Tuesday, January 22, 2008
George Hayes Madden, 67, a retired oceanographer with the Navy Department, died Jan. 10 at his home in Little Torch Key, Fla.
He had heart ailments. Mr. Madden was born in Washington and graduated from Gonzaga College High School in 1958 and the
University of Maryland in 1963.
After college, he joined the Navy's Oceanographic Office in Suitland. In 1977, he moved to Picayune, Miss., when the office was
relocated to Bay St. Louis, Miss.
His main assignment for many years was the supervision of ocean surveys and the collection of environmental data for the
Defense Department during the journeys of various naval vessels before the end of the Cold War.
Among the naval ships he sailed were the Lynch and the De Steiger. He retired in 1997 and moved to the Florida Keys.
His family said that although he took great pride in his scientific accomplishments during his Navy career, his proudest memory
was his participation in the team of Gonzaga students who, in fall 1957, sneaked a "Beat St. Johns" banner up the stairs of the
Washington Monument and hung it out one of the windows at the top.
A Washington Post photographer who had been tipped off to the prank by his son, a Gonzaga student, was ready with his
camera, and the resulting photograph soon appeared in newspapers around the country and even in some papers abroad.
Shortly afterward, the National Park Service installed plate glass windows in the monument and the feat has never been
duplicated.
Survivors include his wife, Shelia Madden of Little Torch Key; three children, Marianne Wilt of Lake Worth, Fla., Andrew Madden
of Alexandria and Jennifer Logan of Jackson, Miss.; a brother, William Madden of McLean; and five grandchildren.
-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb