ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 2, 1994                   TAG: 9401030262
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA                                LENGTH: Medium

OBIT-SHANNON, ROBERT MCDONALD

SHANNON, Robert McDonald, 76, of Alexandria, died December 28, 1993, at Arlington Hospital of complications resulting from a pulmonary embolism. He was the first full time director of the Roanoke Valley Regional Planning Commission. Mr. Shannon also was head of the Fifth Planning District which was created through a merger of the Roanoke Valley and Jackson River regional groups. He retired from the Planning District in 1971. Mr. Shannon was a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Corps of Engineers. He entered the Army in 1940 and served in Iceland and later as an assault engineer in the South Pacific where he was awarded the Bronze Star. After the war, he was stationed in Germany and Taiwan as well as places in the United States before his retirement from the army. Col. Shannon graduated from VPI with a bachelor's and master's degree in architectural engineering and attended the Woodrow Wilson School of Foreign Affairs at Princeton. He was a member of the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Engineers. Col. Shannon was born in Bristol, Va. in 1917. He made his home in the Roanoke Valley after his retirement from the army in 1961 until 1974. He has lived in the Northern Virginia area since 1976. His marriage to the former Anne MacGowan ended in divorce. He is survived by three children, Christopher A. Shannon, Alexandra S. Drone, both of Alexandria, and Nicholas K. Shannon of San Francisco; and two grandchildren. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at the Ft. Myer Chapel, Arlington, Va. 1:45 p.m. Friday, January 7, 1994. Entombment will be at the Arlington National Cemetery Collumbarium, Arlington with full military honors following services. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the American Lung Association. Arrangements by the Everly Wheatley Funeral Home, 1500 W. Braddock Road, Alexandria. 


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