Jerauld Wright, 96, a retired Navy admiral who was a heavily decorated combat veteran of both world wars and who had served on the Central Intelligence Agency's board of estimates and as ambassador to Taiwan, died of pneumonia April 27 at his home in Washington.
During World War I, Adm. Wright was a junior lieutenant aboard a gunboat on anti-submarine duty in the Mediterranean. During World War II, he was captain of a battleship in the Atlantic, held senior staff posts in Europe and participated in clandestine missions in the Mediterranean. He then participated in many of the great battles in the Pacific, where he rose to command a cruiser division with the fast carriers.
Along the way, he became an authority in the joint operations of naval, ground and air forces and in amphibious operations. Much of his postwar career dealt with the NATO alliance. From 1952 to 1954, he was commander of U.S. naval forces in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. Then from 1954 to 1960, he was U.S. Atlantic Fleet commander and NATO Supreme Allied Commander in the Atlantic.
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After retiring from active duty as a four-star admiral in 1960, he immediately was recalled to serve on the CIA's board of estimates. He held that post until serving as ambassador to Taiwan from 1963 to 1965.
When he retired from active duty in 1960, The Washington Post published an editorial lauding the admiral for serving his country well while holding "one of the free world's two most important unified commands."
The editorial also drew attention to his conviction, purpose and diplomatic and military skills and to his self-effacing qualities.
Adm. Wright was born in Amherst, Mass. In 1917, he became the youngest person to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. Between the world wars, he saw service aboard destroyers, cruisers and battleships and served with the Atlantic, Pacific and Asiatic fleets. He also was naval aide to President Calvin Coolidge from 1924 to 1926 and to President Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1931.
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After the outbreak of World War II, he commanded the battleship Mississippi on North Atlantic patrols, then was called to Washington, where he worked on amphibious and joint operations plans before going to London to work on plans for the North Africa landings.
In late 1942, he accompanied Army Gen. Mark Clark aboard a submarine to Algeria, where they had secret meetings with French officials. They unsuccessfully attempted to get the French to welcome the Anglo-American forces that would hit the beaches in operation TORCH. Adm. Wright later commanded the operation and accompanied the sub that secretly evacuated French army Gen. Henri Giraud and his staff from southern France.
After participating in the North African landings, he helped plan and execute the amphibious operations in Tunisia and for the landings in Sicily and Salerno. In December 1943, he went to the Pacific, where he first commanded the light cruiser Santa Fe with the fast carriers of the 3rd and 5th Fleets. He later commanded an amphibious group and cruiser division. He participated in the fighting for Kwajalein, Saipan and Okinawa and fought in both battles of the Philippine Sea and in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
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After retiring as ambassador, Adm. Wright was a consultant to the State Department for a time. Over the years, he had contributed articles to the Naval Institute Proceedings and other publications. He had served as president of the Metropolitan and Alibi clubs of Washington. He was a member of the Chevy Chase Club.
His Navy decorations included two Distinguished Service Medals, the Silver Star, two awards of the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star.
Survivors include his wife, the former Phillis B. Thompson, whom he married in 1938 and who lives in Washington; a son, William Mason Wright of Arlington; and a daughter, Marion Jerauld Wright of Denver. EVRON M. KIRKPATRICK APSA Official
Evron M. Kirkpatrick, 83, who served as executive director of the American Political Science Association for 27 years before retiring in 1981, died of congestive heart failure April 26 at his home in Bethesda.
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During his years as executive director, the APSA increased its membership to 16,000. He organized study groups and helped create the association's congressional fellowship program. He was the recipient of several awards from the organization.
Dr. Kirkpatrick, an Indiana native, received bachelor's and master's degrees in political science from the University of Illinois and a doctorate in political science from Yale University. He served on the faculty of the University of Minnesota before World War II.
During the war, he served in the Office of Strategic Services. After the war, as an aide to Gen. William J. Donovan, OSS director, he worked on the blueprints for the nation's postwar intelligence and security organizations. From 1946 to 1954, he worked for the State Department, retiring as deputy director of its office of intelligence and research.
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Dr. Kirkpatrick, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, also had taught at Georgetown University from 1959 to 1984 and at Howard University from 1957 to 1961. He helped found the Institute for American Universities in Aix-en-Provence, France. He had served as president of the Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation and the American Peace Society and had been publisher of the society's World Affairs magazine in the 1980s.
