William Gahan Breithaupt II, 64, a longtime resident of Silver Spring, Maryland, passed away on Saturday, August 31, 2019 with family by his side. Gahan was born in Mobile, Alabama on April 24, 1955 to the late William Gahan Breithaupt and Myrtle Downing Breithaupt. As a child in Huntsville, Alabama, Gahan participated in Boy Scouts, was a recipient of many scholastic awards and was a lead performer in Fantasy Playhouse children’s theater and Huntsville Little Theatre. He graduated in 1973 from S.R. Butler High School as a National Honor Society student, Commander in the JROTC, member of the Junior Civitans and Aerospace Team. He received his B.S. from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and M.B.A from Mississippi College, Jackson, Mississippi.

Gahan began his Federal Government career as a NASA Co-op college student and upon graduation was hired by HUD. He moved on to the IRS in 1981 at their National Office in Washington, DC and worked with the initial planning and designing of electronic filing and artificial intelligence projects. In the ITS International Operations Office, Gahan was the U.S. lead consultant to the Indonesian Tax Commissioner in Jakarta from 1990 to 1993.

In 1996, Gahan joined the National Institutes of Health, first as the CIO and Executive Officer at NINDS and since 2004 was the Executive Officer at NIAMS serving as the principal advisor to the Director and the Institute’s senior staff on all aspects of administrative management involved in operating the Institute.

In 2007, Gahan received the NIH Director’s Mentoring Award in recognition of his strong and steady commitment to mentoring staff with wide ethnic diversity and across a broad professional spectrum in NIH and NIAMS. He was also selected as the recipient of the 2008 Supervisor/Program Manager of the Year award presented by the Eastern Region International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR) for his contributions to successfully applied sound human resource management principles in carrying on his program responsibilities.

President Obama, in 2010, conferred on Gahan Breithaupt the rank of Meritorious Executive in the Senior Executive Service for sustained superior accomplishment and noteworthy achievement and excellence for management and efficiency in the public sector.

Gahan’s full laugh, his optimism, childlike charm, and compassion for everyone he met filled us with joy. He was a world traveler, antiques collector, movie aficionado, cookbook collector, dedicated cat rescue advocate, and particularly loved reading science fiction.

Gahan is survived by his beloved husband and partner of 35 years, Jeffrey Chappell. His siblings: Rosemary Breithaupt (partner Rick Mayfield), Deirdre Breithaupt, Patrick Breithaupt (Barbara Spiegle Breithaupt), and Claire Breithaupt-Bennett (Garner Bennett); five nieces, Sydney Breithaupt, Madeleine Breithaupt, Therese Breithaupt, Christina Breithaupt, Emily Bennett; and his nephew Nicholas Bennett. Brother-in-law to John Chappell (Becky), Miles Chappell (Ann), and Jessica Chappell (Eric Tomechak).

Relatives and friends may call at Francis J. Collins Funeral Home, 500 University Boulevard West, Silver Spring, MD, (Valet Parking), Thursday, September 5, from 7-9 pm. A Celebration of Gahan’s Life will take place on Friday, September 6, 2019 at 2:00 pm at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church, 9601 Cedar Lane, Bethesda, Maryland.

Please consider making a donation, designated in the memory of Gahan Breithaupt in a letter to The National Cancer Institute for the continued fight against lymphoma cancer, attention: Director, National Cancer Institute, Building 31, Room 11A-16, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, for more information please visit www.cancer.gov/about-nci/overview/contributing.