Arlington Burial for El Toro Air Base Chaplain : Obituary: Services for Navy Cmdr. Gary E. Tugan will be held Wednesday at the national cemetery in Virginia.

A Navy chaplain at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station is to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery after a fight against a terminal brain tumor during which he insisted on working virtually up to the time of his death.

Services for Navy Cmdr. Gary E. Tugan will be held Wednesday at the cemetery in Virginia.

Tugan, 51, died Tuesday at his residence on the El Toro base.

Despite his illness, the chaplain had “worked every day, right up to three weeks ago, preaching at the chapel and working with the Marines and sailors,” said his wife, Marilouise Tugan.

She added: “He liked helping people out when they had problems, and Gary would always seek out people he didn’t find in church--people he thought needed a little extra boost. Gary didn’t just work with people in the church circle; he’d go into the units and look for people who needed help. He made friends with people who later told us they never would have imagined having a chaplain as a friend.”

Tugan was a native of Ithaca, Mich., and a memorial service will be held in that city Friday.

Tugan received a bachelor’s degree from Greenville College in Greenville, Ill., and his master of divinity degree from Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky. He also earned a master’s degree in management from Webster University in St. Louis.

Tugan entered the Navy in 1957, when he was 17 and had just graduated from high school.

After his discharge from a two-year tour of active duty, he remained in the Navy Reserve. He returned to active duty in 1975, and in 1985 he was assigned to the El Toro base. He was reassigned to the Philippines in 1988, but shortly after arriving there, the tumor was discovered and he returned to El Toro.

His military decorations include the Navy Commendation Medal, the Navy Achievement Medal, the Navy Expeditionary Medal and the Navy Humanitarian Service Award.

In addition to his wife, survivors include a son, Air Force Lt. Gary B. Tugan of Hawthorne; stepson Ethan Wessner of El Toro; three daughters, Karen Tugan and Katrina Presson, both of Virginia Beach, Va., and Kimberly Tugan, of El Toro; stepdaughter Heather Wessner of Orange, and six brothers and six sisters.