He also had been president and director of Pi Sigma Alpha, the political science honor society, and had been a member of several presidential commissions and of committees of the National Academy of Sciences. He was a charter trustee of the U.S. Institute for Peace, and had been a resident scholar with the American Enterprise Institute.
Survivors include his wife of 40 years, former U.S. ambassador Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick, of Bethesda; three sons, John E., of Miami, Fla., Stuart A., of Ann Arbor, Mich., and Douglas J., of Bethesda; two daughters, Mary E. Evans of Austin, Tex., and Anna Kirkpatrick of Aix-en-Provence; and six grandchildren. THOMAS J. CONLEY Lawyer
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Thomas J. Conley, 43, who retired last year as a supervisory attorney for hydroelectric and electric litigation with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, died April 24 at Washington Hospital Center. He had AIDS.
Mr. Conley, an attorney with the FERC since 1987, worked earlier as an attorney-adviser with what is now the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the office of the assistant general counsel for administration at the Commerce Department.
He was born in Catskill, N.Y., and raised in Hensonville, N.Y. He was a magna cum laude graduate in economics of Union College, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and he received a law degree from Cornell University.
Mr. Conley, who had lived in Washington since 1977, was treasurer of the Whitman-Walker Clinic. His interests included gardening and landscape architecture.
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Survivors include his companion, Richard Harding of Washington; his father, William K. Conley of St. Petersburg Beach, Fla.; and a brother, William J. Conley of Hensonville. PRYOR NEIL RANDALL Engineer
Pryor Neil Randall, 74, who retired in 1990 as a senior materials engineer with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, died of cancer April 23 at his home in San Jose. A former resident of Rockville, he lived in the Washington area from 1972 until last December.
Mr. Randall, who worked at the NRC for 18 years, was an authority on the effect of neutron radiation on the steel in nuclear reactors. He received the agency's Distinguished Service Award for Engineering Excellence and the Award of Merit of the American Society for Testing Materials, which named him a fellow in 1989. He wrote a number of testing standards and technical publications in radiation embrittlement and fracture prevention, and he held several patents.
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Mr. Randall was a native of Chrisman, Ill., and a graduate of the University of Illinois, where he also received a doctorate in civil engineering. He served in the Army in Europe during World War II.
Mr. Randall was a research engineer with Standard Oil Co. of Illinois from 1948 to 1961 and with TRW Corp. until he moved to the Washington area.
His interests included wood carving.
Survivors include his wife of 47 years, Virginia Randall of San Jose; two children, Amy Randall Yee of San Jose and Glenn Randall of Boulder, Colo.; a sister, MaryLu Hall of Fort Worth; and three grandchildren. PATRICIA HOWARD STANG Secretary
Patricia Howard Stang, 78, a retired secretary for the Army Materiel Command, died of cardiac arrest April 25 at her daughter's home in Rockville.
Mrs. Stang, of Alexandria, was born in Toledo, Ohio.
She first came to the Washington area in 1936 as secretary to Rep. John F. Hunter (D-Ohio), then returned to Toledo, where she worked for the Internal Revenue Service.
In 1947, after her marriage to Thomas C. Stang, she returned to the Washington area and worked for the IRS and then the Department of the Army.
In the mid-1960s, she was school secretary at Charles Barrett School in Alexandria, where she was also a member of the PTA.
From 1969 to 1976, she worked as resident manager at Lloyd Apartments in Alexandria.
From 1976 until her retirement in the early 1980s, she worked for the Army Materiel Command Roland Patriot Missile Field Office in Alexandria.
Survivors include her husband, of Alexandria; two daughters, Stephani L. Stang-McCusker of Rockville and Patricia Eileen Stang of Alexandria; a sister, Sister Anne Marie Howard of the Ursuline Order of Toledo; and two grandchildren. CARROLL W. FORD Gas Company Superintendent
Carroll W. Ford, 90, who retired in 1970 as superintendent of training in the service department of the Washington Gas Light Co., died of cardiopulmonary failure April 22 at the Hermitage Retirement Community in Alexandria.
