Diana Waterman, a past chair of the Maryland Republican Party who was the chief financial officer of an Eastern Shore real estate firm, died of cancer Thursday at the Barnette Center of Compass Regional Hospice. A resident of Centreville, she was 63.
Mrs. Waterman was the chief financial officer for Waterman Realty on Kent Island and a leader of the Republican Party in Maryland.
Born in Rhode Island and raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia, she was the daughter of William Duffy, a Navy master chief and a high school teacher, and his wife, Nancy, a librarian. She was a graduate of the Norfolk Academy and was an equestrian.
She met her husband, Barry Waterman, while earning her bachelor of science in math and physics from Sweet Briar College in Amherst County, Virginia. They were married in 1985 in Virginia Beach.
Together they expanded the real estate company founded by her husband’s father, Mareen Waterman.
“My mother came in, initially on an interim basis, when the old bookkeeper died. She stepped in and took over and handled not only the property transactions, but also the firm’s development and building work and the property management,” said her son, Kevin Michael Waterman. “She handled the business side of Wye Knot Farm, Cole’s Crossing and other projects in Queen Anne’s County.”