Rowan LeCompte | Stained-glass artist, 88

Rowan LeCompte, 88, who designed more than 40 of the stained-glass windows at the Washington National Cathedral - including its largest and most spectacular, the "Creation" rose window - died Feb. 11 at a hospital near his Waynesboro, Va., home after a bout with pneumonia, his stepdaughter Susan Arritt said.

The cathedral became an obsession for Mr. LeCompte. In 1941, at age 16, he approached the cathedral's architect, Philip Hubert Frohman, with a design for a small window. The design was approved, and Mr. LeCompte was paid $100. From that day, the artist devoted his life to stained glass in general, and to National Cathedral in particular. It was the only job he would ever have.

When the "Creation" window was dedicated in 1976, Washington Post architecture critic Wolf Von Eckardt hailed it as "surely one of the masterpieces of Christendom."

In 1990, construction of the cathedral was finally completed after 83 years. But Mr. LeCompte kept going. He designed his final window about four years ago. - Washington Post