Iris Del Vecchio Cotter
2008
Iris Del Vecchio Cotter, 84, a former advertising designer who won awards for  her artwork, died May 20 of complications after surgery at Shady Grove Adventist  Hospital. She lived in Damascus.
Mrs. Cotter was born in Washington and graduated from  Theodore Roosevelt  High School. She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1945 and  attended the Abbott Art School in Washington from 1946 to 1948. She was a fashion artist for a dress shop and later designed advertising for her father's hardware store. She also taught art for a few years at a Bethesda    preschool.
Mrs. Cotter was a member of the Rockville Art League and won awards for her scenic paintings and still lifes. Some of her work was displayed at Glenview Mansion in Rockville.
She lived in Bethesda and Rockville before settling in Damascus in 1995. She was a member of the Church Upcounty, a nondenominational church in Germantown.
Her marriage to Edward Patrick Cotter Jr. ended in divorce.
A son, John Stephen Cotter, died in 1996.
Survivors include five children, Patrick Joseph Cotter of Silver Spring, Neil Edward Cotter of Castro Valley, Calif., Daniel Michael Cotter and Philip James Cotter, both of Germantown, and Iris Rebecca Cotter of Gaithersburg; two sisters, Marie D. Valenza of Saint Leonard and Claire D. Johnston of Bethesda; and nine grandchildren.
-- Matt Schudel