LONDON -- Paolo Gucci, 64, a maverick Italian businessman who was sacked from the global fashion empire started by his grandfather, died of chronic hepatitis Oct. 10 in a hospital here.
Mr. Gucci was a key player in the struggle for control of the fashion dynasty started in Florence in 1906 by his grandfather Guccio Gucci, a leather goods salesman. The family in-fighting ultimately drove all of the Guccis out of the company that still bears their name.
Mr. Gucci's father brought the business to the United States in 1953 and made him vice president and managing director of Gucci Shops Inc. and Gucci Parfums of America. A year later, his uncle Rodolfo Gucci fired him from the Italian parent company, claiming he failed to carry out his duties while in charge of a factory in Florence.
Mr. Gucci decided to market his own lines under the name Paolo Gucci and filed a lawsuit for compensation from the family business. Both decisions enraged his father, who fired him from his jobs with Gucci in the United States. Paolo Gucci went ahead with his own line, starting a bitter Gucci trade war. He sold his share in the family business in 1987.
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Mr. Gucci lived with his girlfriend in a Tudor-style mansion in Sussex, southern England.
After his acrimonious departure from the Gucci clan, when he sold his share to the London-based Arab investment bank Investcorp for a reported $42.5 million, he achieved notoriety by declaring himself bankrupt.
He was briefly jailed by a U.S. judge last year for failing to pay child support to his ex-wife. He also faced allegations of starving the prize-winning Arabian horses belonging to his girlfriend that he kept on a stud farm at home.
His cousin, the group's former chairman, Maurizio, was shot dead in a Milan street this year by an unknown assassin. RICHARD WILLIAM CONDON History Professor
Richard William Condon, 58, a former history professor at the University of Maryland who was teaching undergraduate courses aboard naval ships as part of a government program, died after a heart attack Oct. 8 on the USS Comstock in the Persian Gulf.
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He taught history at the University of Wisconsin in the early 1960s, then joined the University of Maryland's Department of History in 1965, serving as its chairman from 1970 to 1981.
Dr. Condon lived in Hyattsville for 15 years before moving to Crystal Falls, Mich., in 1993. He was working for Central Texas College under its Program Afloat for College Education. He was aboard the Comstock for about a week when he died, but had taught on other ships since he joined the program in 1985.
He published two books in the early 1970s titled "The Winter War: Russia Against Finland," which was later made into an opera in Finland, and "The Baltic Fringe: The History of the First World War."
Dr. Condon, who was born in Chicago, was a graduate of Suomi College in Hancock, Mich., and received a bachelor's degree in German history and a master's degree in European history from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He received a doctorate in history from the University of Minnesota.
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His marriages to Marcie Condon and Sinikka Lilja ended in divorce. Survivors include a son from his second marriage, Leif Eric Condon of Roosevelt, Utah; and a granddaughter. LEONARD J. HORWITZ Foreign Service Officer
Leonard J. Horwitz, 70, a retired Foreign Service officer who had specialized in Latin America for the Agency for International Development, died of cancer Oct. 12 at Georgetown University Hospital.
Mr. Horwitz, a resident of Washington, was born in Boston. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts and received a master's degree in international relations at the University of Pennsylvania.
Around 1950, he came to Washington as a trainee in the office of the secretary of state, then, in 1954, transferred to the Foreign Operations Administration, a predecessor agency of AID. From 1954 to 1957, he was a program planning officer in the Bureau for Latin America. For the next five years, he worked with private business organizations in Venezuela, Argentina and Mexico.
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He returned to government service in 1962 as program officer for the U.S. AID mission in Santiago, Chile. Later, he was a fellow in public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and then deputy director of the Office of Panamanian Affairs at the State Department.
Beginning in 1973, he served five years as director of the AID mission in Montevideo, Uruguay, then returned to Washington and served as regional director of AID's reimbursable development program in South America until retiring from government service in 1979.
On retiring from the government, Mr. Horwitz became director of international development at the Price Waterhouse Washington office, where he helped organize the firm's international consulting business. He retired from there this year.
During his years in Latin America, Mr. Horwitz acquired a collection of Latin American paintings.
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He was a past president of the Friends of the Art Museum at the Organization of American States and a trustee of the International Development Conference, a Washington-based forum on international development issues.
Survivors include a brother, Albert Horwitz of Boston. CHARLES FRANCIS HORGAN Communications Specialist
Charles Francis Horgan, 86, a retired communications specialist with the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co. who was assigned to the White House for about 25 years, died Oct. 6 at Holy Cross Hospital. He had Alzheimer's disease.
Mr. Horgan, a resident of Silver Spring, was born in Warrenton, Va. He was a graduate of McKinley Technical High School in the District. He served in the Army during World War II and was recalled to service in Panama during the Korean War. He also was recalled during the Cuban missile crisis in the early 1960s.
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He began working for C&P in 1935 as a repairman. During his years at the White House, he helped set up satellite communications for presidential trips and helped design a communications system for the CIA. After he retired in 1975, he worked for about 15 years in shops at Montgomery County golf courses run by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
His marriage to Josephine Horgan ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife of 36 years, Hilda G. Horgan of Silver Spring; a daughter from his second marriage, Michelle Barnett of Brookeville; a brother, John Horgan of San Diego; a sister, Elizabeth Moore of Germantown; and a granddaughter. MARGARET HOWARD PARKER Board Member
Margaret Howard Parker, 87, a former member of the board of the Washington Home, died of pneumonia Oct. 11 at the Fernwood House nursing home in Bethesda.
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Mrs. Parker was born in Lexington, Ky. She first moved to Washington in 1926. After her marriage in 1929 to Thornton J. Parker Jr., she accompanied him to engineering projects abroad, including Scotland, where they lived for five years. They returned to the Washington area to operate a farm at Cooksville, Md., in 1936 and moved to Chevy Chase six years later.
Mrs. Parker was a volunteer with the Red Cross during World War II. She was a member of the Washington committee for the Frontier Nursing Service in Kentucky, the National Society of Colonial Dames and the Chevy Chase Club.
Her husband died in 1967. Survivors include two sons, Thornton J. Parker III of Washington and John W. Parker of Chevy Chase; two grandsons; and two great-grandchildren. KATHERINE M. KIELICH Volunteer
Katherine M. Kielich, 71, a former volunteer office manager for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, died of a brain tumor Oct. 7 at her home in St. Davids, Pa.
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Mrs. Kielich, who lived in Potomac and Bethesda for 12 years before retiring to St. Davids in 1990, helped raise funds for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington and also worked as a proofreader to check for misspellings among the names of U.S. soldiers killed in the war.
After the dedication of the memorial, Mrs. Kielich worked from 1985 to 1990 as executive director of the Metropolitan Washington Ear, a radio reading service for the blind.
Mrs. Kielich was born in Lackawanna, N.Y., and attended Ithaca College and the Chicago Musical College.
Survivors include her husband, Dr. Raymond B. Kielich of St. Davids; her mother, Mary Jankovic of Pompano Beach, Fla.; three daughters; Dr. Andrea M. Kielich of Portland, Ore., Christina M. Kielich of Alexandria; and Paula M. Kielich of Bryn Mawr, Pa. JEAN C. FLAGGS Falls Church Teacher
Jean C. Flaggs, 76, who worked as a teacher at Sleepy Hollow Elementary School in Falls Church for 28 years before retiring in 1984, died of cancer Oct. 11 at the Hospice of Northern Virginia.
Mrs. Flaggs, who taught the fourth and fifth grade level, lived in Falls Church. She was born in Orrville, Ohio, and graduated from Western Maryland College in Westminster.
In retirement, she was active in quilting and needlework. She was a member of the Dulin United Methodist Church in Falls Church.
Her husband, Donald E. Flaggs, died in 1975. Survivors include a son, Donald L. Flaggs of San Jose, Calif., and a sister, Sally McCann of Inverness, Fla. PAUL McLEAN SHERIDAN Kitchen Remodeler
Paul McLean Sheridan, 61, who had owned Builders Services, a kitchen remodeling business in Bethesda since the late 1960s, died Oct. 6 after a heart attack at George Washington University Medical Center. He lived in Washington.
Mr. McLean was a native of Bethesda and a graduate of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. He served in the Air Force for four years and attended American University.
His marriage to Kathleen Amouri Sheridan ended in divorce.
Survivors include two daughters, Leslie Sheridan and Kia Sheridan, both of Bethesda; two sisters, Phyllis Sheridan of Tampa and Penelope Sheridan of Arlington; three stepsisters, Barbara Bosetti of Bethesda, Mary Bresnahan of Fairfax and Emily Cook of Atlanta. MARIAN W. CHASE Librarian
Marian W. Chase, 77, a librarian who had worked in the public libraries of Washington and Fairfax and at Madiera School, died of a pulmonary embolism Oct. 12 at Manor Care Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Arlington.
Mrs. Chase, who lived in McLean, was born in Madison, Wis., and grew up in Washington. She graduated from Western High School and American University.
She worked in the libraries of Washington during the 1930s, Fairfax during the 1950s and at the Madiera School library in the 1960s.
She was a former member of Calvary Baptist Church in Washington. She was a member of the senior choir and the handbell choir at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in McLean.
Survivors include her husband of 56 years, Donald W. Chase of McLean; three sons, Timothy D. Chase of Grove City, Pa., Peter M. Chase of Falls Church and Jonathan C. Chase of Andover, Mass.; two brothers, Lewis R. Johnson of Oxon Hill and Lawrence W. Johnson of Los Altos, Calif.; and four grandchildren. MARY IRENE WIEDT SCHNEIDER Volunteer
Mary Irene Wiedt Schneider, 81, a volunteer for political, civic and charitable organizations, died of respiratory failure and complications from asthma Oct. 13 at home in Bethesda.
Her volunteer service included work for the Cub Scouts and the National Council for Catholic Women. During the 1960s and 1970s, she was publicity chairwoman for the Bethesda Women's Republican Club, and she had worked in the political campaigns of Richard M. Nixon and former Montgomery County Executive James P. Gleason.
Mrs. Schneider, who came to Washington in 1936, was born in Pittsburgh, where she graduated from Duquesne University. She was the first female business manager of the Duquesne Duke student newspaper while in college.
Survivors include her husband, Walter W. Schneider, whom she married in 1936 and who lives in Bethesda; four children, Irene Miller of Herndon, Charles W. Schneider of Oakton, Lawrence W. Schneider of of Sterling, and Gina Becker of Gaithersburg; 13 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.
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