Bernard M. Kassell – Commander, United States Navy

From a contemporary news report:

Bernard M. Kassell, 85, a retired Navy Commander and president of a language translation company, died March 11, 1998 at Arlington Hospital of injuries suffered February 12, 1998 when his car was struck by a truck on Route 50 in Arlington, Virginia.

For the last 38 years, Commander Kassell provided translation services to government agencies, specializing in Russian, French, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Spanish, Italian and Serbo-Croatian languages as president of Translation Consultants Ltd.

He retired from the Navy in 1960 after a 29-year military career that included sea duty in the Pacific during World War II, service with the Central Intelligence Agency, engineering and electronic assignments and various commands at sea. During the 1950s, he was commander of the Military Sea Transportation Service in Casablanca, Morocco, then was posted in Washington for his final assignment in the office of the Chief of Naval Operations.

While serving in the Navy, he attended Cornell University and graduated from the University of Maryland.

Commander Kassell, a resident of Arlington, was born in Chicago. He began his Navy career in 1931 as an apprentice seaman.

He had been a docent at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History for 14 years and a competitive swimmer all his life. In recent years, he had been a regular competitor in the D.C. Masters Swim Program.

His marriage to Dorothy Givens ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife, Ann D. Kassell of Arlington; a daughter from his first marriage, Janice A. Kay of California; a stepson, Charles D. Nelson of California; and a sister.


KASSELL, BERNARD M.

On Wednesday, March 11, 1998, at Arlington Hospital, BERNARD M. KASSELL, of Arlington, VA, husband of Ann D. Kassell; father of Janice Anne Kay; brother of Shirley G. Davidson. F. Services will be held on Wednesday, March 18 at Ft. Myer Chapel at 2 p.m. Interment Arlington National Cemetery.

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