<sh>Helen Lee Wasson Coulter
<bt>Helen Lee Wasson Coulter, 95, formerly of Alexandria, Va., died Oct. 26 at her home in St. Anthony, Minn. She was preceded in death by husbands, Robert C. Wasson and Milo Daniel Coulter.
She was born May 14, 1909 in Morris, Minn. She enlisted in the United States Navy on June 25, 1943 in Dallas, Texas as an apprentice seaman. She was discharged on Sept. 24, 1945 as an Aviation Metalsmith, 3C in Corpus Christi Texas. She served in the Bronx, N.Y. and in Atlanta, Georgia. Her military service has been documented at the Women in Military Service to America Memorial in Arlington.
Shortly after the war, she and Robert Wasson built one of the first homes in the well-wooded Tauxemont community of Mt. Vernon. She also lived in River Towers for several years before moving to Minneapolis. She graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1950 with a degree in Home Economics. She worked for many years as a social worker serving the elderly for the District of Columbia Public Assistance Division. She was an enthusiastic participant in many community organizations, and was a long-time member of the Eastern Star and an officer of the American Legion. She, and her husband, Robert Wasson, were charter members of the Mt. Vernon Unitarian Church. She recently helped fund the restoration of the church's historic functioning windmill on the hill. They made generous contributions to the research funds at the Universities of Pittsburg and Minnesota.
She is survived by stepchildren Violet (Richard) Bierce, Jim Coulter (Ninamarie) and Waverly Reans (Henry) and their children and grandchildren; nieces Karen Olson, Bonnie Lee and Susan Lee and their children and grandchildren; nephews William Wasson (Nancy) and George Wasson (Gail) and many other loving family and friends.
A service, celebrating her life, was held Nov. 6 in Minnesota. Inurnment will be at Arlington National Cemetery’s Columbarium on Friday, April 8 at 3 p.m. Another service in her honor will be held at the Mt. Vernon Unitarian Church on Saturday, April 9 also at 3 p.m.
<sh>Douglas R. Fertig
<bt>Douglas R. Fertig, 54, director of human resources for the United States Senate since 1996, died April 2, 2005 at his home in Alexandria. He had kidney cancer.
Mr. Fertig lived since 1988 in Alexandria, where he was widely known and respected in civic and neighborhood circles. Before working for the Senate, he served as director of personnel services for the City of Alexandria.
In his Senate position, he helped bring the Senate into compliance with the Congressional Accountability Act, which applied several labor laws to congressional employees. He also initiated revisions in the Senate’s pay and
classification systems.
A native of Columbus, Ohio, Mr. Fertig received a B.A. in history from Oberlin College in 1972, and a M.A. degree in social studies education from Stanford University in 1974. He taught Ohio history to seventh graders in Marietta, Ohio, and then went to Ohio State University where he received a
master’s degree in public administration in 1977.
From 1977 to 1984, Mr. Fertig was management services administrator for the city of Columbus, Ohio, and from 1984 to 1988 he served as director of personnel for the town of Windsor, Conn. He was a member of several professional organizations including the American Society for Public Administration and the International Personnel Management Association.
Mr. Fertig was an avid runner and an ardent Ohio State Buckeye sports fan. In Ohio he coached high school tennis and track, and later he coached city recreation league soccer teams in Alexandria.
Survivors include his wife of 23 years, Susan Hepler, his two children, Emily Fertig and Andrew Fertig of Alexandria, and his brother Morris Fertig of Newark, Ohio.
A memorial service is scheduled for Friday, April 8 at 4 p.m., at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2701 Cameron Mills Road, Alexandria, VA 22302.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102-1479 or the DC Road Runners, PO Box 100561, Arlington, VA 22210.
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<cl>Warren Fitzgibbon
<sh>Warren Fitzgibbon
<bt>Warren Fitzgibbon, resident of Alexandria, died March 5 at Inova Alexandria Hospital. He was 43. Born on Nov. 19, 1961 in Stuttgart, Ark., Mr. Fitzgibbon was the beloved son of Roderick and Simone Golden Fitzgibbon of Alexandria.
After graduating from Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, Tenn., Mr. Fitzgibbon attended Georgetown University where he graduated magna cum laude. While at Georgetown he served on the School of Business Administration's Blue and Gray Committee, as well as the Judiciary Review Board, and received the George Houston Award for Excellence, Accounting Achievement Award, and the Dean's Citation for Outstanding Service to Georgetown University. Mr. Fitzgibbon became a certified public accountant while a student at Georgetown. He worked in the office of Arkansas Sen. David Pryor. He received a master's of business administration, with a concentration in finance, from the University of Chicago in 1987, finishing first in his class.
Mr. Fitzgibbon's professional career began at Freddie Mac, a lending corporation for home ownership, from 1987 to 1990, where he was a senior financial analyst. From 1990 until his death he worked for Fannie Mae, the Washington home-loan corporation. At Fannie Mae, he was manager of Asset Lliability Management from 1993 to 1996. After that, and until his death, his work was in Portfolio Strategy. His 14-year Fannie Mae career was marked with notable accomplishments including receipt ofthe Chairman's Award for Distinguished Service twice as well as the Vice Chairman's award. He pioneered development of Fannie Mae's market value analytics and was instrumental in publication of the company's initial Fair Value Balance Sheets. He also played a key role in improving Portfolio's data infrastructure, specifying and
implementing the initial Asset Liability Extraction system (ALEX). In an in-house memoriam, Fannie Mae stated that "his coworkers admired his unquestioned intelligence, humility, and sense of humor. He was always ready to help. He was family."
Mr. Fitzgibbon's major interests were sports, travel, music, and politics. Although he enjoyed many sports, baseball was his favorite, and he had attended games in every Major League Baseball stadium in the country and acquired a large collection of baseball memorabilia, including the manager's lineup card and other items from the game on Sept. 6, 1995, in which Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles broke the consecutive game record of Lou Gehrig. In addition to sports memorabilia, Mr. Fitzgibbon had one of the largest collections of White Christmas cards in the country.
He was a lifelong member of the United Methodist Church. After moving to Alexandria in 1993, Mr. Fitzgibbon became an active member of Fairlington United Methodist Church.
A memorial service was held at Fairlington United Methodist Church on March 8. Interment was a Graceland Cemetery in Pine Bluff, Ark. Memorials may be made to The Warren Fitzgibbon Fund for the Brain Tumor Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital, c/o Dr. Herbert Pardes, New York Presbyterian Hospital, 161 Fort Washington St., New York, NY 10032.