Living Legends of Alexandria is
an ongoing program to identify, honor and chronicle the
people who are making history in Alexandria today.
Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Alexandria and the
Alexandria Gazette Packet, the project was conceived and
is directed by Nina Tisara. Over the last year, a dozen
of the nominees, The Legends of 2008, were selected for
feature articles in the Gazette Packet. They are Engin
Artemel, Donna and Mel Bergheim, Bernard M. Fagelson,
Lillie Finklea and Louise Massoud, Carlton Funn, Arlene
Hewitt, Eula and Melvin Miller, George Pera, Elbert
Ransom, Jane Ring and Charlene Schiff.
All of the
nominees will be honored at a reception, Sunday, Feb. 8,
3-5 p.m. at the Carlyle Club, 411 John Carlyle Street.
Here are their biographical sketches:
ENGIN
ARTEMEL
Engin Artemel sees the 1982 Waterfront
Plan as the highlight of his 10 years as director of
Planning and Community Development for the City of
Alexandria. He has degrees in architecture, urban
planning and civil engineering, and has used all of them
in his long career. While he worked for the City, he and
then-mayor Chuck Beatley set in motion a plan to improve
Alexandria’s waterfront. To educate leaders, and through
them a wider public, Artemel took a group to Europe and
later to other parts of the United States to study how
other waterfront cities used these important locations.
Under his leadership, the City began the long and
continuing process of relocating and removing industrial
uses from prime waterfront land, providing open space
and increased public access, and planning new and better
uses. Artemel is married to Agnes Artemel, a partner in
his international planning and economic development
firm. He has four children.
DONNA and MEL
BERGHEIM
Donna and Mel Bergheim have been
partners for 50 years, working together and individually
to enrich the civic and cultural life of Alexandria.
Donna Bergheim served five years on the Virginia
Commission for the Arts and advocated for arts education
in public schools and for festivals such as the
Alexandria Arts Safari. She helped transform an old
lumber warehouse in Old Town North into MetroStage’s
150-seat professional theater, which is named for her.
Donna Bergheim was a Foreign Service Information Officer
when she married Mel Bergheim in Mexico in 1959. They
raised four children in Alexandria. Donna Bergheim was
an active volunteer in civic and school groups.
Professionally, Mel Bergheim was a Washington Post
reporter, an Alexandria Gazette Packet op-ed columnist
and an editor or writer for several other publications.
He also held senior positions serving federal and local
governments. As a city councilman and vice mayor, Mel
Bergheim led the way in protecting consumers and human
rights, abating air pollution, soil erosion and noise,
acquiring Dora Kelly Nature Park, and providing primary
health care for the poor. He was founding president of
the Alexandria Federation of Civic Associations, headed
citizen efforts to establish an adolescent health clinic
and was influential in requiring Alexandria restaurants
to set aside non-smoking areas.
KATHRYN A.
BROWN
Photographer Kathryn A. Brown has long
worked to advance artistic opportunities in Alexandria.
A former member of the Visual Arts Panel of the
Alexandria Commission for the Arts, Brown is also a
founding member and leader of the Del Ray Artisans, the
Alexandria Arts Forum and the King Street Gardens Park
Foundation. She helped these organizations achieve
financial growth and stability and remains an active
board member. She regularly exhibits her work at Del Ray
Artisans’ shows and other locations, and has
participated in the biannual Art in City Hall exhibits,
which she helped make a reality through her work on the
committee that developed the program. She has been
active in planning and promoting Candidates Nights for
the Arts Forum as a way of focusing politicians on the
importance of art in civic life. She has run a
successful photography business specializing in
architectural and event photography for more than 25
years. Brown is an affiliate member of the Northern
Virginia Chapter of the American Institute of
Architects, who presented her with the Honor Award for
Allied Professional. She is a recipient of the Cultural
Affairs Award from the Alexandria Commission for
Women.
WILLIAM D. EUILLE
William D.
