Walter Hazard Grady | Engineer, 80

Walter Hazard Grady, 80, of Valley Forge, a retired engineer and company owner, died of heart failure Nov. 7 while on vacation in Rome, Italy.

In 2003, Mr. Grady and his wife, Germaine Cashman Grady, were among the first residents of Shannondell, a retirement community in Valley Forge. Mr. Grady helped care for his invalid wife until her death in 2006.

The couple met on the beach in Milford, Conn., and married in 1952. They lived for many years in Sparta, N.J., where Mr. Grady was president of the board of the Sparta Public Library.

A native of Ansonia, Conn., Mr. Grady served with an Army Air Force fighter-bomber squadron in England at the end of World War II.

After his discharge, he earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Yale University. He then worked in sales and was an executive for MGD Corp., a builder of pump stations and water-treatment plants. In 1966 he cofounded Vicon Construction Co. in Butler, N.J. The business, later renamed Vicon Recovery Systems, specialized in construction of water- and waste-treatment plants in the Northeast for the government and industry.

He used his sense of humor and Irish wit to keep things moving on the job site, his family said. He was president of Vicon Management Associates, a consulting firm, at the time of his death.

Mr. Grady organized poker tournaments at Shannondell and was an avid reader.

He is survived by daughters Margaret Kidder, Kerry Murphy and Patricia; a brother; and six grandchildren.

A Funeral Mass will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Teresa of Avila Roman Catholic Church, 1260 S. Trooper Rd., Norristown. Friends may call at 10 a.m. Burial will be in the churchyard of Washington Memorial Chapel, Valley Forge.