David Schreffler, 49, insurer officer, volunteer

David Schreffler, 49, of Fort Washington, director of benefits for Odell Studner, a Radnor insurance firm, died Friday of injuries from a six-car accident near the Conshohocken curve on the Schuylkill Expressway.

Mr. Schreffler was on his way to a business meeting when his Infiniti sedan was pinned beneath a produce truck and an SUV.

Joseph John Maylish, a passenger in the car and a coworker of Mr. Schreffler's, remains in critical condition at Temple University Hospital. Police are continuing to investigate the accident.

Mr. Schreffler was heavily involved in community activities, and his willingness to volunteer his time is on full view on YouTube.

In a video about Chestnut Hill Academy, he is one of five parents who act out an amusing sketch lamenting the difficulties of working the phones during a school fund-raising campaign.

"If this YouTube appeal works," Mr. Schreffler says, "we promise never again to call you again during dinner."

The campaign on behalf of the school's annual fund was just one way that Mr. Schreffler turned a childhood marked by the death of his father into a family-centered adulthood full of church, squash and community.

Mr. Schreffler was 4 when his father died of a heart attack. He and his brother enrolled in the Milton Hershey School, then a boys boarding school in Hershey, Pa., for youngsters who had lost one or both parents.

The experience left a void, his brother, Ken Schreffler Jr., said. "He was determined to create an experience for himself that would be surrounded by love and family, different from the institutional environment he grew up in."

After graduation from the Hershey school, Mr. Schreffler earned a bachelor's degree from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster. He worked in a variety of sales careers, selling pots and pans, encyclopedias, and shoes. He joined the Odell Studner firm as director of benefits in September.

Mr. Schreffler married Deb Osberg in 1990. When the couple's three children turned school age, Mr. Schreffler became a regular presence whenever there was a need for parental involvement at Chestnut Hill Academy or the Springside School.

He also served on the board of the Philadelphia Cricket Club and as an usher at St. Thomas Church, Whitemarsh, where he was cochairman of the youth ministry.

In addition to his wife and brother, Mr. Schreffler is survived by son Matt; daughters Allie and Sarrah; his mother, Pauline Schreffler Eliff; and his stepfather, John Eliff.

Services will be at 2 p.m. tomorrow at St. Thomas Church, Whitemarsh, Camp Hill Road and Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington. Burial is private.

Memorial donations may be made to the Schreffler Family Educational Fund, c/o Richard Cutler, 75 Stenton Ave., Plymouth Meeting, Pa. 19462.