Dale C. Stoffel, a businessman who oversaw construction projects in Iraqi war zones, was shot and killed Dec. 8 by two masked insurgents outside Baghdad.

Mr. Stoffel, of Monongahela, will be buried today. He was 43.

Funeral services also will be today for Joseph Wemple, the second victim of the ambush. Mr. Wemple, 49, spent his boyhood in Weirton, W.Va., and Toronto, Ohio, before settling in Florida.

He worked for Mr. Stoffel, who was executive vice president of CLI USA, a construction and engineering company based in Canonsburg.

They were driving from a job site in Taji, north of Baghdad, when two men wearing black hoods killed them in a hail of gunfire.

Mr. Stoffel spent most of 2004 in Iraq, work he considered worthwhile.

"He said that, contrary to what you hear and read in the media, the people in Iraq very much appreciate what the United States is doing for them," his mother, Carol Stoffel, said yesterday.

While home for Thanksgiving, Mr. Stoffel told relatives he felt privileged to help the Iraqis. He described them as friendly toward Americans, and said most want to live in a free society.

CLI was modifying a building in Taji so it could be used to refurbish armored vehicles for the Iraqi civil-defense force. The company also worked on rebuilding the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, the first place attacked by the U.S. military when war began in 2003.

In addition to his employment with CLI, Mr. Stoffel listed himself as president of Wye Oak Technology Inc., a company cloaked in international intrigue.

Wye Oak, which was based in a house Mr. Stoffel owned in Alexandria, Va., is described on its Web site as "a development and engineering company." But at Wye Oak, Mr. Stoffel marketed himself as an international weapons dealer.

One of his biggest successes was landing an $11.5 million contract with Boeing Co. Boeing hired Mr. Stoffel to obtain Russian X-31 missiles.

But the missile deal fizzled and a contentious court case followed.

Boeing subsidiary McDonnell Douglas Corp. sued Mr. Stoffel last year in St. Louis, seeking return of $6 million it had paid him. McDonnell Douglas claimed Mr. Stoffel delivered just five of the 32 missiles he had promised.

Mr. Stoffel countered that he would not return the money, which he said was essential to his efforts to secure more missiles.

The lawsuit was before U.S. District Judge Richard Webber in St. Louis. One of the judge's staff members said yesterday the case was closed Sept. 27. The outcome, though, is unknown, as Webber sealed the file.

Court documents obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before the case was closed said Mr. Stoffel intended to obtain the missiles through contacts he had in Ukraine, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Russia itself.

As the lawsuit implies, Mr. Stoffel previously worked for the U.S. government. The nature of his government job and how long he held it were not clear yesterday.

Raised in Monongahela, Mr. Stoffel graduated from Ringgold High School in 1979. He went on to Washington & Jefferson College, from which he received a bachelor's degree in physics in 1984.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara; a son, Christopher; and three daughters, Alexandra, Michelle and Jocelyn.

Other survivors include his parents, Carol and Thomas Stoffel, of Monongahela; and his brothers, David, of Moundsville, W.Va.; and Dean, of Minneapolis.

Mr. Stoffel's funeral will be at 11 a.m. today in Marshall Marra Funeral Home, Monongahela.

He will be buried in Monongahela Cemetery.

Mr. Wemple's funeral also is today, in Orlando, Fla., where he lived most of his adult life.

Like Mr. Stoffel, he believed in the war in Iraq and its rebuilding.

"He gave his life for a good cause," said Mr. Wemple's brother, Bruce, of Orlando. "He was proud of what he was doing."

Mr. Wemple previously worked as a construction manager for Disney World. After spending eight months in Iraq this year, he told relatives he preferred his new job.

At Disney, he constructed or reconstructed rides and buildings. In Iraq, he saw his job as rebuilding a country.