Michael Gavula

GAVULA MICHAEL GAVULA (Age 89) Michael Gavula passed away on December 15, 2009 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, after a brief illness. He was born October 29, 1920, in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, the son of the late Theodore and Anna Gavula (née Kaczmarczyk). He was the middle of nine siblings. He served in the U.S. Army in World War II, in the Pacific theater. After the war, he was stationed in Germany, where he met Hildegard Buttler, whom he married in Heidelberg in 1952. He retired from the Army in 1962 at Fort Niagara, New York, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He subsequently completed a degree in Russian at the University of Pennsylvania, and was employed at the CIA for the next 43 years, retiring in January 2007. In 1983, he was awarded the CIA Career Intelligence Medal. He is survived by his wife Hildegard of McLean, Virginia; his son and daughter-in-law Michael E. Gavula and Leslie Reinhardt of Cheverly, Maryland; daughter and son-in-law Linda and Bruce Sherman of Nelson County, Virginia; grandsons Michael Drake Sherman of Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts and Alex Sherman of Brooklyn, New York; brother John Gavula of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; brother Myron Gavula and sister Elizabeth Cowles, both of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. A service will be held at the Fort Myer Post Chapel on Thursday, February 18 at 1 p.m., followed by a graveside service and burial at Arlington National Cemetery.