Euille made history in 2003 by becoming the first
African American to serve as mayor in Alexandria’s 254
years of history. A City Council member from 1994 to
2003, he served as vice mayor from 1997 to 2000. A
former chairman of the Northern Virginia Urban League,
Euille also served on the Alexandria School Board from
1974 to 1984, and has been a member of the boards of the
YMCA of Alexandria, NAACP, the Alexandria Boys &
Girls Club, League of Women Voters, Alexandria Symphony
Orchestra, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit
Authority and Northern Virginia Transportation
Commission. Euille was born and raised in Alexandria and
has a degree in accounting from Quinnipiac College in
Connecticut, awarded in 1972. He is the owner of William
D. Euille and Associates, a general contracting firm.
With the goals of prizing diversity and respecting
differences, he has made his vision of "One Alexandria,"
a working reality in the city.
CHARLIE
EURIPIDES
Sometimes a business is so much more.
Over the decades, the Royal Restaurant has been
Alexandria’s prime gathering spot, a place where
families come for Sunday brunch and old friends meet for
lunch, where weddings are planned and city council
campaigns are hashed out. The door is always open at St.
Asaph and Madison. Credit big-hearted proprietor Charlie
Euripides, who has worked at the Royal since he left
Cyprus as a teenager in the 1950s. Eventually, he took
over for two weary uncles when the restaurant was still
on Royal Street. Charlie’s philosophy is simple: work
hard, treat everybody like family, and serve "the kind
of food your mother would put down on the table for
you:" homemade soup, turkey dinners and, by popular vote
over the years, the best breakfast in town. Euripides
and his wife, Barbara, who died in 2001, helped a
half-dozen immigrants settle in Alexandria, employing
them at the restaurant and coaching them with
naturalization studies. One of them still works in the
kitchen. "I love my work. I love my life. I love
Alexandria," said Euripides, who at 75 still puts in 12-
hours days, seven days a week. "I wish I could do
more."
BERNARD M. FAGELSON
At 95,
Bernard M. Fagelson, a native Alexandrian, still serves
as senior counsel at his firm, Fagelson, Schonberger,
Payne and Deichmeister, P.C. A land use attorney,
Fagelson has represented builders, developers, investors
and businesses in zoning, land use and development
cases. Fagelson’s colleagues describe him as the dean of
Alexandria’s land use attorneys. The son of an
Alexandria dairy farmer, Fagelson was the first member
of his family to achieve higher education. He is a
depression-era graduate of the George Washington
University Law School, where he was both class president
and the youngest member of his class. After serving as a
lieutenant in the Navy during World War II, he returned
to Alexandria to practice law in 1946, working for Judge
Robinson Moncure during his first year of practice. He
is a former president of the Alexandria Bar Association
and a director emeritus of Burke and Herbert Bank. He
takes pride in having helped Alexandria grow from a
small southern town to a city where growth and land use
are controlled by law. Attorney Lonnie Rich, who
nominated him, said, "Fagelson is probably most noted
for his sustained civility and graciousness while
practicing in an area of law noted for its
contentiousness."
THOMAS (TJ) FANNON
Native Alexandrian TJ Fannon and his family have
given major support to Inova Alexandria Hospital, the
Alexandria Symphony, the foster care organization
Alexandria’s Child, Senior Services of Alexandria,
Bishop Ireton High School, St. Mary’s Academy,
Alexandria youth baseball (continuous team sponsorship
since inception, plus other support) and the Rotary Club
of Alexandria. A private man, Fannon is reticent about
receiving recognition and engages in many of his
philanthropic acts without great fanfare. The Fannon
family business, which has served Alexandrians for over
120 years, reflects his principles of honesty and fair
dealing.
LILLIE FINKEA and LOUISE
MASSOUD
Lillie Finklea and Louise Massoud ensured
that the Alexandria Freedmen’s Cemetery, a burial ground
for African Americans, was recognized and restored after
generations of neglect. Established by the U.S. Army in
1864, during the Civil War, the cemetery was directly
across from St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery, near where the
George Washington Memorial Parkway (Washington Street)
crosses over the Beltway today. More than 1,800 freedmen
were buried there between 1864 and 1868, when the
federal government abandoned it. Gradually it fell into
disrepair and in time was largely destroyed by new
construction, and then forgotten. In 1997, Finklea and
Massoud read a Washington Post story about this site.
