Bob Bosley Was A True Community Volunteer

This tribute was written by Craig Cano and we are honored to share the good works of Bob Bosley with the community. Our condolences to his family in their time of grief.

Robert M. Bosley, 82, a resident of Rockville for 53 years, passed away at home surrounded by loved ones on January 14, 2011, after a battle with cancer.

Bob was born Dec. 10, 1928, in Baltimore County. He grew up in Emory Grove and attended Franklin High School in Reisterstown. Following graduation, at 17 years of age he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served with the 8th Army in Tokyo/Yokohama.

Following his military service, Bob was employed by JC Penney in Westminster, MD before working 42 years as an insurance agent with Home Beneficial Life. He was the most-recognized qualified sales agent in the company’s history, achieving that status 38 times, and he served as president of the Suburban Maryland Life Underwriters Association.

Bob was a charter member of the Westminster Jaycees and a Jaycee of the Year in both Westminster and Rockville.

A long-time member and head usher at Rockville United Methodist Church, Bob lived a life of service. He volunteered to help others through several organizations, including Lifeline at Suburban Hospital, the Rockville HELP Food Bank, Metro Maryland Ostomy Association and the American Cancer Society. He received numerous awards, including Volunteer of the Year, and was president emeritus of board of directors of the American Cancer Society of Montgomery County.

As a member of the Rockville Lions Club for 40 years, Bob served as president and in numerous other leadership roles, was twice named Lion of the Year, and became a Lion of the Years. He was a multiple recipient of a Melvin Jones Fellow, the highest recognition bestowed by Lions Club International Foundation for “dedicated humanitarian service.” He also held several leadership positions in Lions District 22-C and was named to the district’s Honor Roll.

Bob helped launch several new Lions Clubs, including Montgomery County Latino Club and D.C. Special Olympics Club, which in December honored him as “Guiding Lion Emeritus” with a presentation of a Gold Medal from the 2003 Special Olympics World Games in Ireland, where Bob had helped perform vision screening for athletes from around the world.

For several years, Bob worked closely with the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver at a summer camp, held on her estate in Potomac, to give children with intellectual disabilities an opportunity to interact with typical children and other volunteers.

Bob was preceded in death by parents Anna Hagan and Robert M. Bosley, Sr. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Evelyn Franck Bosley; sisters Marie King of Westminster and Joan Leppo of Hanover, PA.; daughter, Sharon Crandol (Thomas) of Crofton MD; son Greg Bosley (Laura) of Westminster; three grandchildren, Stacy Webb (James), Ashley Paesch (Bo) and Robert T. Bosley; and two great grandchildren, Remington and Riley Figliozzi.

A memorial service will be held January 29 at 2 p.m. at Rockville United Methodist Church, 112 W. Montgomery Ave., Rockville, MD 20850.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Bob’s name may be made to the church or the Rockville Lions Club Foundation, P.O. Box 1252, Rockville, MD 20849.

Bill Hanna Remembered

At last night’s Mayor and Council Meeting, a moment of silence was observed for former Mayor Bill Hanna (89) who died on Saturday, January 15, 2011.

William E. Hanna, Jr. served as Rockville mayor from 1974 until 1982 when he was elected to the Montgomery County Council. He then served on the County Council until losing his seat in 1998. He played a role in creating the I-270 corridor and the County’s Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit (MPDU) program.

Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio emphasized “He was a treasured mayor to the City.” She explained he was responsible for the City’s logo and flag. He even decided we needed a City bird so he promoted the “rock hawk”. “He was quite a fellow.”

Councilmember Piotr Gajewski added “Bill Hanna was great supporter of the arts and I worked with him when he moved onto the County Council. He was a pioneer in a fashion and just a number one supporter of the arts in the community for many years.”

Council President, Valerie Erving, provides a description of Mr. Hanna’s work in the Council’s Press Release:

Bill Hanna was a great public servant. As a member of the Montgomery County Council from 1982 to 1998, he was a leader in fields ranging from economic development to the arts. The County’s top ranking in biotech, in particular, owes much to his vision. He was a leader as well as Mayor of Rockville from 1974 to 1982 and as a senior federal official at the Social Security Administration and NASA. His military career, starting with his service in World War II, was equally distinguished. We join Mr. Hanna’s family and friends in mourning his loss and remembering his extraordinary contributions to our nation and our community.

