Mr. Ozga retired from the CIA in 1978 as deputy chief of the clandestine service’s European division. On retirement, he received a medal for exceptional achievement.
Henry Adam Ozga was born in Trenton, N.J., the son of Polish immigrants. He grew up in a working-class neighborhood, where his parents had a well-tended garden that instilled in him a love of gardening and landscaping, according to his daughter.
He served in the Navy during World War II. In 1951, he graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and joined the CIA. His overseas posts included London and Frankfurt, Germany.
On his retirement from the CIA, Mr. Ozga turned a lifelong avocation in horticulture and landscape design into a full-time vocation. He went back to college and received a certificate in landscape design from George Washington University. For two decades, he specialized in designing nursing home and retirement home gardens and landscapes, including the landscaping at the Ingleside at Rock Creek retirement community in Washington.
He was a former president of the Master Gardeners of Washington and a director of Garden Resources of the District of Columbia.
Except for his overseas tours with the CIA, Mr. Ozga had lived in Washington since 1947, including the last 54 years in a house on 39th Street NW, south of Chevy Chase Circle. In his latter years, his neighbors provided services similar to those he might have received had he moved to an assisted-living facility, his daughter said.
“They invited him to dinner, baked him cookies, shoveled his sidewalk, power-washed his patio and brought cuttings from their gardens,” she said.
He was known around the neighborhood for always wearing at least two sweaters — even in the warmest weather. When asked why, he usually answered, “Cold hands, warm heart.”
In 1955, Mr. Ozga married Ellen Louise Englert. She died in 2006.
After her death, Mr. Ozga returned to Georgetown University as a student in a “seniors” auditing program that permits senior citizens to enroll in graduate and undergraduate classes. He concentrated on courses in politics and religion. He found a meaningful symmetry in ending his higher-education experience at the same place where it began more than 60 years earlier, his daughter said.
Survivors include three children, David A. Ozga of Seattle, Ellen O. Boardman of Washington and H. Adam Ozga of Jacksonville, Fla.; a sister; and five grandchildren.
— Bart Barnes
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