Julian Theodore Cooper
September 11, 2001
Pentagon
Julian Cooper, 39, was a senior computer analyst for Litton PRC. He had worked in the U.S. Navy Command Center at the Pentagon for five years. Known to his friends as Coop'a, he graduated from Bladensburg High School and attended the University of Maryland. After college he joined the U.S. Navy, where he served for 13 years. Later he was a Navy reservist. He was a devoted husband, a protective son and a supportive brother. He was always willing to help those around him. He was a patriot. He is survived by his wife, mother, grandmother, one brother and two sisters. We will not forget him.
source: http://www.defendamerica.mil/remember/remember_c.html
George Aloysius Petrello, Class of 1955
George Aloysius Petrello, an occupational health and safety manager who helped develop an integrated safety and fire prevention management system at the Pentagon, and who lived in Bowie, Maryland, died of cancer October 29, 2005, at Doctors Community Hospital in Lanham, Maryland, at the age of 68.
Mr. Petrello had worked at the Pentagon for the past 27 years, most recently for the Defense Facilities Directorate of the Washington Headquarters Services.
He was born in Washington DC and raised in what is now Hyattsville, Maryland. He was a 1955 graduate of Bladensburg High School.
After working at his father's fence company, he joined the Navy Reserve and served a few years as a D.C. police officer.
In later years, he was a fourth-degree member of the Knights of Columbus and a founder of the Knights of the Clown Table, a group of volunteers who marched in parades, made animal balloons and visited children in hospitals.
He played the piano and the accordion, enjoyed gardening (especially roses), and donated 96 pints of blood to the American Red Cross in his lifetime.
His marriages to Nancy McConnell Petrello and Anna Catherine "Cathy" Barthel Petrello ended in divorce.
Survivors include his companion, Alice Stewart of Bowie, Maryland; four children from his first marriage, Timothy Petrello of Oak Harbor, Washington, Joseph Petrello of Waitsburg, Washington, and Anna Christen and Marie Petrello, both of Walla Walla, Washington; a daughter from his second marriage, Angela Petrello of Bowie, Maryland; a sister; and eight grandchildren.
Washington Post
source: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.obituaries/tree/browse_frm/thread/8cb781becd35d119/721d42d9d5c7ecd6
James Magruder Rea
James Magruder Rea, a retired Prince George's County [Maryland] Circuit Court judge who presided over civil and criminal cases including a 1987 drug trial stemming from the death of University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, and who lived in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, died of pneumonia January 29, 2004, at Spa Creek Rehab Center in Annapolis, Maryland, at the age of 79.
Judge Rea presided over the six-day trial of Brian Lee Tribble, who was accused of supplying the cocaine that killed Bias during a party just days after Bias had been drafted to play for the Boston [Massachusetts] Celtics.
Tribble was acquitted of those charges, but three years later he was convicted in another case of conspiracy and drug dealing.
Judge Rea spent 13 years on the bench of the state Circuit Court in Prince George's County, serving until 1993.
Soon after his appointment to the Circuit Court in 1980, Judge Rea found himself in the media spotlight. He intervened in a bitter labor dispute, issuing an injunction barring 1,500 county workers from striking.
When guards at the county detention center went on strike, he placed the jail and the Corrections Department under court control. In the mid-1980s, he overturned a zoning decision made by the Prince George's County Council for Konterra, one of the county's largest and most controversial development projects.
Judge Rea was a popular figure in Prince George's County political and legal circles long before then-Gov. Harry Hughes appointed him to the circuit bench.
He was born in Washington DC and grew up in Bladensburg, Maryland, graduating from Bladensburg High School.
After serving as a second lieutenant in the Army during World War II, he graduated from the University of Maryland and its law school.
He opened a general law practice in Upper Marlboro and became active in the county Democratic Party and professional associations. He was elected chairman of the Democratic Central Committee in 1966 and served as president of the Prince George's Bar Association.
He was selected to serve on the bench of Prince George's County People's Court in 1969. About two years later, Gov. Marvin Mandel revamped the jumbled lower court system into a new statewide District Court system.
Judge Rea was one of 38 men appointed to judgeships in the new court. He rose to chief administrative judge while he presided mostly over misdemeanor and traffic cases.
He was a trustee and chairman of William Pinkney Magruder Memorial Hospital, a charitable trust fund for indigent pediatric patients at Prince George's Hospital Center.
He was a member and registrar of Trinity Episcopal Church in Upper Marlboro; a member of the board of overseers of Queen Anne School in Upper Marlboro; and a member of the Marlborough Hunt Club and Southern Maryland Society.