Mr. Ford was a native of Colonial Beach, Va. He moved to Arlington in 1920 to work in construction with his uncle in the Virginia Highlands neighborhood. He went to work for the gas company in 1935 as a serviceman.
He was a member of the advisory board that established a Salvation Army chapter in Arlington. He was a trustee of Arlington Hospital, president of the Arlington Rotary Club and the Crystal Club, campaign chairman for the Arlington Community Chest, a fire company volunteer in Arlington and treasurer, deacon, Sunday school teacher and choir member at Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Arlington.
His wife, Alma Davis Ford, died in 1986. Survivors include three children, Richard E. Ford of Centreville, Louis L. Ford of Vienna and Eileen Ford of Richmond; a brother, John S. Ford of Arlington; three sisters, Elizabeth Wren of Williamsburg, Nell Brill of Alexandria and Sylvia Beauchamp of Montross, Va.; and four grandchildren. BARBARA GRAY CASTLE Church Founder
Barbara Gray Castle, 89, a founding member of Fairlington United Methodist Church in Alexandria, died of pneumonia April 24 at Washington House retirement facility in Alexandria. Mrs. Castle was born in Concord, Vt., and graduated from the University of Vermont. She moved to the Washington area 53 years ago.
She was a founding member of the Northern Virginia chapter of Delta Delta Delta sorority.
Her husband, Clarence Castle, died in 1980.
Survivors include two children, Gray Castle and Deborah Fountain, both of Alexandria; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. JOHN W. HAGAN JR. VA Official
John Warner Hagan Jr., 68, a retired Department of Veterans Affairs official, died of cancer April 14 at Washington Hospital Center. A resident of his native Louisville, he was visiting in the Washington area when he was stricken.
Mr. Hagan, a graduate of the University of Louisville and American University law school, was a Marine Corps veteran of World War II. He settled here in 1952 and worked for the Vitro Corp., until joining what was then the Veterans Administration in 1962.
He served with the VA in New Jersey for two years before returning here in 1974. He then served as VA central regional director and deputy chief of the benefits division before transferring to Louisville in 1986. He was director of the VA regional office there until retiring in 1994.
Mr. Hagan was a past president of the Northwest Boundary Civic Association in Washington. He also had been chairman of the Metropolitan Police Department's 4th District advisory board.
His wife of 28 years, the former Susie Nelson, died in 1976. Survivors include two sons, John III, of Louisville, and Willard, of Washington; a daughter, Ann Brown, of Washington; two brothers; four sisters; and four grandchildren. JAMES L. SAYLES Personnel Manager
James L. Sayles, 60, a former personnel manager with the Social Security Administration, died of cancer April 25 at home in Wheaton.
Mr. Sayles was born in Rochester, Minn. He attended St. Thomas College, and from 1953 to 1957, he served in the Air Force.
In 1965, he moved to the Washington area and began working for Social Security, where he retired in 1990. In retirement, he was an instructional assistant at John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring, where he worked with orthopedically disabled students.
He was a blue grass musician and bass player with the group Country Ham, with whom he had made records.
His marriage to Marilyn Backes Sayles ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife of 10 years, Margaret Ruth Talbot of Wheaton; five children from his first marriage, Theresa Sayles of Portland, Ore., Marie Sayles of San Francisco, Paul Sayles of Takoma Park, John Sayles of Baltimore and Joseph Sayles of Minneapolis; his mother, Gertrude Sayles of Austin, Minn.; two stepchildren, David Smith of Bloomington, Ind., and Steven Smith of Baltimore; and two brothers, Paul Sayles of McHenry, Ill., and Leo Sayles of St. Cloud, Minn. JEWELL J. CARRAWAY Club Officer
Jewell J. Carraway, 79, a past officer of the Bethesda Woman's Club who was a secretary at the Civil Aeronautics Board in the 1940s, died of pneumonia April 26 at Suburban Hospital. Mrs. Carraway, of Bethesda, had lived in the Washington area since 1938.
She was a native of Crossett, Ark., and a graduate of Henderson State University. She was a member of Bethesda Methodist Church.
Her husband, Drew Carraway, died in 1978. Survivors include a son, Andrew Carraway of Springfield; a brother, Robert Jones of Arkadelphia, Ark.; and two grandsons.
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