Douglas R. Fleming, retired Navy aviator and newsletter publisher, died Jan. 21

Douglas R. Fleming, a retired Navy aviator, publisher and 36-year member of the NPC, died Jan. 21 in Alexandria, Va., four days short of his 94th birthday.

Fleming was born in Fairmont, West Virginia, and grew up in suburban Cleveland. He became a Navy aviator during World War II and had hoped to join the State Department after graduating from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Told that he was too old for the Foreign Service, Fleming stayed in the Navy and retired as a lieutenant commander in Naples, Italy, in 1968, after his final assignment with NATO.

He lived in Naples for 20 years working for Dupont; publishing a newsletter, the Rome Daily American, which went to military bases; and heading the American Studies Center. He returned to the U.S. in 1982 and bought a farm in Virginia where he grew grapes, formed a wine cooperative, built Dominion Wine Cellars in Culpeper and joined the NPC.

Fleming was a gourmet cook and entertained friends with jokes told in a British accent. He was a member of the Cogswell Society, a 12-member Washington-based group that gathered to toast the memory of Dr. Henry Cogswell, a 19th Century temperance advocate who donated the Victorian Temperance fountain at 7th St. and Indiana Ave. NW.

His first wife, Irene Stachowicz, died in 1979. Survivors include his wife of 23 years, Nancy Kincaid.