David McKeon Saunders *52

David McKeon Saunders, a Naval officer, businessman and avid yachtsman, died in Annapolis June 16, 2004, from complications of a stroke. He was 83.

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., David graduated from the Naval Academy in 1944 with the Class of 1945, accelerated due to World War II. He first served aboard ship in the Pacific theater, then went to flight school and became a naval aviator in the last year of the war. In 1951 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to pursue jet propulsion studies at Princeton, where he earned a master's in aeronautical engineering. After leaving Princeton, he was assigned to the Navy's first propjet mine-laying squadron, became director of program evaluation for the Navy's Anti-Submarine Warfare Systems Project in Washington, and served a tour of duty in Vietnam.

After retirement in 1968, David established a real estate development and restoration business. He also pursued two avocations — flying small airplanes and sailing yachts — and won numerous trophies in ocean racing, including the prestigious Viking trophy in the Chesapeake Bay championships.

David was predeceased by his first wife, Elizabeth, and is survived by his second wife, Carol, three sons, and four grandchildren.