Josephine E. Dettmers Maxwell
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Josephine Elizabeth Dettmers Maxwell, 88, a longtime secretary and volunteer at the National Institutes of Health, died Oct. 24 of
a heart ailment at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. She had lived in Bethesda for 53 years.
Mrs. Maxwell was born in Washington and was a 1935 graduate of the old Western High School. After high school, she worked
as a telephone operator for C & P Telephone Co.
In 1938, she was recognized as a Washington Lovely in the old Washington Times Hearld newspaper. During World War II, she
held federal clerical jobs in Washington and was featured in government brochures urging women to come to Washington to
help the war effort.
She returned to C & P in the late 1940s. In 1955, she joined NIH as a secretary, working primarily at the National Heart Institute.
At the time of her retirement in 1974, she worked at the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke.
Mrs. Maxwell also volunteered at NIH in the 1950s to help recovering patients and their families. She was a member of the
Daughters of the American Revolution and Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Bethesda.
Her husband of 52 years, James G. Maxwell, died in 1990.
Survivors include two sons, James G. Maxwell Jr. of Clarksburg and Warren Robin Maxwell of Bethesda; a brother, Warren P.
Dettmers of Kensington; and two granddaughters.