William H. West, 66, tavern owner

Before he came to own Westy's, a corner bar across the street from The Inquirer, Billy West enjoyed military life.

He enjoyed it so much that the day after he was discharged from the Army in 1965, he joined the Navy, and was eventually sent to Vietnam. But after two years his ailing mother called him home to run the family business.

Yesterday, his wife, Theresa, said he told her: "I never should have done that. I should have stayed."

William H. West died of a lung infection Thursday at Jefferson University Hospital. A Fairmount resident, he was 66.

For decades, Mr. West was a nighttime fixture at Westy's, at 15th and Callowhill Streets, just across from the back door of The Inquirer and Daily News. In the 1980s, white-collar workers at The Inquirer tended to lunch there, while the pressmen and other blue-collar workers who printed and distributed the paper tended to pepper the nighttime crowd.

But that changed with the opening of the new printing plant in Upper Merion - the final edition of The Inquirer was printed at Broad and Callowhill Streets on May 30, 1993 - and the shrinking of the day-side staff in recent years.

A new sign now calls it Westy's at 15th, Pub and Grill.

And after all the years, his wife said, it was only on March 20 that Mr. West bought out his brother Arthur, who had long run the daytime operations.

Born in Philadelphia, Mr. West grew up in the city and later spent time in South Jersey before dropping out of high school after the ninth grade. In August 1960, he lied about his age in order to enlist in the Army. He was stationed in Berlin when the East Germans built the Berlin Wall in 1961 and, his wife said, he patrolled that barrier for much of his time in the Army.

The young private first class was honorably discharged on July 28, 1965, and enlisted in the Navy on July 29, 1965. He was again honorably discharged two years later.

He served as a junior vice commander of the former VFW Post 538 in 1979.

The tavern business was not a consuming passion, his wife said, and when a relative offered a second job at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange in 1983, he took it.

When the relative asked him, she said, "if he wanted a job for a couple months, he thought it would be good."

Working a 3 to 11 a.m. shift as a supervisor, he stayed 24 years.

Theresa West recalled that "we were childhood sweethearts" as teenagers but "when I kind of broke up that, he went into the military."

They met again in 1977. By that time, both were married and divorced, and found themselves in Wildwood at the same time.

"I was sitting on the beach with my niece and she was playing with a little girl and they made plans to meet up," Theresa West said. The niece asked her to take her to the friend's house.

"We walked in the door and there he is standing there, and I almost had a heart attack," she said. The friend was a niece of Mr. West.

"He said, 'You got away from me once. You're not getting away from me again.' "

They would have been married 31 years on July 3.

Besides his wife and brother, he is survived by daughter Kelly West; stepson Daniel Garvin; stepdaughter Theresa Keyser; nine grandchildren; and two sisters. A son, William H. Jr., died in 1991. His first wife, Susan, died last year.

A viewing was set from 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow at Dinan Funeral Home, 1921 Spring Garden St., and from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Thursday there, followed by an 11 a.m. Funeral Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church, 24th and Green Streets. He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date.