NORFOLK, Va. – Herbert Melendy of Norfolk, Va., formerly of Wilton, died April 17, in Norfolk.

He was born in Wilton on Sept. 25, 1933, eldest child of Kilburn and Maxine Melendy. A graduate of Wilton Academy and Brown University, he entered the Navy in 1955.

He had a long and fulfilling career as a Naval aviator, with flying assignments with Patrol Squadron 24, Airborne Early Warning Squadron 13 and Airborne Early Warning Squadron 4 (the Navy Hurricane Hunters) and in overseas assignments at Kenitra, Morocco and Keflavik, Iceland.

He developed a subspecialty in the management of manpower allocations and assisted in redesigning the staffing of the Navy of the Republic of Vietnam, at Saigon in 1970. In 1983, he retired from active Naval service as a captain, at the conclusion of an assignment as director of Military Manpower at Naval Reserve headquarters in New Orleans. Subsequently, he served as a civilian Navy Manpower specialist until his final retirement in 2004, concluding a career of 48 years of military and civilian service with the Navy.

Herb was a charter member of a Kiwanis club at Keflavik and also participated in Kiwanis Clubs at Slidell, La., and for several years in Norfolk. He was an active Lutheran layman and a member of First Lutheran Church of Norfolk. Over most of a span of 50 years, he was an active participant in choirs of churches and chapels, which his family attended.

An amateur genealogist, he traced many ancestral lines of descent from the 17th Century migrations to the Colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. In his later years, he became an outspoken advocate for improvement in interfaith relations in this increasingly multicultural society.

In 1957, he married Marilyn Palmquist of Hutchinson, Kan., who survives him. Additionally, he is survived by his brothers, Ronald and David Melendy; his sisters, Judy Pelchat and Jane Walker; his three children, William Melendy, Paul Melendy and Sarah Smits and their spouses; and the four grandchildren, Ingrid Smits, Sol Melendy, Maira Smits and Tai Melendy.