The press release goes on to detail more of Mr. Hanna’s accomplishments:

Mr. Hanna was president of the County Council three times during his 16-year tenure. During his four terms as Mayor of Rockville, the city twice earned “All-America City” awards.

As a County Councilmember, he was a leader in providing affordable housing and established a catastrophic health insurance plan for employees—the first such plan for public employees in the nation. He sponsored the development district concept for underwriting of needed infrastructure in emerging communities that required developers, not homeowners, to pay for the needed infrastructure. He strongly supported the Art in Public Places program and the Commission on the Humanities.

Mr. Hanna served as vice president National Institute of Public Management and as president of the Maryland Municipal League in 1974-75. He was a member of the board of directors of the Washington Council of Governments.

In a candidate questionnaire that he provided to The Washington Post while running for re-election in 1996, Mr. Hanna wrote, “I do believe that lower- and moderate-income housing shortage is a fundamental ill affecting our county. This shortage is reflected in our declining labor availability, congested roads and high cost of market housing.”

Mr. Hanna is survived by his wife of 62 years, Annette; seven daughters; 15 grandchildren and two great-granddaughters.

Family will receive friends at St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Thursday from 3 to 5 PM and 7 to 9 PM and where Mass of Christian Burial will be offered Friday, January 21, at 10:30 AM.

Interment will be at Arlington National Cemetery with Full Military Honors at a later date since Mr. Hanna served in the Army during World War II and also served in the Air Force Reserve and Air Force Auxiliary.

Granville Paules Lived His Dream

Granville and Diane Paules

Granville Paules, a long time and very active member of our Rockville community died at Shady Grove Hospital on January 4, 2011 after fighting bladder cancer for two years. His involvement in the life of our community and his accomplishments with our nation’s space program will be long and fondly remembered by all.

His demeanor was always calm and patient. Everyone knew him to be soft-spoken, caring, and positive in all that he did and the list of his endeavors is quite extensive.

In Rockville he served on the Planning Commission and the Board of the Sister City Corporation. He was Scoutmaster of Troop 1450 at College Gardens for a few years until his son, Skip, earned his Eagle Scout award. At the same time he earned a MBA from the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

Granville also served as Senior Warden of the Vestry of Christ Episcopal Church, where he was active with outreach efforts. Christ Church’s minister, John McDuffy, described Granville as “a kindly, generous man, who was greatly compassionate.” The community recognized this and he received the Good Neighbor Award from the City of Rockville for joining together with others to help a neighbor. These same neighbors have been wonderful during his illness, demonstrating the true sense of being good neighbors to each other.

Many in Rockville might not know of his extensive career with the space program. After graduating from the University of Texas, Granville Paules became a missile officer in the Navy while dreaming about the stars. This technical background prepared him for work in the space business. During the NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, Granville was interviewed extensively and demonstrated his excitement about the space program:

I was a naval officer on the ship down in Australia when [John H.] Glenn [Jr.] flew over in the first Mercury capsules, and we were over by Perth, Australia, where the tracking station was, and we saw some of the NASA support people and astronauts that went out to that tracking station. That just kind of got me more hyped.

In 1964, he wrote a job description and handed it to a friend who worked at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. At that time the Johnson Space Center hadn’t even opened and offices were spread all over town. When they received his description they called and made an offer for a job. The write-up turned out to be really close to what officially became a Guidance Officer’s position dealing with analysis, real-time analysis, command and control. Imagine writing down your dream and receiving the opportunity to make it a reality. He resigned from the Navy but continued his Naval Service through the Reserves and retired as a Captain.

Granville was a NASA Flight Controller at the Johnson Space Center Mission Control Center and was the Primary Guidance Officer during all of the unmanned Apollo missions and all but a couple of the manned missions. He was in “The Trench” for the moon-landing of Apollo 11. During the Apollo 13 crisis he served as a member of the flight operations team and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for bringing the astronauts home safely.

As for landing on the moon, during the Oral History Project, Granville was as amazed as anyone about the timing:

I made it my whole lifetime to be dedicated to getting to the Moon by the year 2000. That was what my goal was. I figured we could probably do it, and reading all of the Willy Ley and all of the science fiction guys, they figured you could make it by 2000. Here we were back in the early 60s. ―Yeah, we’ve got 40 years. We’ll make it.‖ Made it by [19]’69. [Laughs] But it was a really compressed schedule.