Fearing that what remained of the cemetery would be
destroyed and further desecrated during construction of
the new, wider Woodrow Wilson Bridge, Finklea and
Massoud formed the Friends of Freedmen’s Cemetery. For
the next 10 years the group advocated for memorializing
the sacred ground. They appealed to City officials,
African-American churches, the NAACP and archaeological
and historical preservation groups, slowly building
support. In 2007, the City purchased the office building
and the gas station, tore them down, and rededicated the
site as a cemetery. Archaeologists have discovered
nearly 500 graves and a memorial will be built to
commemorate the Freedmen’s Cemetery for future
generations.
CARLTON FUNN
Carlton Funn
has devoted much of his life to promoting and preserving
the history of African Americans and other minorities,
particularly in Alexandria. Funn’s passion is teaching,
whether in the classroom, in museums or other exhibition
spaces, or in daily contacts with others. Born at 1005
Oronoco Street in 1932, Funn attended Lyles Crouch
Elementary School in the days when it was a segregated
school for black children. After he graduated from
Storer College, a historically black school in Harper’s
Ferry, W.Va., Funn became a teacher himself,
specializing in history. He noted right away that the
textbooks he was given had little accurate history about
African Americans, and he made it his mission to
supplement and improve the information he taught and to
advocate for better textbooks. He also began collecting
information on his own, creating an exhibit promoting
African American heritage and awareness of 28 other
cultures. It has been shown more than 500 times,
traveling to school and community groups in 12 states
over the past 51 years. He is chairman of the Alexandria
Society for the Preservation of Black Heritage, and was
honored in 2008 by the Alexandria Historical Society for
a lifetime of service in promoting African American
heritage through his cultural exhibits.
ARLENE HEWITT
Arlene Hewitt has
devoted more than 42 years to improving health services
in Alexandria, both professionally and as a volunteer.
The Boston native was hired as the first social worker
at Alexandria Hospital in 1967. Always relishing a
challenge, she has initiated or worked on programs for
the well-being of her fellow citizens ever since. Among
her achievements are Alexandria Hospital’s first patient
discharge plan, counseling patients, a treatment program
for alcoholic patients, a fitness program for seniors,
and a city regulation requiring children under 14 to
wear bicycle helmets (the program provided an initial
supply for police officers to distribute from squad
cars). She wrote brochures to educate seniors and new
mothers and the indigent on resources available in the
City, chaired the task force resulting in the Flora
Krause Casey Clinic and is still working on the
executive committee of the Mayor’s Task Force, the
Alexandria Campaign on Adolescent Pregnancy. She raised
awareness of stroke symptoms and accident prevention for
children and succeeded in doubling the number of infants
immunized. Now 78 and retired, Hewitt continues her
volunteer efforts, serving on the Alexandria Public
Health Advisory Commission, First Night Alexandria, and
as a trustee of the Beth El Hebrew Congregation
Permanent Endowment Fund.
SUSAN B. KELLOM
Susan B. Kellom gives generously of her time to
organize and involve Alexandrians in politics and
advocacy for youth, women, and families. A retired U.S.
Army Reserve Military Police officer, Susan Kellom is
married to Ben Kellom, also a retired military officer.
A native of Southampton, Pa., and Dover, Del., Kellom
learned her organizing skills through extracurricular
activities in high school and college and in the U.S.
Army. She has been a member of the Alexandria Commission
for Women since 1997 and served on the Youth Policy
Commission from 1997 to 2004. She was a member of the
Alexandria Human Rights Commission from 1985 until 2004,
serving two terms as chair. She has served on the
Resource Development Board of Healthy Families
Alexandria for nearly eight years. She has been chairman
of the Alexandria Democratic Committee since 1999,
organizing voter forums, debates, outreach activities to
youth and other groups, and achieving a long string of
electoral victories. If she knows of a member of the
community who is ill, she organizes circles of caring
friends to provide meals and transportation, to shop and
run errands, and to stay in touch via phone, visits, and
writing.
