Charles William Pelzer, 89, a former Atomic Energy official who retired in 1976 from the Energy Research and Development Administration died December 15, 2009 at Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, D.C..

Mr. Pelzer had a residence in Silver Spring for a number of years but settled in Lusby, MD, after retiring.

He was a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Pratt Institute in New York and joined the Army in 1943. Mr. Pelzer was sent to graduate school at the University of Iowa by the U. S. Army before being assigned to the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where he worked as a Planner Leader in the Y-12 electro-magnetic isotope separation plant for which he received a commendation from Secretary of War Henry Stinson. At the end of World War II he was a member of a team that developed the organization plan for the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, the successor to the
Manhattan Project.

He worked for the commission in Washington and Germantown from 1950 to 1954 and again from 1956 until it became the Energy Research and Development Administration in the 1970's. He served as Assistant Director of the Division of International Affairs in the 1960's before heading up national and international nuclear education programs as part of President Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace Program. He was responsible for constructing and operating the American Museum of Atomic Energy in Oak Ridge which included traveling education programs to thousands of high schools in the U. S.

In 1970 Mr. Pelzer was assigned to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria, as Director, Division of Scientific Technical Information, where among his responsibilities he directed the installation and operation of the worldwide International Nuclear Information System. He was a member of the scientific secretariat for the 4th International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in 1971 in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 1974-75 he served on the National Bicentennial Committee identifying and recommending projects for the celebration.

Mr. Pelzer's first foreign assignment was as a public administration advisor to the Helmand Valley Authority in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, in 1954-56, as part of the AID program. He also functioned as executive officer of the U. S. Mission to the HVA.

He was active in community affairs as building committee chairman at Northwood Presbyterian Church; president of the Chesapeake Ranch Estates Property Owners Association; president of the Chesapeake Ranch Water Company; member of the board of governors of Solomons Island Yacht Club, the architectural review committee for the Lusby Town Center, St. Paul United Methodist Church, Lions Club and American Legion Post 274. He and his wife, Pat, delivered Meals-On-Wheels for 24 years.

His marriage to Corinne Brothers ended in divorce.

Survivors include his loving wife of 26 years Patricia Ann; daughters Patricia Ann Jones (Thomas) of Downingtown, PA, and Jean Denise Fleming of Rockville, VA; stepdaughter Elizabeth Ann Cibula (Michael) of Littlestown, PA, and stepson Timothy Winfield Magruder (Teri) of Damascus, MD; nine grandchildren, five great-grandchildren; and a brother, William Pelzer, of Whittier, CA.

He was preceded in death by his parents Grace and Harold Pelzer of Laguna Hills, CA.

The family will receive friends on Monday, December 21, from 2-4 & 6-8 PM at the Rausch Funeral Home, P.A., 20 American Lane, Lusby, MD. Funeral service will be celebrated on Tuesday, December 22, at St. Paul United Methodist Church, 11000 H. G. Trueman Rd., Lusby, MD at 11:00 AM. Interment in MD Veterans Cemetery, Crownsville, MD at 2:30 PM. Should friend's desire memorial contributions may be made in his memory to St. Paul United Methodist Church.

Arrangements provided by Rausch Funeral Home.