Community Corner

Update: Friends Collecting Donations for Smile Train to Honor Gam

Visitation Tonight at Money & Ring in Vienna

UPDATE: The Office, an informal group of friends who gather each morning at Greenberry's, are collecting contributions for Smile Train in memory of their friend long-time McLean resident,Gam.

Gam's family asked that contributions be made to SmileTrain.org which repairs cleft palates of children.

Gam died last week. Tonight, the family will receive friends at the Money & King Funeral Home,  171 W. Maple Ave., Vienna,  from 5-8 p.m.

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June 13: The funeral for Howard Gamertsfelder, "Gam" a long-time McLean resident, retired CIA agent, and one of Greenberry's most popular and beloved customers, will be held at 10:30 a.m. June 16,  at St. Luke Catholic Church, 7001 Georgetown Pike.

The Gamertsfelder family are long-time members of St. Luke. Gam died June 9 at home a week after celebrating his 91st birthday.

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"Dad left so peacefully and we were all there, holding his hand," daughter Mel told friends.

The family will receive friends at the Money & King Funeral Home,  171 W. Maple Ave., Vienna,  Wednesday  from 5-8 p.m. He will be buried at  Columbia Gardens Cemetery following the funeral mass. In lieu of flowers, the family asked that contributions be made to the SmileTrain.org.

Survivors include daughters Marylinda  (Mel)  Gamertsfelder, Karen Krouse and son Thomas Gamertsfelder;  grandchildren, Aaron and Audrey Krouse and Olivia Gamertsfelder. His wife Rita  who often accompanied him to Greenberry's, died in  2007.

June 9.-Howard Gamertsfelder, universally known as "Gam" a long-time McLean resident and former CIA employee, died this afternoon.

Daughter Karen called to let us know. He had been in hospice care for the last few weeks. He celebrated his 91st  birthday June 2.

McLean Patch will publish additional information as soon as the family has made arrangements.

June 2 - ORIGINAL STORY: Gam is a people magnet when he walks into Greenberry's, McLean's popular downtown coffee shop. Wearing his golf hat and walking with one of his daughters, he sits down and the friends start to visit.

Long-time McLean resident Howard Gamertsfelder, known to everyone as "Gam," celebrated his 91st birthday at home yesterday resting comfortably amidst well wishes from friends and family.

He and his family embody McLean. He's a Navy veteran. Retired from the CIA. Bought a home in McLean in 1963 and watched the community transform from country crossroads to affluent address of the rich and powerful.

"Ever since our group first began gathering some eight plus years ago we would see Gam and his dear wife come in and sit near the door as they drank their morning coffee," said Pam Lucey unofficial leader of The Office, a group of retirees that gathers daily at Greenberry's. 

"After his wife died he still continued to come in and of course we invited him to join us. His wit and stories were so entertaining. He made us all laugh and we looked forward to seeing him with his daughter Karen on week days and daughter Mel on the weekends. They too became part of the group as well as his lovely granddaughter Audrey. We all wish he could make it to The Office for his 91st but he knows we are raising our cups on high and toasting his wonderful life!!!" she said.

Born in Warsaw, Ohio,  June 1, 1920, Gam  joined the Navy in 1943 serving until 1946. He never went overseas. Instead he was assigned to Naval Air Weapons research center at China Lake, Calif where the Navy was  experimenting with rockets, his daughter Mel recalled Wednesday.

 After his discharge, he and some friends flipped a coin to see where they would go and they came to Washington, DC in 1949. He soon met a young  woman from a small town in Pennsylvania. They married in 1951 and settled down to raise a family that would eventually include two daughters and a son.

Gam enrolled at CREI—Capitol Radio Engineering Institute to study electronics. While there, he heard the CIA was looking for employes. Gam was former military with an  aptiitude for elecrtronics. A match.

The Central Intelligence Agency was created in 1947 to continue the intelligence work carried out during World War II by the Office of Strategic Services. Its  director Walter Bedell Smith, a retired U.S. Army General,  was hiring. Gam started working there in 1952, Mel recalled.

Gam was one of the first technical consultants to be assigned overseas. The family lived  in Germany, Panana and Greece over the years.

"We had a special connection  because of Gam's years spent in Greece and every now and then some Greek would come out of him!" said Denise Garbis, another Greenberry's friend. She is Greek.

"He always  told me to drive safely as I left McLean to spend time at our Bay House in the Northern Neck. Always concerned as a dear Father would be and here I am a YiaYia ! (Grandmother)"

Gam and his wife bought a house in McLean in 1963. The CIA moved out of its original headquarters in Washington, D.C.  on 23rd Street NW., across from the U.S. State Department, to its new headquarters in the Langley neighborhood of McLean in 1962.

“They were the laughing stock of our friends," Mel recalled referring to her parents. "McLean was nothing in 1963. It was truly just a village. It was farmland. . . This was the boondocks in the 60’s.”

Of course, no one knew, including Mel and her siblings that Gam wanted a short commute to work. In those days you didn't tell people you worked for CIA.

He worked for the agency for 52 years retiring in 1977. He took a three year break, then, “The CIA called him back to work as a consultant in 1985 --- as a technical consultant to train junior officers." He remained until 2010.

The family are long time members of St. Luke Catholic Church on Georgetown Pike  which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year.

"They would  have mass in the  basketball court of the school before the church was built," Mel said. "We went to to church with the Kennedys. We would see their large family Robert and Ethel and all the kids gussied up for mass” in the basketball  court.

On the occasion of her dad's birthday, Mel said,  “I’m very proud that he is a member of the Greatest Generation. Proud of his military service and his contribution to the national security while working at CIA. ”

His "I love me wall" at home brims with  a host of meritorious awards and commendations signed by several of the CIA’s Directors, that  include Allen Dulles, William Colby, George Bush, Stansfield Turner, George Tenet, and Leon Panetta. Gam also earned the Career Intelligence Medal.

His hobbies: looking for relics of the Civil War in the fields of McLean. Armed with his metal detector, Mel said he found a large collection of Civil War coins, belt buckles, canteens and minie balls before the coming of the subdivisions and the parking lots.

Then there is the hat. The hat he always wears to Greenberry's.

"It was a cap from a golf course where my dad was a caddy back in the mid to late 1930’s.  The Coshocton Hilltop Golf Course, located back in his hometown. . . Three years ago, Dad and I visited the golf course – when I told the manager he used to caddy there back in the 30’s, he made a big fuss and loaned us a golf cart and clubs so we could play a few holes – on the house!  That was a happy day for Dad – reminiscing over those great days."

Full disclosure: McLean Patch  is a huge Gam fan.

Correction: Earlier versions of this story stated incorrectly that Allen Dulles was the first CIA director. Here is the correct list. We apologize to our readers.

Rear Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, USN May 1, 1947–Oct. 7, 1950 Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, USA Oct. 7, 1950–Feb. 9, 1953 Allen W. Dulles Feb. 26, 1953–Nov. 29, 1961


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