JOHN D. KLING
Dr. John D.
Kling grew up in Alexandria, attended George Mason
Elementary School and graduated from St. Stephen’s
School. He graduated from Wake Forest University and in
1984 earned a dental degree from Case Western Reserve
University in Ohio, where he volunteered at a free
dental clinic associated with the Cleveland Clinic.
During a residency in Buffalo, New York, he volunteered
to treat children with special needs and patients at a
Veterans Administration Hospital. His 25-year private
practice in Alexandria emphasizes reconstructive and
cosmetic dentistry, expertise he has voluntarily
provided, through the Give Back A Smile Program, to
women needing reconstructive dentistry after spousal
abuse. Dr. Kling is a past Chair of the Alexandria
Public Health Advisory Commission. He worked with the
Health Department to place protective dental sealants on
the teeth of disadvantaged Alexandria youth and has
provided pro bono work for low-income patients in his
office and at the Northern Virginia Dental Clinic. He
has been an annual sponsor of the Alexandria Walk to
Fight Breast Cancer, a Cub Scout master, and a coach for
Little League Baseball and CYO basketball. He is a
member of the Rotary Club of Alexandria, the Alexandria
Chamber of Commerce, and the Alexandria Dental Society,
of which he is a past president.
MARLIN G.
LORD
Marlin G. Lord is an architect, artist and
civic activist. A former chairman and 20-year member of
the Alexandria Park and Recreation Commission, Lord has
worked to maximize parkland citywide, including in
Potomac Yard. He created a plan and led a campaign to
replace the Monroe Avenue Bridge with a new,
straightened structure, resulting in added contiguous
parkland for Simpson Field and elimination of a traffic
hazard. Lord is a founding member of the Del Ray
Artisans, the Potomac West Business Association (now Del
Ray Business Association), King Street Gardens Park
Foundation and the Northern Virginia Chapter of the
American Institute of Architects. A native of Minnesota,
Lord received a bachelor of arts in architecture (1960)
and a bachelor of architecture (1962) from the
University of Minnesota. He has owned his own
architectural firm since 1986. He has been an active,
contributing resident of Alexandria for 42 years,
serving on numerous City committees and always striving
to improve the quality of life of citizens and benefit
the community as a whole. As an artist, he has exhibited
his work in juried shows at the Art League, the Campagna
Center, the Alexandria Festival of the Arts, Art in City
Hall and Del Ray Artisans.
EULA
MILLER
Eula Miller has been working to improve
the lives of children and fighting for justice and
equality since she was 19 years old. Born in Maxton,
N.C. in 1933, Eula graduated from Bennett College in
Greensboro in 1953. She later earned a master’s degree
in education from the George Washington University.
Moving to Alexandria in 1958 with her husband, she
worked as a schoolteacher until her children were born.
When she returned to teaching, she became involved in
early childhood education, working to improve daycare
centers and the education of childcare providers. As a
liaison between Alexandria City Public Schools and
Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) she helped
put together a degree program for classroom
instructional aides. She stayed at NOVA and became the
head of the Early Childhood Education Program, a
position she still holds. She also created a program to
help teenage mothers continue their education, become
better mothers, and learn to become childcare providers.
She helped Alexandria’s city-run daycare centers for
low-income families achieve national accreditation, and
continues to recruit and train people from disadvantaged
backgrounds to become better childcare
providers.
