Proud parents Robin and Andrew Ganahl introduced their daughter, Lauren, born Jan. 19, to their next-door neighbor, Walter Mess, at their home on Seaton Circle Tuesday. Lauren joins a sister, Alisa, 21 months.

Proud parents Robin and Andrew Ganahl introduced their daughter, Lauren, born Jan. 19, to their next-door neighbor, Walter Mess, at their home on Seaton Circle Tuesday. Lauren joins a sister, Alisa, 21 months. Mess, who celebrated his 96th birthday last month, is a longtime Falls Church resident and civic leader. A lawyer who specialized in real estate, mortgage and insurance business, he and his late wife, Jean, moved into their new home on Seaton Lane in 1941 – he paid $400 for the lot and the street was a dirt road – when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He enlisted in the Army and spent the rest of the war conducting intelligence gathering and guerrilla operations behind enemy lines in Europe, North Africa and Asia as an officer in the agency that was a forerunner of the CIA. Mess was honored by the City Council with Walter Mess Day in 2004. (Photo: Albert Eisele)