William Kenneth Condrell

William Kenneth Condrell, a successful Washington, D.C. attorney and leader of the area’s Greek community, who later in his life became an educator and worked in the District’s public schools, died on Monday, August 15, at his home in Washington. He was 89 years old. His wife, Stacie Condrell, was at his side at the time of his passing.

As a leading tax-policy partner at Washington’s Steptoe & Johnson from 1968-1990, Mr. Condrell developed and advocated for tax policies that promoted reforestation and the concept of renewable resources. He also served as an adjunct professor at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Duke University for more than 20 years. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mr. Condrell was chosen by the American Bar Association to serve as Country Liaison to Latvia as part of the ABA’s Central European and Eurasian Legal Initiative, promoting the rule of law in that country, and with his wife Stacie developed and published a Latvian-English legal dictionary. He also served as a member of an ABA rule-of-law initiative in Mongolia during that period. Later in his life Mr. Condrell changed careers, shifting his focus to positively impact the lives of DC area children by earning a Masters Degree in education from Johns Hopkins University and working in District of Columbia’s public schools as a special education teacher and director of the school systems mediation program. Merging his careers, he was appointed by the D.C. Superior Court as a Special Adviser for Abused and Neglected Children in 2007 and as a Guardian ad Litem in 2009

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An important member of Washington’s Greek Community, in the mid-1960s Mr. Condrell chaired the small group who founded the St. George Parish and Greek Orthodox Church in Bethesda, Maryland. Mr. Condrell served as the first Chairman of its Board of Trustees from 1965-68.

Mr. Condrell was born in Buffalo, New York on September 19, 1926. His parents were Paul Kenneth Condrell and Celia Olga Schinas, both Greek immigrants to the United States. He excelled in school, president of the student council at Kenmore High School outside Buffalo. Accepted into the U.S. Navy’s officer training program during World War II, he graduated at 19 from Yale University in 1946, and served as a Lieutenant (Junior Grade) in the Naval Reserve from 1944-46. He earned a masters degree in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1947 and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1950. Moving to Washington, he served as an Associate Economic Adviser at the Office of Management and Budget in the Executive Office of the President under President Harry S. Truman, then as a management consultant and manager in the business community, before beginning his private law practice in Washington in 1960.

Mr. Condrell is survived by his wife Stacie Oliver Condrell, an architect in Washington, D.C.; his sons Paul Condrell (an entrepreneur in Guangzhou, China), William Condrell (a physician in Washington, D.C.), and Alexander Condrell (an investment adviser in Chicago); his daughters-in-law Stacy Henderson Condrell, Wendy LeHew Condrell, and Stephanie Phillips Condrell his grandchildren Eber, Abraham, Jade, Gray, Andrew and Jacob Condrell; and his sister Elaine C. Ogden of Arlington, Virginia. Mr. Condrell was loved and admired by his many nieces, nephews cousins and koumbaroi and was an enduring source of inspiration and leadership for his extended family.

Funeral services will be held at St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Bethesda, Maryland, on Saturday, August 20, at 11 a.m. We will receive family and friends at St. George prior to the funeral service from 10-11. In lieu of flowers, Bill would much prefer a more lasting token to a charity of your choice or to those he believed especially important, the St. George Greek Orthodox Church (Bethesda MD) Philanthropic Fund or North Star Academy Charter School of Newark NJ (of Uncommon Schools).