Saturday, June 2, 2007
Peter F. Vial, 84, a civilian engineer for the Navy, died of cancer May 14 at his Silver Spring home.
Mr. Vial was a project manager for nuclear devices at the Naval Ordnance Lab at White Oak and was a member of the team that
developed the first submarine rocket-launched missile. He also worked on the Polaris missile project. He retired in 1977.
He was born on a family farm in Ware, Iowa, and he and his family moved to the Washington area when he was an infant. He
graduated from what is now McKinley Technology High School in Washington and from the University of Maryland.
During World War II, he served with the Army Signal Corps as a cryptographer aboard the cutter Ingham in the Philippines.
For nearly 40 years, Mr. Vial lived with multiple sclerosis but refused to let it define him, his family said. He lived for years in a
split-level house, where the stairs slowed him but did not impede his mobility. He attached a cacophonous bicycle horn to his
motorized scooter, which delighted neighborhood children, whom he often took for rides.
Mr. Vial was an elder and Sunday school teacher at Silver Spring Presbyterian Church. He was a Washington Redskins and
Maryland Terrapins fan.
Survivors include his wife of 60 years, Peggy Vial of Silver Spring; four children, Peter M. Vial of Seattle, C. Craig Vial of Hickory
Tavern, S.C., Dean H. Vial of Greensboro, N.C., and Nan Beagle of Silver Spring; 10 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.