Irving Bernard Warsinger 2005
Irving Bernard Warsinger, 81, a onetime businessman who became a Navy contract specialist, died of heart disease Dec. 23 at Washington Hospital Center. He lived in Chevy Chase.
Mr. Warsinger was born in New York City and moved to Washington when he was 16. He was a graduate of Anacostia High School and was studying at the University of Maryland when he entered the Army in 1943.
He served in Europe and later in the Pacific during World War II. As a member of a photographic intelligence unit, he loaded film into cameras for reconnaissance missions. He loaded the cameras of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945.
After the war, he received a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Maryland. He worked briefly for the D.C. Department of Health before becoming a sales representative for Endo Pharmaceuticals, a drug manufacturer, in 1950.
From 1955 to 1958, Mr. Warsinger owned a liquor store, People's Liquors, on G Street NW. He was a jewelry store manager from 1958 to 1961 before managing the jewelry department of a Giant supermarket on Rockville Pike from 1961 to 1969.
Mr. Warsinger became a contract negotiator with the Navy Department in 1969 and helped in the purchase of Polaris, Poseidon and Trident missiles.
He also helped negotiate engineering support services for the U.S. and British navies. He retired in 1985.
He was a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, the Potomac Pedalers Touring Club, the Montgomery Bird Club and the Maryland Ornithological Society. He was an associate member of Hadassah, a Jewish women's society, and a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Mr. Warsinger died three days before his 57th wedding anniversary.
Survivors include his wife, Susan Warsinger of Chevy Chase; three daughters, Lisa W. Martin of Potomac, Meryl W. Shapiro of Takoma Park and Terese W. Robinson of Lutherville, Md.; and nine grandchildren.