William Pless Lunger was the son of Lt. Col. and Mrs. Richard T. Lunger. Of note, Pless’s father Richard was stationed in Los Alamos, N.M., where much planning for the hydrogen bomb unfolded. There is a Life Magazine, date April 12, 1954, with the first photos of the H-Bomb test (Operation Ivy). That epic event took place on the Pacific island of Elugelab (destroyed) in November 1952, in Eniwetok Atoll.  A photo shows Pless’s father wearing a headset performing the countdown, the once-classified typescript for which survives.

Pless is married to Mary P. Lunger. He was a Major in the US Army Reserves, and completed his undergraduate work at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, earning a B.A. During the 70’s Pless worked at Ferris & Co.; at Thomson & McKinnon; Paine Webber Jackson & Curtis, until he founded Distinctive Real Estate Companies in McClean, Virginia in 1978.  The companies mortgage correspondents included Bank of America, Wachovia and Citibank.  For more than ten years, the company was rated in the top twenty independent real estate companies in the Washington metropolitan area by the Washington Business Journal.

Pless retired as President and Founder of Distinctive Real Estate Companies in 2015.  In addition to his work with the Society of the Cincinnati, Pless enjoys spending time with family.  He is a member of the Farmington Country Club of Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Washington Golf and Country Club in Arlington, Virginia.