August 15

Obituaries of residents from the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia.

Thomas Korth,Howard University music professor

Thomas Korth, 73, a jazz pianist who taught music theory and composition at Howard University for 34 years, died June 25 at his home in Silver Spring, Md. The cause was cancer, said his sister, Marsha Korth Barnes.

Dr. Korth was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Silver Spring. He chaired the music department at Howard for about four years, until his retirement in 2005, and according to his sister performed alongside entertainers such as Chuck Berry and Al Green. In recent years, he performed with the house jazz band at 49West, a coffeehouse in Annapolis, Md.

Keith Johnson, international health official

Keith Johnson, 73, a pharmacist who worked on global projects to improve the distribution of medicines and pharmaceutical products, died July12 at a hospital in Rockville, Md. The cause was complications from a fall, said a niece, Amy Harris.

Mr. Johnson was born in Stromsburg, Neb., and served as an Army pharmacist in Vietnam during the war there. He moved in the 1970s to Rockville, where he was a research director and later a vice president for the U.S. Pharmacopeia, a nonprofit organization that establishes standards for medicines and food ingredients.

He worked at Management Sciences for Health in Arlington, Va., from 2000 until his retirement in March. In that position, Mr. Johnson coordinated programs to increase access to pharmaceutical products throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America. He taught in the public health programs at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins universities.

William Murry, minister

William Murry, 85, senior minister for 17 years of what now is the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Bethesda, Md., died July 6 at a hospital in Bethesda. The cause was cancer, said the Rev. Nancy Ladd, friend and successor at the church.

The Rev. Dr. Murry, a resident of Rockville, Md., was born in Jefferson City, Mo. He was a minister at Riverside Church in New York City and at the Unitarian Church of Bloomington, Ind., before he became senior minister of what then was River Road Unitarian Church in 1980. From 1998 until his death he was minister emeritus.

He served as president and academic dean at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago from 1997 to 2003. He was the author of books on suffering, loss, humanism, religious naturalism and other theological issues.

Charles Lyons, college chancellor

Charles Lyons, 91, a longtime college administrator who was president and later chancellor of Fayetteville State University in North Carolina, died July 21 at an assisted-living facility in Ormond Beach, Fla. The cause was pancreatic cancer, said a daughter, Brenda Lyons.

Dr. Lyons was born in Conetoe, N.C., and taught political science at Grambling State University and Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina in the 1950s and early 1960s. He was director of admissions at Howard University from 1964 to 1969, before being named president of Fayetteville State, a historically black university. Dr. Lyons became chancellor, the universitys highest-ranking officer, in 1972, and he retired in 1987. He later settled in Mitchellville, Md.

He lectured at Morgan State University in Baltimore and was active in ministry programs at First Baptist Church in Glenarden, Md. Dr. Lyons was a member of many national committees on education and was president of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Associations council of presidents. He was a past president of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education and the Center for Leadership Development and Research.

From staff reports

Read more:

Local obituaries of note - Washington Post