Although the story is long, here is Granville’s full account of situation in The Trenches during the moon landing:

Well, the landing on the Moon, now, we’d gone through [Apollo] 8, and that was really exciting, so you were kind of past the really hype of the first time around the moon. [Apollo] 10, everybody was pretty confident that the LM was going to work well, so you weren’t as nervous about things not working well. But there’s nothing like that first time when [Neil A.] Armstrong goes down to land, you know.

I had launched it. I was the lead Launch Guidance Officer, and I was really paying a lot of attention all through the phase till it got to the Moon, making sure when they did comparisons between the spacecraft guidance system and the LM guidance system that they were still working well; we didn’t have any problems with the LM, and it was going to work well when they took off. Then when you separate in orbit, after you get to the Moon and they separate and you start doing maneuvers with the LM, you’ve got a lot of chances to look at it and make sure the systems are going to work right.

Well, I was on with Stephen Bales for the actual landing cycle. I was what was called Yaw then, and again I worried about the commanding to the LM, the loads, the landing site information, all that sort of stuff. As they started landing, the alarm—you’ve probably heard about all the alarms going off and so on. Kranz has probably talked a lot about this. It’s been documented in many books, the sequence of details.

But what happened is we had run into this in simulation where the computer software actually behaved the same way in a simulation similar, not exactly, but similar. What happened is the computer is trying to do too much, and it gets overloaded in this internal minor loop, and it got locked up, and it sends off this alarm, which says, ―I’m too busy. I’m going to do this.‖ So what they had to do when that happened—it actually happened on Apollo 11 as you were coming down that a similar alarm went off.

So what we had checked out with the simulation, and we’d done a lot of work after that sim kind of blew up on us in the second week of June, we had MIT run a whole lot of other checks to see if we had to fix the software on the spacecraft or do something differently. Well, by that time it was too late to really make any changes that anybody was going to be confident you’d get in and get right without screwing something else up. So we flew with it that way.

What happened is the alarm went off as they were coming down; they had the same thing. The radar was trying to do this, and the com [communication] system was trying to do something else, and so all they had to do was flip a switch that turned off the search for a particular function, and that relaxed the computer, constrained the computer settled down and was doing the right thing. So everything was going real well as they came in

Now, the really exciting difference was, of course, the actual landing, but what I always remember when I’m sitting there—and now by this time I’ve been through a lot of missions and was feeling pretty confident that you can get through anything. But Armstrong comes down to land, and you’re sitting there and you’re listening to it, and the guy behind us is counting out the number of seconds of fuel left before abort.

Now, there’s something as they’re coming down where their velocity coming down toward the Moon is so high—it is at a certain level or higher—that if they were to abort at any point in that stretch, if they had to abort at any point in that stretch while they’re going this fast, then that fuel left in the spacecraft to take them back up—they abort and drop the bottom part and fly back up with the LM module—they don’t have enough fuel to actually make it back into orbit, and so it’s called a little stretch of the ―dead man’s curve.‖ You really don’t want to get down into that stretch. So you really want to slow down. It’s just kind of a curve. You try to keep them above that curve, so their approach velocity slows them down, and then they sort of hover. They’re not really supposed to hover much. They’re supposed to go down and slow down and stop.

Well, Armstrong goes down, and he sits there, and then you hear him just hovering. He’s wandering around the spacecraft just above the surface of the Moon, and afterwards it turned out there were boulder fields and all kinds of things. He wasn’t sure he wanted to put the wheels down on that and have it tip over on him or something. So he just hovered around; it’s like he’s humming away. You didn’t hear him humming, but you could just sort of sense that must have been what was going through his mind after it was all over.

The guy behind us is counting the fuel down, and it was down to the point now you’re past all this threat of dead man’s curves and everything else, but he hadn’t landed, and we were down to like eight seconds of fuel left—eight seconds. Well, it turned out when they finished measuring it, it was like more than that. It was thirteen or fourteen seconds, which seems like an eternity when you’re doing some of this stuff. But it didn’t seem like much to all of us in the Control Center while we were listening. So the only voice you heard was the guy behind us counting the thing down.

In that Control Center there’s usually a background hum of voices talking, people talking, you’re talking to the guy behind you. Not on the loops, but it’s just kind of quiet talk between people, flight controllers, while you’re doing things. Or somebody talking on this loop to a guy, not the Flight Director loop, but to one of your support guys in the back room. So there’s always the hum of voices; not loud, but there’s something going on.

