payroll accountant who had worked for 20 years for the American Physical Therapy Association, died of cancer Feb. 2 at Alexandria Hospital. She lived in Bethesda.
Mrs. Hunt was born in Berlin while her father was stationed there with the Navy. He later was commander of the USS Shenandoah, the Navy's first dirigible, and died when it crashed in 1925 in Ohio.
Mrs. Hunt was raised in Washington. She attended the National Cathedral School for Girls and Greenwood School in Ruxton, Md. Her interests included pencil sketching.
Survivors include her husband of 56 years, J. Conway Hunt of Bethesda; five children; a brother; three grandchildren; a great-grandson.
JOHN MARCUS OSETH
Navy Captain
John Marcus Oseth, 83, a retired Navy captain who later worked in the Washington area as a systems engineer, died of cancer Feb. 2 at Maplewood Park Place care facility in Bethesda.
Capt. Oseth, who had lived Alexandria, was born in Minot, N.D. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1936.
During World War II, he was an engineering officer and a commander of destroyers in the Pacific.
Postwar assignments included coordinating the establishment of a Navy submarine base in Scotland and command of Navy activities in London. He received a master's degree in political science from Boston University.
He settled in the Washington area in 1960 and retired from the Navy in 1966.
After his Navy retirement, Capt. Oseth was a systems engineer for Stanley Corp. and Halifax Engineering, where he retired in 1984.
His first wife, Margaret Cheney Oseth, whom he married in 1938, died in 1986.
Survivors include his wife, Jean Tyree Oseth of Alexandria; two daughters from his first marriage, Janice Kuhn of Houston and Joyce Wheeler of Herndon; three grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.
