By Matt Schudel Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 9, 2006
Michael Hogan Styles, 79, who led sensitive negotiations concerning international airline rights as director of what was the State
Department's Office of Aviation, died April 5 of lymphoma at Reston Hospital Center. He lived in Fairfax Station.
Mr. Styles joined the State Department in 1949 and became a Foreign Service officer five years later. He was stationed at the
U.S. Embassy in Tokyo from 1954 to 1959.
Beginning in 1960, he worked in the State Department's old Office of Aviation, where he played a major role in removing barriers
that had hampered U.S. airline companies operating overseas. As the office's director, Mr. Styles led negotiations with many
countries, including Great Britain, Italy, Israel, Mexico, Jamaica and Canada. In 1973, he helped the United States reach an
accord with the Soviet Union to increase airline traffic between the two countries.
He was cited by Aviation Week Space Technology magazine for his courage and perception in guiding the negotiations that built
the country's international aviation policy. He also received the Meritorious Honor Award and Superior Honor Award from the
State Department.
Mr. Styles, who grew up overseas in a diplomatic household, was descended from two old Falls Church families. The Mary Riley
Styles Public Library in Falls Church is named for his grandmother.
He was born in Durban, South Africa, where his father was stationed as U.S. vice consul. As a boy, Mr. Styles accompanied his
father, Francis Holmes Styles, to consular posts in Belgium, Mexico, Canada and Ireland.
In 1943, when he was 16, Mr. Styles made a treacherous flight on a military plane out of Ireland, by way of Scotland and Iceland,
with entertainer Jack Benny and his wife, actress Mary Livingston. Mr. Styles moved to his grandparents' home in Falls Church
and rode a trolley to the old Western High School in Washington, from which he graduated in 1944.
He was a 1947 graduate of the University of Virginia, where he was a member of the Raven Society, and received a master's
degree in international relations from U-Va. in 1949. He did further studies in international economics at Yale University.
After retiring from the State Department in 1979, Mr. Styles formed a consulting company, M.H. Styles Associates Inc.,
representing international aviation interests. He opened the Washington office of the International Air Transport Association and
served as its regional director. He retired in 1989.
He was a founding member of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at George Mason University and served as president, vice
president and secretary of its board of directors. He taught courses at the institute on U.S. and world history.
He enjoyed vegetable gardening and reading and was secretary and treasurer of the Holly Forest Homes Association in Fairfax
Station. He was also president of the International Aviation Club.
In his later years, Mr. Styles wrote a biography of his adventurous great-great-great-grandfather, Captain Hogan: Sailor,
Merchant, Diplomat on Six Continents (2003). For research on the book, he traveled to Australia, Ireland and South Africa.
His marriages to Nancy Howard Styles and Anne Gosnell Duff Styles ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife of 25 years, Page Davis Styles of Fairfax Station; two children from his first marriage, Kathleen M.
Styles of Falls Church and Thomas Styles of Phoenix; a stepson, David S. Trivett of Woodbridge; a brother; a sister; and four
grandchildren.