Obituaries

Julia Parsons, a U.S. Navy code breaker during World War II who was among the last survivors of a top-secret team of women that unscrambled messages to and from German U-boats, died on April 18 in Aspinwall, Pa. She was 104.

Richard L. Armitage, who served as the No. 2 official at the State Department from 2001 to 2005, during the turbulent era of the 9/11 attacks and the start of America’s retaliatory wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, died on Sunday. He was 79.

Mark Klein, a whistleblower who revealed domestic spying, dies at 79. The AT&T technician predated Edward Snowden by seven years, but his allegations were never able to achieve traction.

Clint Hill, 93, remembered as the devoted agent who ran to JFK’s car in Dallas and who shielded Jacqueline Kennedy passed on 21 February at his home in Belveder, CA, with a deep guilt that haunted him late into his life.

Charlotte Webb, who as a young woman helped code breakers decipher enemy signals at Britain’s top-secret Bletchley Park, died on Monday. She was 101.

Gene Richard Schaefer of Bradenton and formerly of Anna Maria Island died Sept. 6, 2024. He was born in Chicago, grew up in Springfield Ohio, graduated from Wittenberg University and served in the U.S. Navy as a naval lieutenant aviator.

James Donald Blessing, 82, of Atlanta, died Oct. 26, 2024, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Jim was born in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Retired Secret Service Assistant Director Robert 'Bob' Snow of Ashburn, Virginia, 93, passed away peacefully on March 22, 2025. Bob was born in Rochester, New York.

John B. Bestic, Jr., a two-decade resident of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, died on March 23 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was a retired senior Central Intelligence Agency officer and a Vietnam veteran.