a great man

Louis M. Jarcho, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and college educator, died of congestive heart failure September 19, 2006, at his home at the Greenspring Village retirement community in Springfield, Virginia, at the age of 93.

At Greenspring Village, Col. Jarcho was a featured participant in the community's 60th anniversary D-Day commemoration in 2004 and did a local television interview. He also was active in the low-vision support group there.

Col. Jarcho was born in New York City, New York, the youngest of five children of parents who had immigrated to the United States from Belarus in the early 1900s. He grew up on Staten Island, New York, and graduated from Fordham University. He received a law degree from St. Johns University in 1939 and a master's degree in public administration from San Bernardino State University in 1977.

In 1942, after practicing law in New York for three years, he joined the Army. During World War II, he served in North Africa, England and France, primarily with the 436th Troop Carrier Group. He left military service in 1945 as a captain and rejoined the Army in 1947, later transferring to the newly created Air Force.

During his Air Force career, he served in Tactical Air Command and was the base comptroller at several assignments. His postings included Germany, England and the United States, where he served at the Pentagon and National Airport in the late 1940s and the mid-1950s. He retired in 1966.

Col. Jarcho then lived in Victorville, California, where he became president of the school board and taught business law at Victor Valley College for nearly 20 years, until 1990. He returned to the Washington DC area in 2003, where he was active in the Masons and the Rotary Club.

Survivors include his wife of 58 years, Freda Jarcho of Springfield, Virginia; two children, Marjorie Gross of West Los Angeles, California, and Robert Jarcho of Burke, Virginia; and four grandchildren.