His wife, Evelyn Rea, died in 1980 after 26 years of marriage.
source: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.obituaries/browse_thread/thread/df101ea54132b912/adb06203523b38eb
James Michael Herl, Class of 1972
James Michael Herl, whose one-month term as chairman of the Prince George's County [Maryland] Council abruptly ended in 1990 after he passed a half-gram of cocaine to an undercover officer in a College Park bar, died January 21, 2003, at Washington [DC] Hospital Center, from congestive heart failure, at the age of 48.
Mr. Herl was stripped of his leadership post by fellow council members in January 1990, four days after his troubles were made public and shortly before DC. Mayor Marion Barry was arrested on cocaine charges in an undercover investigation in Washington DC
Mr. Herl, a popular Democratic politician who served on the council for more than seven years, pleaded guilty the next month to one misdemeanor count of cocaine possession. He was placed on probation for three years, fined $5,000 and ordered to perform 240 hours of community service. He resigned from the council that May. Barry was sentenced to six months in prison.
Holding political power had been a long-held ambition for Mr. Herl, who rose from modest roots in Bladensburg, Maryland. He served as an errand boy in the Prince George's Democratic Party and was a council aide.
Mr. Herl told the court when he was convicted that alcohol and drugs had played a role in his life for some time. He agreed that as a public official he should be subject to a "higher standard."
After he left office, he was a land acquisition consultant to developers and companies that included Howard Johnson's. For the past five years, he was a project manager for the Maryland Department of Transportation, procuring land for mass transit.
Mr. Herl was born in Miami, Florida, and raised in Bladensburg, where he graduated from Bladensburg High School. After attending the University of Maryland for a few years, he began working for County Executive Winfield M. Kelly Jr.
Council member Frank P. Casula took him under his wing in 1978, hiring Mr. Herl as his legislative aide. Mr. Herl also served on the county Democratic Central Committee.
At 29, he bucked the political establishment to run for office, defeating a slate-backed candidate by a slight margin. He represented College Park, Maryland, where he lived, as well as Berwyn Heights, Maryland, Riverdale, Maryland, and New Carrollton, Maryland, and won reelection in 1986. He was said to be considering a run at county executive. He took over the annually rotating chairmanship at the start of what was to be a critical election year.
Mr. Herl was described at the time as symbolizing the evolution of county politics, which melded the old Democratic establishment with young families concerned about issues such as schools, growth, crime and roads. He was reported to have built a strong base among his constituents and positioned himself as a coalition builder.
He was called on several missteps, however. In 1984, it was reported that he had used county money to eat at a restaurant that featured nude dancers. The next year, about the time he and his wife, Dee Herl, were divorcing, colleagues pressured him to stop working as a bartender at R.J. Bentley's Filling Station, a University of Maryland hangout where he had been employed for a month.
The following year, there were disclosures that he had used more than $8,500 in campaign funds to lease a car. In 1986, he was fined for driving under the influence of alcohol and with an expired driver's license.
In 1989, he received his bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland and began studying for law school entrance exams.
After he left the council, Mr. Herl worked for clients who included Daniel I. Colton, a developer who had contributed to his campaigns. He said the work did not violate the county ethics law because he was not functioning as a lobbyist.
source: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.obituaries/tree/browse_frm/thread/9ce00fe39711c5cc/33753c95940407d9
Patricia Niemann Woryk, Class of 1960
Patricia Niemann Woryk, a homemaker, died April 10, 2005, of lung cancer at Upper Valley Medical Center in Troy, Ohio, at the age of 62.
Mrs. Woryk was born in Washington DC and graduated from Bladensburg High School in Bowie, Maryland, in 1960. She worked as a secretary with the Department of the Navy before marrying an Air Force enlisted man and had lived in Troy for many years.
She was employed by Hobart Brothers Welding Co. in Troy for eight years. She also worked as a court stenographer for the Miami County, Ohio, juvenile court system for 13 years, and as a secretary for Repacorp Label Products in Tipp City, Ohio, for seven years.
Her marriage to Willard Woryk ended in divorce.
Survivors include three children, Steven Woryk of Troy, Lauren Valz of Powell, Ohio, and Gregory Woryk of Kettering, Ohio; three brothers, Donald Niemann of Jupiter, Florida, Albert Niemann Jr. and Joseph Niemann, both of Davidsonville, Virginia; a sister, Margaret Niemann Zipf of Manassas, Virginia; and three grandchildren.
Washington Post
source: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.obituaries/browse_thread/thread/7c3922660be9c167/e7991734595ed0be
Search Google alt.Obituaries for Bladensburg Alumni