William Joseph McGranahan's Obituary
William Joseph (Bill) McGranahan passed away on September 2, 2018. Born on April 24, 1934, in Alliance, Ohio, he entered the Athenaeum of Ohio in Cincinnati, 14 years later, where he studied Latin, Greek, German and French, in addition to theology. He elected not to join the priesthood and, in 1958, joined the army. He was subsequently, was assigned to the Army Language School (now the Defense Language Institute), where he learned Russian. In the early 1960s, he served in West Germany. Bill left active duty in 1964 and joined the reserves.
Bill earned a Ph.D. in Russian and Applied and Theoretical Linguistics at Georgetown University, D.C. After teaching in academia, and writing articles on various topics, he went to work in 1978 as an analyst for the Department of Defense at Fort Meade, Maryland. Bill retired in 2006.
He enjoyed jogging and, for a long time, was a member of the Annapolis Striders. As a tenor in the Archdiocesan Choir of Baltimore In 1995, he sang for Pope John Paul ll ; two years later, he travelled with the choir to participate in concerts in Italy.
An extremely caring man, Bill would stop to aid strangers in distress when others passed them by. His family was all-important to him; in addition to delighting in his children and grandchildren, he took his responsibilities as paterfamilias extremely seriously.
Bill leaves behind his wife, Elizabeth McGranahan, of Annapolis, Maryland; sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren Christopher McGranahan and Deborah Levenson (Nina and Samuel), of College Park, Md; Michael McGranahan and Janet Lyman of Bangkok, Thailand (Zoe); and John Devin McGranahan, of Annapolis, Md. He will he fondly remembered and greatly missed.
A service will be held on Friday, September 7, 12:00 PM at Lasting Tributes Cremation and Funeral Care in Annapolis, MD., followed by a reception from 12:45 to 2:15 PM. Burial will be in Crownsville Veterans Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Bill’s name to Doctors without Borders (www.doctorswithoutborders.org) or to the Alzheimer’s Association (www.alz.org/donate).
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