Charles Powers Public Relations Professional

When Charles Powers, a public relations practitioner who died Jan. 3, was a WJLA-TV reporter in Washington in 1974, he helped break the infamous Tidal Basin story by his knowledge of a congressman's cranium.

Early in the morning of Oct. 9, 1974, U.S. Park Police stopped a Lincoln Continental, driven by an intoxicated Rep. Wilbur D. Mills (D-Ark.). An exotic dancer named Fanne Foxe jumped out of the congressman's car and jumped into the Tidal Basin.

Cameraman Larry Krebs, the only journalist on the scene with a camera, filmed officers fishing Foxe out of the water and covering her with a horse blanket. The sole shot of Mills was of the back of his head, and Mr. Powers was called in by an anxious producer.

Mr. Powers assured him it was Mills, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, because he recognized a distinctively oversize feature. "Wilbur Mills had unusual ears," he said.

Mr. Powers, 64, who died of cancer at Inova Alexandria Hospital, left the news business soon thereafter to become a press secretary to Sen. Richard Schweiker (R-Pa.) and deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the Transportation Department during the George H.W. Bush administration.

He returned to Capitol Hill in 1992 to be press secretary for the Senate Finance Committee under Sen. Robert Packwood (R-Ore.) and in 1996 worked on Elizabeth Dole's press staff at the Republican National Convention.

He was senior vice president at Porter Novelli public relations firm and later started his own company, Powers Public Affairs.

Born in New York, Charles Henri Powers graduated from the University of Miami in 1965. While he was in college, he worked for the Miami television station WTV5 and interviewed the Beatles as they filmed their movie "Help!" in the area. He received a master's degree in film in 1967 from New York University.

He then served in the Air Force's public affairs staff in Southeast Asia and the Pentagon. He joined the Air Force Reserves after his discharge and made several motion pictures for the military until he retired in 1987 at the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Survivors include his wife of 36 years, Rosalind Silverstone of Alexandria; and two children, Alex Powers and Greg Powers, both of Alexandria.