A. MELVIN MILLER
A former
attorney at the Federal Housing Administration, which
later became the Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), A. Melvin Miller rose to become
director of HUD’s Metropolitan Washington Office and
became a deputy undersecretary in 1977. He was appointed
to the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority in
1970, serving as chair until 1977. He served on the
Alexandria School Board from 1986 to 1993, and as chair
from 1990 to 1992. He was appointed to ARHA again in
2000, and in 2001 became chair, a position he still
holds. He is recognized for his innovative leadership in
finding ways to incorporate replacement public housing
in new development projects that mix market value
housing with public housing. He was also a leader and
spokesman for the Secret Seven, a group of African
American leaders who advocated for equality for all
people in this community during the period of school
integration and the civil rights movement. He often
provided pro bono behind-the-scenes legal advice to
civil rights activists involved in court cases. He
served on the State Council of Higher Education for
eight years beginning in 1971.
JAMES P. MORAN
U.S. Rep. James P. "Jim" Moran is in his 10th
term as a member of Congress, where he represents the
8th District of Virginia. He is a member of the
Appropriations Committee, where he serves on the
Defense, Interior, and Labor, Health and Human Services
subcommittees. Moran began his political career in
Alexandria, where he was elected to City Council in
1979. He served as vice mayor from 1982 to 1984 and was
elected mayor in 1986. In Congress, he has supported
regional transportation solutions, and has led the way
on environmental and women’s issues, technology, fair
trade, and fiscal discipline. He has worked to protect
federal employees and military retirees. He supported
authorizing the replacement of the Woodrow Wilson
Bridge, closing Lorton prison and preventing drug
dealers from living in public housing. He has also been
a strong advocate for reducing harmful emissions from
the region’s aging coal-fired power plants, preserving
green space and restoring local streams such as Four
Mile Run.
MIKE OLIVER
Mike Oliver
thoroughly enjoys living and volunteering in Alexandria.
He supports T.C. Williams sports teams, cultural and
community events, and nonprofit organizations such as
Friends of the Alexandria Mental Health Center, the
Alexandria 250th Birthday Celebration, the George
Washington Birthday Celebration Committee and ALIVE!
(ALexandrians InVolved Ecumenically). Oliver is a past
president of ALIVE!, a 40-year-old organization of
volunteers from religious congregations and the
community. ALIVE! provides a 16-bed shelter, low-cost
early childhood education, financial assistance for
rent, utilities, medical care and other critical needs;
emergency food and deliveries of donated furniture and
housewares. Oliver and his wife, Linda, help make those
deliveries, personifying the spirit of all those who
make ALIVE! such a critical part of Alexandria’s safety
net for the needy. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas
morning, Oliver enjoys performing as Santa throughout
Alexandria. He accepts no fees for this, but steers
those who wish to make a donation to the ALIVE! Child
Development Center. Mike and Linda Oliver graduated from
West Virginia University in 1961. They have two
daughters who attended Alexandria public schools, during
which time Oliver presided over PTAs and, from 1984 to
1987, the PTA Council. He retired in 2000 from the U.S.
Department of Education, where he was a student
financial aid specialist.
REDELLA S. "DEL"
PEPPER
Redella S. "Del" Pepper has served on
City Council since 1985. She is the longest-serving
council member in the City’s history. Pepper has served
as vice mayor from 1996 to 1997, 2003 to 2006, and 2007
to the present. Pepper has always devoted herself
full-time to council service, attending as many
community events as possible and taking a first-hand
look at issues of interest to her constituents. As a
council member, she serves as co-chair of the Mirant
Community Monitoring Group and the Norfolk Southern
Community Monitoring Group and chair of the Facility
Naming Committee. She is the mayor’s alternate on the
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG).
The immediate past president of COG, she serves on the
COG Climate Change Steering Committee and is a board
member of the Metropolitan Washington Air Quality
Committee. She represents City Council on the Alexandria
Commission on Aging, the Commission on Information
Technology, the Alexandria Environmental Action Plan
Steering Committee, the Woodrow Wilson Bridge
Coordinating Committee, the Mayor’s BRAC Committee,
Alexandria Works! Coalition, the Walk to Fight Breast
Cancer Committee, and the Historic Alexandria Resource
Commission Facilities Committee. She is treasurer and
Operations Committee chair of the Northern Virginia
Regional Committee. Former City Manager Vola Lawson, who
nominated her, credits Pepper with leading the way in
the City’s adoption of information technology advances.
