Anna Der-Vartanian died of cardiac arrest at age 90 in McLean, Virginia, following distinguished careers in the U.S. Navy and CIA.
Anna Der-Vartanian died on August 4, 2011, in McLean, Virginia, at the age of 90, as a result of cardiac arrest. Her death marked the end of a remarkable life defined by decades of pioneering service to the United States, first in the Navy and later within the intelligence community.
By the time of her passing, Der-Vartanian had amassed a legacy as one of the most significant trailblazers for women in American military and government service. She had spent nearly twenty years in the U.S. Navy, becoming its first female Master Chief Petty Officer, before transitioning to a career of more than four decades with the Central Intelligence Agency, where she worked as a counter-intelligence specialist focused on Middle Eastern and European affairs, continuing in various capacities including as a contractor into her mid-eighties.
Her death was noted in obituaries and military history retrospectives that honored her as a pioneer who had broken significant gender barriers during an era when women's opportunities in both the armed forces and intelligence services were severely limited. Her passing prompted renewed attention to her historic 1959 promotion and to her broader legacy as a trailblazer for women in national service.