Richard Karon

Richard Karon, a retired businessman and World War II veteran who lived in Reston for 37 years, died on January 18, 2015. He was 92.

Mr. Karon enlisted in the US Army in 1943 and spent three years in the Medical Detachment of the 261st Infantry Regiment, attaining the rank of Master Sergeant. He served as a surgical tech during and after the war and was awarded the Bronze Star and Combat Medic's Badge, among other decorations. He saw combat in the Central Europe Rhineland campaign and other battles, and was honorably discharged in 1946.

After the war, Mr. Karon spent 40 years in various management roles in the kitchen and bath cabinet manufacturing industry, until his retirement in 1988 from Winchester-based American Woodmark Corp.

Mr. Karon was born in 1922, in Brooklyn, NY, one of five children of Russian Jewish immigrants. He graduated from Boys High School and Brooklyn College, and received a Master of Science degree in Education from Columbia University in New York. He worked briefly as a high school science teacher before starting his career in the cabinet manufacturing industry.

He moved his family to Reston in 1971. In 2007, he relocated to Seal Beach, CA.

Mr. Karon was married to Shirley Wolf Karon, a nurse, for 59 years, until her death in 2008. He is remembered by his children, Donald Karon, of Huntington Beach, CA, Beth Karon Goldberg, of North Attleboro, MA, and Paul Karon, of Los Angeles, CA, by his four grandchildren, and by many nieces, nephews and friends.

A memorial service will be held in February at his daughter's home in Massachusetts. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (http://www.ushmm.org/support).