Scott Burton Dies at 50; Noted Furniture Designer: [FINAL Edition]

Abstract

A Washington Post critic wrote in 1986 that he "wants to change the way people think about chairs and tables. Unlike many designers who take the approach that furniture can be art, Mr. [Scott Burton] takes the tack that sculpture also can be furniture."

A Post critic wrote in 1987 that Mr. Burton's furniture was actually in many ways less functional than he pretended, and he pointed out that furniture pieces weighing between 800 and 3,000 pounds do not lend themselves to easy rearrangement around the family home. "Once placed, they tend to stay placed," the critic observed, no doubt correctly.

Survivors include his wife, Joan A. "Sue" Korcel, and a son, Blaine H. Korcel, both of Springfield; a daughter, Becky S. Morehart of Arlington; a brother, Edmund, also a retired master sergeant of the Army Band, who lives in Centreville; and four sisters, Leona Furman, Florence Korcel, Stella Pisczek, and Barbara Kalinyak, all of Pennsylvania.

Scott Burton, 50, a New York sculptor whose work was a unique and startling combination of art and furniture, died Dec. 29 at a hospital in New York City. He had AIDS.

A Washington Post critic wrote in 1986 that he "wants to change the way people think about chairs and tables. Unlike many designers who take the approach that furniture can be art, Mr. Burton takes the tack that sculpture also can be furniture."

Mr. Burton's works not only adorned the streets of such cities as New York, Seattle, Cincinnati and Toronto, but were featured in one-man artistic exhibitions in such institutions as the Baltimore Museum of Art and London's Tate Gallery.

His sculptures could be stark or arresting, and were almost utilitarian. His work blurred traditional artistic boundaries to achieve a clarity of its own. He designed stools, benches, tables, and chairs, using materials that included wood, bronze, steel, plywood, concrete, lava rock, mother-of-pearl, slabs of granite, and sheets of pink onyx.

He described himself as a "public sculptor" of "user friendly" work, not a traditional sculptor. He once told a Post reporter, "I couldn't do a quote, sculpture, quote, if you asked me to."

A Post critic wrote in 1987 that Mr. Burton's furniture was actually in many ways less functional than he pretended, and he pointed out that furniture pieces weighing between 800 and 3,000 pounds do not lend themselves to easy rearrangement around the family home. "Once placed, they tend to stay placed," the critic observed, no doubt correctly.

Yet, Mr. Burton admitted that he was much more interested in getting people to think than in designing comfortable furniture.

Mr. Burton, who lived in Manhattan, was born in Greensboro, Ala., and grew up in Washington. He attended high school here and later said he was profoundly influenced by the classical architecture of this city's public buildings and monuments.

He was a 1962 graduate of Columbia University, where he also received a master's degree in literature. He was a freelance critic for Art News magazine and staff critic and editor with Art in America magazine before becoming a full-time artist in the late 1960s.

He also had organized exhibitions for the painting and sculpture department of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

He leaves no immediate survivors.

CARLETON R. TREADWELL

GWU Medical School Professor

Carleton R. Treadwell, 78, a retired professor and department chairman at the George Washington University medical school, died of cancer Dec. 30 at his home in Annandale.

He was affiliated with the medical school, where he taught biochemistry and chaired the biochemistry department, for 32 years before retiring in 1977. He also did research for such government agencies as the National Institutes of Health and the Veterans Administration. He was the author of technical works and did research in such areas as cholesterol.

Dr. Treadwell was a graduate of Battle Creek College in his native Michigan and received a master's degree and a doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Michigan. Before moving here and joining the GWU medical faculty in 1945, he had taught at Baylor University's medical school and the Southwestern Medical School in Texas.

Survivors include his wife of 48 years, Gloria Treadwell of Annandale; two daughters, Gloria Bennett of Richmond and Carla Turner of Manassas; a sister, Maxine Banks of Battle Creek, Mich.; and four grandchildren.

ANTHONY B. KORCEL

Army Band Soloist

Anthony Blaine Korcel, 72, a retired master sergeant who had been a clarinet soloist in the U.S. Army Band, died of cancer Dec. 31 at Alexandria Hospital. He lived in Springfield.

Sgt. Korcel spent 36 years on active duty, almost all of it here with the Army Band (Pershing's Own), before retiring in 1972. He played at every presidential inauguration from Franklin D. Roosevelt through Richard M. Nixon. He also served in Europe during World War II.

