Edwin H. Sherman, 81, TASA Group chairman

Edwin H. Sherman, 81, of Worcester, chairman of the TASA Group in Blue Bell, a technical advisory service, died of heart failure Wednesday at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood.

Mr. Sherman graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Corps. After V-E Day, he was an intelligence specialist in occupied Germany, identifying war criminals and Nazi guerrillas. He was in the Air Force Reserve from 1950 until retiring as a major in 1968.

Mr. Sherman earned a bachelor's degree in English and psychology and a master's degree in counseling from Temple University. From 1951 to 1954, he was program director at International House, where Alberta Prokop was a volunteer. They married in 1953.

In 1956, Mr. Sherman partnered with Jay L. Rosen to found what is now the TASA Group. The international firm provides consulting services and expert witnesses to the legal profession, insurance companies and government agencies. Mr. Sherman was president of TASA before becoming chairman in the mid-1990s.

For 10 years in the 1960s and 1970s, he also taught management development at Pennsylvania State University's Ogontz campus. He authored a textbook for business students,

How to Write Effectively

; published magazine articles; and appeared on television programs to discuss the use of expert witnesses, his daughter Carol said.

Mr. Sherman served on the board of Temple University and was a member of the board's executive committee in the 1980s. He was past president of Temple's General Alumni Association and its Liberal Arts Alumni Association, and was on the advisory board of the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy at Temple. In 1982 he received Temple's Distinguished Alumni Service Award.

Mr. Sherman was past president of the Center for the Arts in Longboat Key, Fla., where he and his wife had a winter home. He was active with several other organizations, including serving on the boards of the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and Act II Playhouse.

He enjoyed tennis, golf and travel, and was a history buff, especially about World War II.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Sherman is survived by daughter Joyce and five grandchildren. A son, Michael, died in 1995.

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Monday at the Unitarian Society of Germantown, 6522 Lincoln Dr.

Memorial donations may be made to the American Heart Association, 625 W. Ridge Pike, Conshohocken, Pa. 19428.