James Graham Crouse | Engineer, 84

James Graham Crouse, 84, of Limerick, a retired engineering company owner and World War II paratrooper, died of cancer last Friday at his winter home in Vero Beach, Fla.

Mr. Crouse graduated from John Bartram High School in Southwest Philadelphia. During World War II, he served with the 101st Airborne Division. While parachuting into Normandy on D-Day, he broke a leg in several places and spent months in the hospital. He made a full recovery, and the injury probably saved his life because most of his platoon died in the Battle of the Bulge, his son Michael said.

After his discharge Mr. Crouse earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Drexel Institute of Technology and later earned a master of business administration from Drexel.

He was a project manager for a steel company before establishing the Crouse Group in Limerick in 1952. The firm worked in industrial and commercial plumbing and heating and fiberglass fabrication and fabricated stainless-steel piping for radioactive waste at the Limerick nuclear power plant. Mr. Crouse retired in 1998.

As a teenager he earned the rank of Eagle Scout, and he was a former chairman of the Boy Scouts of America's Valley Forge Council.

Mr. Crouse served on Drexel's board for 20 years and was a member of the Drexel 100, a group of outstanding graduates. He also served on the boards of Ursinus College and Immaculata University.

He enjoyed golf and bridge.

Since 1952, Mr. Crouse had been married to Anne Fink Crouse. They met when he was a customer at the Howard Johnson restaurant in Bala Cynwyd, where she was a waitress.

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Crouse is survived by another son, Graham;  a daughter Sherron Crouse-Cook; eight grandchildren; and 20 great-grandchildren. A son James J. died in 2003.

Services were private.