Pepper also serves on many nonprofit community boards
and is affiliated with service and environmental
organizations. A graduate of Grinnell College, she and
her husband, Dr. F.J. Pepper, live in the West End.
GEORGE PERA
George Pera came to
Alexandria to serve as pastor of Westminster
Presbyterian Church in 1980 and quickly became involved
in the community, following his belief in service to
others. "You can’t just point to what needs doing," he
believes. "You lead by doing." Twenty-five years ago,
Pera created a staff position at his church to advocate
for and assist senior adults, a fairly novel idea then.
As the population has aged, this idea has spread, and in
his retirement, Pera, still serving as pastor emeritus
of Westminster Presbyterian, has remained active in
working with seniors. He is a past president of Senior
Services of Alexandria, an organization that promotes
independence and self-sufficiency through providing
accessible, comprehensive and affordable services that
permit people to age with dignity while remaining in
their community. He was also a co-founder of Agenda
Alexandria, an organization that presents public forums
on issues of import to citizens. He is a trustee of the
Inova Alexandria Hospital Foundation, has served as
president of the board of Elder Crafters, and chairs the
Inova Alexandria Hospital Pastoral Care Fund. Pera and
his wife, Nancy, have two grown children. They have been
married 48 years.
ALICE QUINT
A native
of Philadelphia, Alice Quint first came to Northern
Virginia as an Army wife in 1944, living in Arlington
with her new husband. In the next 20 years, she moved 26
times, finally coming to roost in Alexandria in 1959
after a military tour in Korea. The couple has two sons
and five grandchildren. Now 87, Quint has been an active
volunteer for most of her adult life. She was a Pink
Lady the first year Alexandria Hospital opened in its
new home on Seminary Road. She volunteered at Whitman
Walker Clinic in Washington, working as their food
purchaser for three years, good experience for her work
with ALIVE! (ALexandrians Involved Ecumenically) in the
1980s and ’90s. She was the food purchaser for ALIVE!
for 18 years, and also organized, collected and
delivered food and other necessities from local
individuals, businesses and food banks to the City’s
neediest. Active in her place of worship, Agudas Achim
Congregation, she has served as president of the temple
sisterhood. She knit scarves and hats for Carpenter’s
Shelter clients, and now knits warm hats for premature
babies. A painter since she was a young girl, Quint took
up sculpture on her 72nd birthday.
ELBERT
RANSOM, JR.
The Rev. Elbert Ransom Jr. has spent
a lifetime working for civil rights and equal access,
beginning with his student days in Alabama, where he
studied for two years at the Alabama State College for
Negroes. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Xavier
University in New Orleans in 1959. He came to Washington
and worked for the National Urban Coalition from 1967 to
1970 and for the District of Columbia government on
urban renewal and housing issues from 1970 to 1991. In
time he went back to school, earning a master’s degree
in divinity from Howard University in 1989 and a doctor
of divinity from Wesley Theological Seminary in 1995. He
served as associate pastor of the Alfred Street Baptist
Church from 1984 to 1997. He worked in various positions
in Alexandria city government from 1997 to 2002,
including serving as special assistant to the City
Manager. His biggest challenge was coordinating the Call
to Community initiative, a forum for racial and cultural
dialogue to encourage cohesion in this diverse
community. He also ran a mentoring support program for
prison inmates at the Alexandria Adult and Juvenile
Detention Centers. He is the author of "I Shall Not Pass
This Way Again," a book about his life, and is working
on another book. He and his wife Louise have been
married for 40 years and have three
children.
