Hilda (Salamy) Gohrband of Potomac, Maryland, passed away on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 after a brief hospitalization at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland from complications of a very aggressive cancer. She was 69 years old. She is survived by her husband of 49 years, Allan; daughter Kimberly, son-in law Steven (Sage), and step-grandchildren Connor and Natalie. Hilda is also survived by her four siblings Matilda, Sam, Linda (Fuller), and Richard all of whom reside in Maryland.
Hilda was born into a Catholic family in Jerusalem. Both of her parents preceded her in death. Her mother, Jamileh (Ghanayem), was born in Chile and her father Salameh in the United States. Hilda came to the United States as a very young child and grew up in the protestant faith in Hyattsville, Maryland. During high school she won science fairs and loved learning. At 18 years old, she became a naturalized United States Citizen and went to the University of Maryland to study Biological Sciences.
While working at the Goddard Space Flight Center in the early 1960’s she worked on the Mercury and Gemini missions and met Allan. They married in 1966. Hilda continued to work at Goddard and was in the backup Mission Control Center during the first Apollo lunar landing. She then began a forty-year award-studded career at the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency. She was a successful entrepreneur creating and owning a medical software company, a founder of the Chesapeake Catalina Yacht Club, President of the Potomac Chamber of Commerce (1992), and NOAA Silver Medal Award Winner in 2003.
After her retirement in 2013, she became a very active member of The Capital Speakers Club of Washington D.C., the Welcome to Washington International Club, the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary, and started Women in Transition. While enthusiastic about everything she did, her greatest interest and finest personal attribute was her extraordinary enthusiasm for people. She greeted the world and all who were in it with a smile and loved contributing to the lives of those around her. She was especially delighted with the sisterhood that these clubs brought into her life. Hilda’s favorite activities included tennis, sailing, golf, entertaining, teaching, packing horse show lunches, and home decorating.
A memorial service will be held in her honor at 1 pm, Saturday, January 31, 2015, at Hines-Rinaldi Funeral Home at 11800 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland.
Memorial donations may be made in her name to support the pancreatic cancer research program at Johns Hopkins at https://secure.jhu.edu/form/kimmel or to the American Cancer Society.
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