After retiring, he was president, concertmaster and soloist with the National Concert Band of America, an organization made up of retired military musicians. He also had done private tutoring for area clarinet students.

Mr. Korcel, who moved here when he joined the Army, was a native of Johnstown, Pa.

Survivors include his wife, Joan A. "Sue" Korcel, and a son, Blaine H. Korcel, both of Springfield; a daughter, Becky S. Morehart of Arlington; a brother, Edmund, also a retired master sergeant of the Army Band, who lives in Centreville; and four sisters, Leona Furman, Florence Korcel, Stella Pisczek, and Barbara Kalinyak, all of Pennsylvania.

ROBERT C. SMITH

Engineering Company Official

Robert Charles Smith, 64, a retired vice president for customer relations with E-Systems Inc. in Washington, died Dec. 31 at a nursing home in Arlington, Tex. He had Parkinson's disease.

Mr. Smith, who lived in Arlington, Va., from 1969 to 1985, was a native of Rochester, N.Y. He served with the Army Air Forces during World War II. He received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Rochester.

From 1951 to 1969, he worked in Texas and Florida for what is now the LTV Corp., an engineering and aerospace concern. He joined E-Systems, an engineering and research company that was formerly part of LTV, in 1969. He then came here as its vice president for customer relations. He retired in 1985 and moved to Texas later that year. He was a resident of Arlington, Tex., at the time of his death.

He had been a member of St. Agnes Catholic Church in Arlington, Va.

Survivors include his wife of 41 years, Patricia B., of Arlington, Tex.; three children, Christopher Robert Smith of Stafford, Va., and Andrew Charles Smith and Cynthia S. Cotton, both of Arlington, Va.; and five grandchildren.

HENRY C. KRAMER

Navy Official and Teacher

Henry C. Kramer, 56, a retired Navy Department planning officer and former Egyptology instructor, died of cancer Dec. 31 at his home in Reston.

Mr. Kramer began his government career here in 1962 with the Navy Department. After working for the Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration from 1981 to 1983, he returned to the Navy. He retired in 1989 from the Naval Sea Systems Command.

He was an Egyptology instructor at the D.C. Open University in the early 1970s, then taught continuing education courses in the subject for the University of Virginia in Falls Church from 1977 to 1988. He also taught at Georgetown University and Montgomery College and led groups touring ancient Egyptian sites.

Mr. Kramer was a native of Staten Island, N.Y., and a veteran of both the Navy and the merchant marine. He came to this area in 1959 and graduated from Georgetown University in 1962. He received a master's degree in government administration from George Washington University.

Survivors include his wife, Annelex, a son, Neil, and a daughter, Ingrid Kramer, all of Reston; and a sister, Kathleen Schumann of Staten Island.

MARY G. VILLATICO

Restaurant and Bakery Owner

Mary G. Villatico, 85, a former Washington bakery and restaurant owner and operator who was a lifelong area resident, died Dec. 28 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda. She had cancer and a broken hip.

Mrs. Villatico, who lived in Bethesda, was a native of Washington. She owned and operated a bakery at the old Center Market in Washington from 1935 to 1949. For the next six years, she owned and operated Mary's Luncheonette.

Her marriages to Antonio Sambataro, Biagio DiCarlantonio and Virgilio Villatico ended in divorce.

Survivors include two sons by her first marriage, Julian B. Sambataro of Burtonsville and Eugene Sambataro of Olney; a son by her second marriage, Norman DiCarlantonio of Waldorf; a sister, Helen Dall'Acqua of McLean; two brothers, Louis and Ernest Del Vecchio, both of Satellite Beach, Fla.; 14 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.

FRANCIS R. HOWARD

Plumbing and Contracting Executive

Francis R. Howard, 75, a retired mechanical contractor and plumbing company partner, died of emphysema Dec. 29 at his home in McLean.

He was a partner in Ho-war Plumbing of Springfield and a founder of the George F. Warner Co., a Washington plumbing contracting company. He was active in both companies from World War II until retiring about 1982.

Mr. Howard was born in Kentucky and moved here at an early age. He had been a member of the Oxon Hill Lions Club and the Knights of the Round Table, a Washington business club.

Survivors include his wife, Mary E. Howard, and a daughter, Margaret Wallace, both of McLean; a son, Francis W., of Annandale; a sister, Jean Pearl of Charlotte, N.C.; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.