Michael Reeves Lusignan

1937 - 2022

Lusignan

Michael Reeves Lusignan

Michael Reeves Lusignan, a Primary Examiner in the Chemistry Division of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, died at home at Collington, a retirement community in Mitchellville, Maryland, on November 5, 2022. He was 85 years old. His beloved wife Louise had died only five weeks earlier on September 28. Others who predeceased Michael were his sister Anne Butler, and his brother Frank. He is survived by his sister Kathie Jones of Berkeley, CA; Kathie's children Cameron, Leland, and Tegan; Anne's children Amy, Lindsay, and Ben; Louise's nieces and nephews; and his brother-in-law Thomas Cornish.

Born on August 2, 1937, in Mansfield, Ohio, Michael graduated from Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, in 1955. He then attended Swarthmore College as a Chemistry major, and graduated in 1959. Mike spent two and a half years in the U.S. Army in Germany, before attending Ohio Northern University, from which he received a law degree in 1966. He then came to Washington D.C. to the U.S. Patent Office, and advanced to the highly respected position of Primary Examiner in the Chemistry Division, making decisions on the patentability of inventions in such complex areas as polymers, coatings, and laminates.

Michael and Louise met in Washington and were married in 1974. Two years later, while on a vacation in Colorado, Michael became lost while hiking alone in the Mt. Evans area. When searchers were unable to find him after five days, Louise returned to Washington and asked the community at St. Columba's Episcopal Church to pray that he would find his way out. That Sunday morning, June 13, 1976, at about the same time as the prayers, Mike did exactly that! After five days without food, he was very weak and probably would not have survived the blizzard which arrived that night.

The experience in Colorado changed Michael's life. He and Louise became deeply involved in the life of St. Columba's. She went on to seminary and became a priest, serving at St. Columba's and later at St. John's in McLean, Virginia. Michael chose a quieter role in the two congregations, serving faithfully on their usher teams, greeting worshippers with a smile and a bulletin and helping them feel comfortable in the service.



In 2015, Michael and Louise sold their home in Northwest Washington and moved to Collington with their beloved cats. There they found a new community, where his smile, his quiet presence, and his wonderful, infectious laugh, brought a new set of friends and acquaintances. Michael had a remarkably good memory, which led to success in college, employment, and the ability to instantly recall birthdates and the sports scores of past decades. He loved tennis and was an accomplished player, having honed his skills at Swarthmore College under the tutelage of legendary tennis coach Ed Faulkner. He played with friends from the Patent Office for many years. He also loved hiking and enjoyed telling about the time he and a friend hiked through the night to reach the top of California's Mt. Whitney for the sunrise. And to hear him tell this story was to understand that this was for him an awesome, deeply moving experience.

A celebration of Michael's life will take place at St. Columba's on Saturday, December 3, at 11 a.m., followed by a reception. Donations in his memory may be given to St Columba's Episcopal Church, Washington, DC; St. John's Episcopal Church, McLean, VA; and the Humane Rescue Alliance, Washington, DC.

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