ᐅ District of Columbia Death Notices 2009-2024
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Marcel Arthur Wiedmaier (Mike) was born Marcel Arthur Clement Joseph Laurent in Antwerp, Belgium in Catholic Flanders on 24,1932 and died on 8, 2013 at the age of 81 in Washington DC from a long battle with Parkinsons Disease.

He was the son and only child of Marcel Van Robaeys and Leopoldina Adolphina Maria Ferdinand Laurent. His mothers and fathers family owned and operated successful master diamond cutting and export/import businesses in Belgium, respectively. His father had a very courageous and adventurous spirit, a real Indiana Jones type character, who had many adventures and voyages to Africa and the Middle East on his boats the LAvenir and the Mercado. Unfortunately, his father died far too young at the age of 27 years old. Prior to his death, he had been missing for over a year in the Middle East suffering from amnesia and head trauma inflicted upon him when he was robbed and brutally beaten for his diamonds on his motorcycle ride between the Port of Haifa and Jerusalem. The road bandits threw him into a ravine and left him for dead. Miraculously, a British Army Officer just happened upon him and saved his life by delivering him safely to the British Hospital in Nazareth. The bandits had also stolen his identification papers, but in 1933 no one had cell phones, internet or 24-hour news stations, therefore, it took his family a year of searching before they found him and brought him back to Belgium. Thereafter, he suffered through multiple brain surgeries, tremendous physical and mental anguish and never fully recovered. He soon died in Brussels in 1935.

However, before his father left Belgium to go on what would be his last voyage, he had fallen in love with young Marcels mother, who was the love of his life, Leopoldina. were planning to be married upon his return, but instead of a promise ring, he gave her his most prized possession since childhood, a Stradivarius Violin. During the same time that his father was missing, his mother gave birth to the young Marcel and named him after his father. Unbeknownst, to both Leopoldina and young Marcel, his father had tragically died, never to re-unite with his two great loves, his son and intended wife. Young Marcel was only three years old at the time of his fathers death and sadly would never meet him. However, he was blessed to be raised by his loving mother, aunt and grandparents. enrolled him in a notable Jesuit Boarding School in Antwerp where he received an excellent education that would serve him well the rest of his life. When Marcel was a mere teenager, his entire family was forced to flee for their lives from Antwerp to the South of France as the Nazi invasion had taken over his homeland of Belgium. Subsequent to the end of World War II, he and his family returned home to their beloved Belgium. During this same time period, his mother met and married Wilmot Harry Wiedmaier, a US Army Officer, who adopted Marcel at the age of 16 and moved him and his mother to The United States of America. During the adoption process, young Marcels last name was changed from Laurent to Wiedmaier.

Marcel arrived in the USA speaking fluent Dutch, Flemish, French, German and limited English. He attended Monterey High School in California for one year and later graduated from High School in the San Francisco Bay Area. He played middle line-backer in the first High School football game he saw and did so well, that his team mates called him The Belgian Basher. It was there that his American high school teacher gave him the nickname Mike. It was also there, in Spanish class, that he met his beloved, Virginia Walker, who would soon become his wife. Shortly after graduating from high school, he married the love of his life, Gini, with whom he would spend the rest of his life. During this same time, he enlisted in the US Air Force as a Private First Class (PFC) and was assigned to Okinawa and Formosa during the Korean War. He performed critical intelligence and recognizance mapping missions for the US military. Subsequent to the war, he enrolled and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley majoring in International Affairs and Political Science and was a member of Delta Phi Epsilon a professional fraternity for Foreign Service. graduation, he was commissioned as an Officer in the United States Air Force and over the years his career soared from a PFC to a Full Bird Colonel. He was honored and privileged to serve under the legendary General Curtis LeMay, The Chief of Staff to the Unites States Air Force for the Kennedy Administration during the Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis and later in the Office of The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) under General David C. Jones, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the Pentagon in Washington DC. In addition, he worked under The Secretary of Defense Harold Brown during the Carter Administration and Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger during the Reagan Administration while he was assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. During the Ford Administration he accompanied Vice President Nelson Rockefeller on Air Force Two several times to Paris and to the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City. Further, he was a decorated intelligence officer that spoke six languages with a top-secret clearance. He was also awarded both the Bronze Star and Meritorious Service Medals for wartime bravery and excellence in service during the Vietnam War.

retiring from the US Air Force, he was recruited by Hughes Aircraft where he spent over a decade as a Corporate International Marketing Executive leading their Missile Systems Group for the European Region and coincidently returning him back to his native country of Belgium. This assignment gave him continued...