Not during this phase. When he was landing, it got so quiet in there that it was just like they had turned off all the electricity and all the people, and everybody was holding their breath, literally. Everybody held their breath; I did. And Charley Parker was sitting behind us at that point. He was our Branch Chief, and he was sitting behind us, and we were all sitting there in that last probably 20 or 30 seconds. I’ll bet you nobody breathed, and this guy, the only thing you heard was this monotonous, ―22, 21, 20…‖

Finally when he said, ―Touchdown,‖ you could hear everybody breathe. [Laughs] It was really funny, like a big inhale. [Demonstrates] It was a real experience. So that was really important to all of us. Then you go through the quick countdown to make sure that the LM’s working right. You don’t want to abort right then if you don’t have to. They got settled in, and everything went fine after that. That was a pretty straightforward mission. That was a good mission. Enjoyed it. And, what do you for an encore after you do that?

If you have ever wondered about whether the movie, Apollo 13 was accurate, here’s part of Granville’s thoughts about it and Apollo 13:

I did the Apollo 13 launch, got it on its way, and then was off the console. I figured I was done. Then, they had NASA Select, which was always either a radio channel or a TV channel you could watch or listen to, and I always had it on when I was home. Well, I was home when I heard that something had happened. Then I listened to it for probably 20 minutes, maybe, as soon as something had happened.

They usually had the public affairs guy talking about what’s going on, and I was listening to what—they actually played the crew loop. You could hear part of it. Then I would hear the interpretation of, ―Well, the crew was asking are we going to be able to go to the Moon, and ―Well, we’ll get back to you.

It was clear from what I was hearing there was no way. These guys, it was serious, and quit worrying about going to the Moon, guys. You’d better start worrying about getting back, seriously. You could tell if you’d been in the business at all, that there was a really serious problem. So I called the console over there. They have an outside line, and you can call. I called over, and Charley Parker answers the phone. He said, ―Why don’t you just come on over.

So I came over, and then by that time they had pulled Kranz’s shift off, and they were all locked up, starting to debug what they thought happened and figure out—he just created that standalone team that stayed with that, that sort of offline team, throughout the whole mission, for the rest of the mission timeline. Bales was on that group; John [W.] Aaron; the usual—Kranz’s first-line team was already pulled off to do that.

So they took all the flight controllers and put them into the three other operating teams. So you were mixed with people you’d probably never worked on a particular mission with, necessarily, although generally the procedures and all that sort of thing were identical. You knew what to do, and you knew what they were talking about when they talked about this, that, or the other. So it didn’t matter. It was just a matter of you’d end up with—I think I ended up with [Milton L.] Windler’s team as the Flight Director. We ended up with different phases, each of us working—you’re always worried about making sure they stayed on a safe return trajectory. On the trench; that was our worry.

Other people worried about systems problems, things that would run out of resources. You probably read the book or saw all the specifics of how people came up with very creative ways to extend life support systems and that sort of thing. Well, just the way I remember it, I guess maybe I put it in here.

People ask me a lot after the Apollo 13 movie came out, ―Well, how close was that to what really happened?

To me, the movie was really well done, in terms of being factual about things, but I said the only reaction I could have if you asked me that is, ―It did a really great job of recreating what really happened on the mission, but in the case of when you’re sitting there, we just didn’t know how it was going to turn out.‖ Nobody wanted it to go badly, but you just didn’t know. You thought, each time you got something fixed, ―Ah!

But then something else happened. It was just amazing how many strings of things caused a problem.
But one that didn’t show up much in the movie, that I thought was really important, was the fresh water situation. Remember, a couple of the crew got sick. Well, one of the problems was they had bladder infections, and the doctors were really after them to drink water. Well, it turns out water is also the coolant for the electronics, and when they turned all the electronics off to the bare minimum, where you had one radio that was turned on, but all the rest of it was turned off, so the spacecraft starts cooling down, and it gets colder and colder and colder.

Because the electronics are usually on, and there’s’ enough electronics going on that it keeps the spacecraft warm. So that was part of it; it was kind of a closed cycle. What happened, they were getting cold, and they couldn’t talk. Now that was pretty well done in the movie, I think, but actually, they had to bite their tongue because they couldn’t talk. Their teeth would chatter. I could hear [James A.] Lovell. You could just tell he’d just bite his tongue so he could talk without having his teeth chatter. They were down in the low 50 and high 40. They were all really cold. But they refused to drink water. The doctors started saying, ―Look, guys.

