By SHARON KILPATRICK

By SHARON KILPATRICK

Rappahannock Newi Staff Writer

It is becomming increasingly likely that the Republican selected to run against Fauquier Democrat Jerry Wood for the 31st House of Delegates seat will be from Rappahannock.

Last week Robert M. Darby of Woodville told local Republican party officials that he is definitely interested in being the candidate to run for the seat to represent Rappahannock, most of Fauquier, and four precincts in Warren County.

Richard McNear of Gid Brown Hollow is also considering a run for the Republican nomination. Local Republican Party chairman Walter Longyear said there are no other candidates interested from any of the three counties.

Mr. Darby, 54, moved to his home in Woodville, where he lives with his wife Trish and daughter Ann, in 1987. He has two grown sons and a daughter from a previous marriage. He lived in the Bellevue subdivision of Fauquier County from 1978 to 1987.

“1 have a number of ties to Fauquier County,” he said. “We have a number of friends there, and I continue to be interested in county affairs. I never lost contact with Fauquier and my desire to be a part of it.”

Mr. Darby is an elder in the Warrenton Presbyterian Church and is on the steering committee that is trying to organize a Fauquier chapter of Habitat for Humanity, an organization that uses volunteer labor to provide moderate-cost housing.

He says he has friends and business associates in Front Royal, but he has fewer contacts in Warren County than in either Rappahannock or Fauquier.

Mr. Darby graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1959. He served eight years in the Navy, four years on destroyers and four years on a nuclear-powered submarine.

After leaving the Navy he worked for a ship building company in Maine and then for a management consulting firm in Washington, D.C.

Along with four others he founded Advanced Technology, Inc., with headquarters in Reston. The firm provided engineering and com