David E. Coffey, CIA Officer, 68

[DGH]

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David E. Coffey CIA Officer

David Eugene Coffey, 68, a technical operations officer and senior
manager in the CIA's directorate of operations as well as the
directorate of science and technology, died March 21 [2008] at Plaza
Medical Center of Fort Worth [Texas] after a stroke.

Mr. Coffey served in the Central Intelligence Agency from 1968 to 1995
and was a member of the Senior Intelligence Service. His work included
the development of a covert communications system for intelligence
operations.

His honors included the CIA's Intelligence Medal of Merit and, in
1997, he was recognized as one of the 50 Trailblazers of the agency.

He told a Fort Worth reporter in 1997 that he worked undercover in
Europe, Africa and the Near East on communications, counterterrorism
and nonproliferation of weapons.

"Most of my career I was involved in agent operations -- training them
and working with them," he said.

Mr. Coffey was born in Hobbs, New Mexico, and raised in the Fort Worth
area. He was a 1962 chemistry graduate of Arlington State College, now
the University of Texas at Arlington [Texas]. He served in the Navy in
the mid-1960s.

A former Sterling resident, he moved in retirement to Willow Park,
Texas, near Fort Worth.

His marriages to Gayle McKee Coffey and Olga Coffey ended in divorce.

Survivors include a son from his first marriage, Greg Coffey of Vienna
[Virginia]; two brothers; a half-brother; and two granddaughters.

--

Adam Bernstein

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/19/AR2008041902065.html