obituary

Steve Komarow, CQ Roll Call’s executive editor and senior vice president, accomplished something very rare in the often cutthroat worlds of Washington bureaus and foreign correspondence: Across a varied and accomplished career of four decades, his calmly confident news judgment and patiently clear-eyed managerial style produced nearly universal respect and virtually no lasting enmity.

At the Capitol and across several war zones, Komarow, who died Sunday at 61, stood out for his unruffled approach to the most dramatic developments, an equanimity in supervising high-maintenance reporters, an easy affect amid intense journalistic competition — and a cockeyed grin when confronted with the constant but mostly ephemeral melodramas of all four high-pressure newsrooms where he played pivotal roles.   

Louise Slaughter dreamed that she would die in the Capitol.

That’s at least according to her daughter, Robin Slaughter Minerva, who spoke during a congressional memorial service for her mother on Wednesday in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.

Former first lady Barbara Bush died Tuesday after a long battle with congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She was 92.

Bush was the wife of former President George H.W. Bush, and the mother of former President George W. Bush and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. She died after choosing over the weekend to pursue “comfort care" — focusing on symptom control and ceasing medical attention for her diseases.

Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, the first woman to chair the House Rules Committee, died early Friday after falling at her Washington home last week. She was 88 years old.

Her office said the New York Democrat died at George Washington University Hospital, where she was being treated. The 16-term lawmaker was the oldest sitting member of Congress.

Former Rep. Jon D. Fox died of complications with cancer on Sunday at his home in the Philadelphia suburbs. He was 70.

Fox was first elected to the House in 1994 as part of the “Republican Revolution” that saw the GOP take control of both legislative chambers.

Former Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey, a longtime Democratic congressman from New York, died Wednesday. He was 79.

He had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, or FTD, his family announced in June amid the debate over repealing the 2010 health care law.

Former Rep. Bill Goodling, who represented Pennsylvania’s 19th District for more than a quarter century, died Sunday. He was 89.

The Republican House veteran served 13 consecutive terms from 1975 through 2001. He first won office by more than 5,000 votes despite a Watergate storm that decimated the GOP in 1974. Goodling’s father, George Atlee Goodling, held the seat for four terms before him.

The first research physicist ever elected to Congress, Vernon J. Ehlers was known for his legislative work to bolster scientific research and education, raise fuel economy standards, and protect clean air and water.

Ehlers, who represented Western Michigan in Congress for nearly two decades, died Tuesday at the age of 83. His death was confirmed by the Zaagman Memorial Chapel in Grand Rapids, which did not immediately indicate the cause of death, The Detroit News reported.

It was the understatement of Bob Wolff’s career, under the circumstances.

“I do get very verbose,” Wolff said on April 26, 2013, the day the legendary sportscaster donated decades’ worth of his interviews with sports’ greatest figures to the Library of Congress.