Levin Gale Shreve, 88, former CIA official and author died of heart failure May 3 at the Brightwood Retirement Community in Lutherville, Md.
He was born and raised in the exclusive Bolton Hill area of Baltimore.
Mr. Shreve served with the Army during World War II and was discharged in 1946 with the rank of colonel. The same year, he joined the CIA, where he became known as an excellent strategist and analyst. He served as CIA station manager in Baltimore and Honolulu and held posts in the Middle East and Washington before retiring in 1971.
Mr. Shreve wrote two spy novels and a biography of Tench Tilghman, his ancestor and the Revolutionary War patriot who rode to Philadelphia in 1781 to bring the news of Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown to the Continental Congress.
"He was a beautiful writer," said longtime friend Charles B. Reeves Jr. "He had the most lovely, quiet sense of humor that could deflate pomposity very easily."
Mr. Shreve said he wrote the biography because Tilghman was given short shrift in the historical record.
"I felt that the guy had been neglected; after all, he was by Washington's side from 1776 to 1783, when he [Tilghman] died," Mr. Shreve told the Baltimore Evening Sun in 1981. The biography was published in 1983.
Survivors include his wife of 43 years, Barbara; four nephews and a niece.
Washington Times May 8, 1998
Levin Gale Shreve, 88, former CIA official and author died of heart failure May 3 at the Brightwood Retirement Community in Lutherville, Md.
He was born and raised in the exclusive Bolton Hill area of Baltimore.
Mr. Shreve served with the Army during World War II and was discharged in 1946 with the rank of colonel. The same year, he joined the CIA, where he became known as an excellent strategist and analyst. He served as CIA station manager in Baltimore and Honolulu and held posts in the Middle East and Washington before retiring in 1971.
Mr. Shreve wrote two spy novels and a biography of Tench Tilghman, his ancestor and the Revolutionary War patriot who rode to Philadelphia in 1781 to bring the news of Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown to the Continental Congress.
"He was a beautiful writer," said longtime friend Charles B. Reeves Jr. "He had the most lovely, quiet sense of humor that could deflate pomposity very easily."
Mr. Shreve said he wrote the biography because Tilghman was given short shrift in the historical record.
"I felt that the guy had been neglected; after all, he was by Washington's side from 1776 to 1783, when he [Tilghman] died," Mr. Shreve told the Baltimore Evening Sun in 1981. The biography was published in 1983.
Survivors include his wife of 43 years, Barbara; four nephews and a niece.
Washington Times May 8, 1998
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