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Michael Selves, of Fairfax, Va., who would have turned 54 on Sunday, was no button-down Pentagon bureaucrat.

His wife, Gayle, said that about two years ago Selves, director of information management for the U.S. Army, was to deliver a speech before an audience of government contractors at the Pentagon. The briefings were known to be a bit staid. So to break with tradition, he walked up to podium and started to loosen his necktie. He then took it off and began to strip.

Gayle Selves said the audience was aghast as the portly man stood before them in his underwear. But "after that meeting, he got standing-room-only crowds," said Selves, who had been married to her husband for six years. "Everybody loved him. He really knew how to boost morale."

The couple, both avid golfers, had planned to retire next year and "laugh and play golf forever."

Profile courtesy of THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE.