Karl William Corby Jr., 66, the founder and retired president and chairman of the board of Karl W. Corby Construction in Washington, died of cancer Jan. 22 at his home in Washington.
Mr. Corby, a fourth-generation Washingtonian, attended Sidwell Friends School and Cornell University. He served in the Army Air Forces in Europe during World War II.
In 1941 he founded Corby Construction, which specialized in building multifamily apartments throughout the Washington area, including the Grosvenor Park Apartments in Bethesda. He retired in the late 1970s and had maintained homes in Key Largo, Fla., Oyster Harbors, Mass., and Washington.
He was a former director of Riggs National Bank, Woodward & Lothrop and Acacia Mutual Life Insurance Co. and a trustee of the International Oceanographic Foundation. During the late 1940s he was one of the founders of the original Baltimore Colts football team.
Mr. Corby was also an enthusiastic golfer, a past president of the Maryland State Golf Association and a member of the Chevy Chase Club, Burning Tree Club and the Metropolitan Club.
Survivors include his wife, Joan Wiss Corby of Washington, Key Largo and Oyster Harbors; three sons, Karl W. III, of Bethesda, Robert Wiss and William Graff, both of Washington; a daughter, Constance Ray Minshall of Bethesda; a sister, Mary Ellen Brewer of Chestertown, Md., and nine grandchildren.