They were preserving the water, because they knew as soon as they turned the electronics on, they only had so much water. The fuel cells created water, and when the fuel cells were gone, you lost all your water supply on the spacecraft side. On the LM side, it was only designed to handle two people for a shorter period of time. Well, they stretched it out into days of living there. So they knew, Lovell and the crew, knew that as soon as they started turning things on to warm up, they were going to boil off the water, and then they wouldn’t have any more water to cool the electronics so then they really needed them. That water normally would have been their water supply to drink and mix food.

Well, they weren’t drinking it; they were preserving it. What happened is—that’s why I think the movie didn’t really pick that up very well—is the doctors got on it. Dr. [Charles A. ―Chuck‖] Berry, he actually got on the loop and was chewing out Lovell that they had to drink more, because as soon as you get dehydrated, you start getting delirious, and then you can’t do anything. You’re really in trouble. So he really had to lean on Lovell to get him to drink water.

They finally agreed to drink more water, and that turned out to be a good thing, but everybody was—they were looking at the water profile. How much water is left, and are they going to have enough to do what they had to do? So that never showed up as much of a big deal, but it was a really big deal. Everybody in the Control Center knew that if that water level kept going down, they were going to be in trouble with the electronics or they were going to be in trouble with delirium or whatever. So water was a real problem, and it didn’t show up that much in the movie, I don’t think. But everything else was pretty well done.

After leaving NASA, Granville worked for the Department of Transportation in 1971 where is advanced the state of transportation systems planning using emerging desk top computer capabilities. Then in 1985 he returned to NASA, The Washington Post obituary details his extensive work on several projects which earned him the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. Altogether he served as a senior level manager for the federal government for over 40 years.

When he retired from NASA in 2006, he took a position with the Kelly, Anderson and Associates as a Principal for Aerospace Services, served as a board member of the Open Geospatial Consortium, and Director of the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Geospatial Remote Sending Service.

When my Cub Scout Pack 928 held its first Space Derby a few years ago, Granville came to speak to the boys about how to design their spacecrafts, hoping to usher in a new generation amazed by outer space and the engineering possibilities . We will all miss him greatly.

His wife Diane and children, Skip and Allison, invite the community to a celebration of his life at Christ Episcopal Church Rockville this Saturday, January 15, 2011 at 3 PM. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his honor to Christ Episcopal Church’s outreach and social ministries.

Scout Leader Doug McHale Leaves A Legacy

Photo of Doug McHale from Tom Christiano

On Monday morning, September 20, 2010, Doug McHale, a resident of Twinbrook and dedicated Boy Scout leader lost his fight with brain and lung cancer. He spent his last days at Casey House in Rockville surrounded by his family.

Mr. McHale served in combat duty in Vietnam. The type of brain cancer he had was very indicative of exposure to Agent Orange which he experienced during the war.

He was the former Scoutmaster of Troop 447 in Rockville from 1998 to 2005. He also served as a District Scouter and trainer.  He upheld the highest standards of Scouting and marshalled many scouts to become Eagles, the highest award in scouting.

This past summer during the last Eagle Scout Ceremony he would officiate, he gave the Oath and the Charge to Alex Opryzsko. Although he was struggling with his illness, he still found the strength to support this young man he had helped since he first joined scouting. When he arrived he took one look at Alex’s Military Low Quarter shoes and announced he was glad he didn’t need to polish those anymore as he did during his military service.

Alex’s fondest memory was of a knot tying contest between Mr. McHale and Nick Lopreiato. Mr McHale was the absolute best at knots. They raced to see who could tie the seven basic knots the quickest and Nick failed. He then trained for a few months and wound up winning. He challenged the boys to push them to succeed.

Current Troop 447 Scoutmaster, Tim Christiano, knows how much Mr. McHale has meant to the Scouting program. He continued to serve as a merit badge counselor and attended campouts and summer camp.

His passing is a huge loss for Scouting and Troop 447 in particular. He was a tremendous part of our history and our present program. He will be greatly missed.

Marilyn Green, who’s son Daniel is in Troop 447, explained Mr. McHale’s importance in the life of her son and many others.

My son is proud that Doug considered him one of his Eagle Scouts. The impact he has had on so many boys’ lives will never be fully known. He also spent years training people in pool safety, CPR, and first aid. We’ll never know how many lives his training saved.

