M. Lindsey Hagood, 78, a former chief engineer with the Federal Aviation Administration and a civic activist who supported D.C. statehood, died of cancer of the esophagus Dec. 30 at his home in Adelphi.

Mr. Hagood, known as Lin, came to the Washington area in 1957 and began designing hospitals throughout the country for the Veterans Administration. From 1966 to 1987, he was chief engineer for the FAA at Dulles International and Reagan National airports. He worked on most of the buildings near Dulles, a son said.

In 1997, M. Lindsey Hagood, center, was among those arrested for disrupting a meeting announcing the federal takeover of most city operations. (Juana Arias -- The Washington Post)

After retiring in 1987, Mr. Hagood increased his volunteer activities and community activism. He joined CURE -- Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants -- in advocating for sentencing and prison changes. He urged the medical use of marijuana but later declined such medication during his cancer treatment. He was particularly concerned with obtaining legal and safe medical access to marijuana for District residents who could not afford it.

In the 1990s, Mr. Hagood was active in the N Street Citizen Association in the District and represented the group in questioning the funding for the then-proposed convention center at Mount Vernon Square. He also voiced the group's opposition to legislation seeking to repeal council members' term limits.

Mr. Hagood was a vocal supporter of home rule for the District and opposed the federally mandated takeover of most city government functions in 1997.

In August of that year, he and other protesters were arrested for disrupting the meeting in which Andrew F. Brimmer, chairman of the D.C. financial control board, declared that he would control nearly all the government and barred Mayor Marion Barry from making any major decisions affecting the city without clearing them with him. Mr. Hagood's arrest was captured in a front-page color photograph in The Washington Post.

He also supported a commuter tax for the District. In 1995, he was shown in another Post photo holding a bucket for donations and handing out leaflets on 14th Street to morning commuters from Virginia.

"He was a big believer in direct democracy and that everyone should participate," said one of his sons, Kevin Hagood of Manassas. "He was always vocal about civil rights, always on the side of the little guy."

Mr. Hagood was born in Quincy, Fla., and raised in Hartford, Conn. He attended the College of William and Mary before enlisting in the Army in 1944 and serving stateside for two years. He graduated from Virginia Tech and received a master's degree in architecture in 1951 from Virginia Tech, where he was a member of the Tau Sigma Delta architecture honor society. He then worked with private architectural firms for five years.

Since coming to Washington, he had lived in Fairfax City, Alexandria, Manassas and, for 23 years, the District. He moved to Adelphi in 2003.

He was a founding member of the Buckhall Civic Association in Prince William County in the 1960s and a Boy Scout leader in the 1970s.

In addition to his son Kevin, survivors include his wife, Doris France Hagood of Manassas; three other children, John Lindsey Hagood of Washington, Kim-Ann Cybuski of Hume, and Amanda Lee Hagood of Raleigh, N.C. ; and two grandchildren.

Read this article in The Washington Post, January 10, 2005.