JANE RING
Jane Ring doesn’t
just join organizations. She works hard for them. As a
lover of music, she joined the Symphony Orchestra League
of Alexandria more than 20 years ago. One of its major
fundraisers over the years, she has chaired SOLA’s
symphony ball auction, served as co-president,
maintained the SOLA database, run their peanut sale
fundraiser, and helped run the organization’s
scholarship competition. SOLA named her their Volunteer
of the Year in 1997. At her church, Westminster
Presbyterian, Ring sang in the choir, plays piano and
organ duets with the music director, and has been a
member of the English handbell choir since ‘70. She has
served three terms as an elder, been co-superintendent
of the church, president of the women’s group, and
provided services to members through the Compassion
Guild. She was the church’s business administrator for
eight years, helps provide food each month for
Carpenter’s Shelter, and has chaired countless
committees. In the community, she is active in politics
and has provided music activities at day care centers,
schools and other groups. With her husband, Connie, she
is a member of the Inova Alexandria Hospital Foundation,
and she has been a member of the hospital’s auxiliary,
the TWIG, since 1968. She and Connie have four grown
children.
CHARLOTTE ROSS
For more than
44 years, Charlotte Ross has helped protect Alexandria
school children through her work as a school crossing
guard for the Alexandria Police Department. She began
her work in 1964 at MacArthur Elementary School but
switched to Polk School, at the corner of Polk and
Pegram streets, in 1965, when the new school opened, and
has been there ever since. She not only makes sure that
children, parents and grandparents cross safely to
school, she is a role model for doing one’s best at
whatever job one assumes in life. Now 82, Ross has
seldom taken sick days, though she had to take three
months off in 2005 when she suffered a hand amputation
as the result of a car accident. Assaulted and knocked
down the stairs by a thief on her own doorstep while
returning from church in 2007, Ross got stitched up in
the emergency room and went right back to work within a
week. Ross is a deacon at Fairlington Presbyterian
Church, has been a block captain in her
Brookville-Seminary Valley Civic Association, worked on
their Mile-Long Yard Sale, and participated in the
Neighborhood Watch Program. She is an example of the
many Alexandrians whose steadfast contributions make the
city a good place to live.
CHARLENE
SCHIFF
Since 1988, when, with Mayor Jim Moran’s
encouragement, Alexandria organized its first Days of
Remembrance ceremony, Charlene Schiff has worked with
the committee, Chairman Allan Labowitz and City staff on
the annual commemoration. She has always found the
keynote speakers. "I have a mandate, a duty, to honor
the memory of the 11 million people lost in the
Holocaust — 6 million Jews and 5 million others," she
said. Schiff was born in Poland in 1929, the daughter of
a professor. After the German invasion of Poland in
1941, she became an orphan; her father was arrested and
killed in 1941, her mother and sister in 1942. She
barely survived, hiding in the forests. When World War
II ended, she spent three years in displaced person
camps before being sent to Ohio to live with an aunt.
She attended Ohio State University, where she met her
future husband when he visited his cousins. He served 29
years as an Army officer. They had a son, Stephen, who
became a physician. They lived in Europe and Asia as
well as across the United States, and were often
separated by hardship tours, including Vietnam. In 1979,
Ed Schiff retired and they settled in Alexandria. In
1985, Charlene Schiff began telling her Holocaust
memories — first to groups at the Children’s Museum in
Washington, then to confirmation classes at Agudas Achim
Congregation and elsewhere. The couple became actively
involved with the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum when it opened in 1993, and she continues to
travel for its Speakers Bureau. Until his death in 2008,
she and her husband regularly visited wounded soldiers
from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts at Walter Reed
Army Hospital. She has two grandsons.
PAM ST.
CLAIR
Pam St. Clair was a guiding force in the
creation of the King Street Gardens Park. The
award-winning park provides a restful, history-filled
gateway to the oldest section of the city. It offers
places to sit and a space to hold a farmer’s market and
other outdoor events that enliven upper King Street’s
urban landscape. The first chair of the King Street
Gardens Park Foundation, St. Clair helped set the
course, always keeping the focus on the artists’ design.
St. Clair also worked with Barbara Joseph and others to
organize Christmas in April in Alexandria (now
Rebuilding Together). This organization repairs housing
for low-income and elderly homeowners, sustai