Both his sons, Kyle and Kevin, attained the highest award of Eagle Scout under his guidance. They also served as Senior Patrol Leaders, which demonstrates the respect they earned from their fellow scouts and their ability to lead a troop of peers.

This past summer, Troop 447 visited Camp Resica Falls. Coincidentily this was the camp where Mr. McHale spent his summers as a youth and worked at as a counselor. His sons, although adults now,  joined the Troop to share this special place with him one last time. The current Boy Scouts collected bark and wrote “Thank You From Troop 447″ on separate pieces which they tied together with rope like a ladder and hung from the top of an extremely large bonfire held in his honor.

On a personal level, he was the District Unit Commissioner for my Cub Scout Pack 928, which means he visited my Pack and advised me on how to be a quality unit and attain the highest standards. His guidance, stories, and training always made us better prepared. During one of our Pack’s family dinners he explained that when his wife broke her arm, his son had jumped into action with the first aid knowledge he had learned in scouting. At the hospital, medical personnel did exactly what his son had done. His son realized the only difference was in the quality of their supplies.

Mr. McHale saw the positive results of the scouting program for the boys he had trained and knew its value for their lives. His volunteer service touched hundreds of youth and adults throughout the years and his legacy will live on through all of them.

A remembrance gathering will be held for him this Saturday, September 25, at 5:00 p.m. at American Legion Post 86 (2013 Viers Mill Road, Rockville. ) Doug was a member of the American Legion. He will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, October 25, 2010.

If you are willing, Doug requested a donation to one of the following be made in lieu of flowers:

Boy Scouts of America: National Area Council
Fischer House Foundation
Montgomery Hospice – Casey House

Former Rockville City Council Member, School Board Member Stephen N. Abrams Passes Away

In addition to Carl Henn, another significant Rockville person passed away Sunday: Stephen N. Abrams, who was 67, served on the city council for five terms (1980-89) and served on the Montgomery County School board multiple times (1992-96, 1998-02, 2004-08).

According to his obituary in the Gazette:

Abrams was diagnosed with glioblastoma while visiting his daughters early in the year in New York, his friend Alvin Lorman said in a statement released Sunday on Abrams’ death. . . .

Survivors include his wife of 39 years, Judy Goldscheider Abrams of Potomac; daughters Elisia Abrams of New York, N.Y., and Jennifer Stier of Brooklyn, N.Y.; son-in-law David Stier, and granddaughter Sidney Stier.

Montgomery County Public Schools superintendent Jerry Weast said:

Steve Abrams was a tireless and relentless advocate for the students of Montgomery County and a true believer in enhancing the academic ability of all children. During his years on the Montgomery County Board of Education, Steve had the ability to look at issues from every side and spark meaningful discussions about structural changes in education. He was a forward-looking, out-of-the-box thinker that helped Montgomery County move its schools into the 21st century through the use of innovation and technology.

Services will be held for Steve at Congregation Har Shalom on Tuesday, August 3 at noon.

Carl Henn Passes Away After Lightning Strike [Updated]

Carl Henn

[Updated; see end for description.] [Go here for a recap of Carl's memorial.]

Rockville has lost a good friend, a tireless advocate, and an important voice.

Carl Henn passed away today at the Washington Hospital Center after injuries sustained during Sunday’s extreme storm.

Carl was apparently struck by lightning while participating in the King Farm Garden Club.

According to one account, when the storm hit, garden club participants ran to cars for shelter. When they emerged, they found Carl lying unconscious, apparently a victim of lightning though no one had seen the strike. After CPR and initial calls to 911 were unsuccessful, local residents took him to Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in a sport utility vehicle. From there, he was flown to the intensive care unit at the Washington Hospital Center.

Carl lived in Rockville for more than 20 years. He was a frequent contributor to Rockville Central (many of his articles stimulated record-breaking comment trails) and ran for Rockville city council in the last two election cycles and in 2001. He was known, among other things, as an advocate for eco-friendly sustainable living and for increasing locally-based community life. He was a key driver behind Rockville’s community gardens.

Carl is survived by his wife Carol and daughters Jessica and Allison.

When we have information about a memorial service, we will pass it on.

Please hold his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Farewell, Carl.

P.S. One of my favorite memories of Carl is the wonderful energy he brought to his City Council races. That sense is captured very well in this video he made for his 2007 run, which but for a handful of votes would have been successful:

[Updated: Added clarification that Carl ran three times for city council -- 2001, 2007, and 2009. Added language to make clear that lightning strike was not seen.]