The stories of those who died

Arthur Daniels, 51

Sylvia Frasier, 53

Kathy Gaarde, 62

John Roger Johnson, 73

Frank Kohler, 50

Mary Francis Knight, 51

Kenneth B. Proctor, 46

Vishnu Pandit, 61

Gerald L. Read, 58

Richard M. Ridgell, 52

Michael Arnold

Arnold was a Navy veteran and avid pilot who was building a light airplane at his home, said his uncle, Steve Hunter, who also said Arnold retired from the Navy as a commander or lieutenant commander and had previously been stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. He worked at the Navy Yard on a team that designed assault vessels for the military. Arnold and his wife, Jolanda, had been married for more than 30 years, Hunter said. They had two grown sons, Eric and Christopher.

Sylvia Frasier

Frasier had worked at Naval Sea Systems Command as an information assurance manager since 2000, according to a LinkedIn profile in her name. She studied at Strayer University, earning a bachelor of science in computer information systems in 2000 and a master’s in information systems in 2002. Her duties included providing policy and guidance on network security, assuring that all computer systems at the headquarters met requirements.

Kathleen Gaarde

Gaarde was a financial analyst who supported the organization responsible for the shipyards, her husband, Douglass, wrote in an email. “Today my life partner of 42 years (38 of them married) was taken from me, my grown son and daughter, and friends,” he wrote. “We were just starting to plan our retirement activities and now none of that matters. It hasn’t fully sunk in yet but I know I already dearly miss her.”Douglass Gaarde, an Illinois native, also worked for the Navy until his retirement last year.

John R. Johnson

The logistics analyst was perhaps most notorious for his bear hugs, his daughter said. “Rib-crunchers,” Megan Johnson said with a laugh as she remembered her dad Tuesday. “You didn’t have to pay for a chiropractor.”The Derwood, Md., man — the oldest of the victims in Monday’s shootings — graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash. He studied mathematics, but he went into the field of reliability engineering, said Megan Johnson, third-youngest of his four daughters. Johnson would have celebrated his 74th birthday on Oct. 7. He also leaves his wife of more than eight years, Judy, and four stepchildren.

Frank Kohler

The married father of two college-age daughters had driven up to the Washington Navy Yard for a meeting Monday when the shootings occurred, friends told Allen. Allen said Kohler had taken over for him as site manager for the defense contractor, but that his friend had since left the company. Allen was unsure what business Kohler had at the Navy Yard. He was a 1985 graduate of Pennsylvania’s Slippery Rock University in computer science.

Mary Knight

An information technology specialist, Knight was the daughter of a former Green Beret instructor, according to a family spokesman. Her father served at the Fort Bragg Army installation and retired in Fayetteville, N.C. She attended high school in Fayetteville and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Vishnu Pandit

The Marine engineer and naval architect preferred the nickname Kisan, the Hindi word for “peasant.” It suited the hard-working Indian immigrant, known for his devotion to family, community and his 30-year civilian Navy career. A Mumbai native, Pandit earned a bachelor’s degree in marine engineering in India in 1973 before coming to America and receiving a degree in naval architecture from the University of Michigan. Married to his wife Anjali since 1978, Pandit had two sons and a granddaughter, Jain said.

Kenneth Proctor

Proctor worked as a civilian utilities foreman at the Navy Yard, his ex-wife, Evelyn Proctor, said. He spent 22 years working for the federal government. She spoke to Kenneth early Monday morning before he left for work at the Navy Yard. It was his regular call. The high school sweethearts talked every day, even after they divorced this year after 19 years of marriage, and they shared custody of their two teenage sons. “We were still very close. It wasn’t a bitter divorce,” Evelyn Proctor said. “We still talked every day, and we lived 10 minutes away from each other.”

The Associated Press