John Jarvis, educator and preservationist

John A. Jarvis, 84, an Episcopal Academy faculty member from 1949 to 1965 and later a Lancaster County preservationist, died of cancer Saturday at a hospice of the Willow Valley retirement communities in Lancaster, where he had resided.

After teaching at Episcopal, he became executive secretary of its Academy Fund in 1957, assistant headmaster in charge of alumni and public relations in 1958, and supervisor of the middle school from 1959 to 1965.

Mr. Jarvis was headmaster of the Lancaster Country Day School from 1965 to 1990.

Born in London, Mr. Jarvis grew up in Glasgow, Scotland; entered the University of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland; and, when he was 18, volunteered for the army of India, in which he served with the Mahratta Light Infantry from 1943 through 1946.

In 1994, his daughter Sarah said, he and his wife, Sarah, attended that unit's 225th anniversary in Bangalore.

Mr. Jarvis earned a degree in history and economics at St. Andrews in 1948, his daughter said, and a master's in education at the University of Pennsylvania in 1953.

At Episcopal, he coached the varsity soccer team from 1949 to 1954 and, in 2006, earned the school's Alumni Community Service Award.

He was president of the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools from 1972 through 1974 and a board member of Preservation Pennsylvania from 1996 to 2001, his daughter said.

Mr. Jarvis was president of the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County from 1995 through 1998, she said, and a founding member in 1995 of Citizens for Responsible Growth there.

Founder and president in 1967 of the Charlotte Street Association, which promotes the city of Lancaster, he was interim director in 1993 of the Heritage Center of Lancaster County, and most recently secretary-treasurer of the Hourglass Foundation, which promotes Lancaster County.

Besides his daughter and his wife of 60 years, Mr. Jarvis is survived by a son, Andrew; daughters Anne Gerbner and Virginia Whelan; a brother; and eight grandchildren.

A visitation was set for 9:30 a.m. Saturday at First Presbyterian Church, 140 E. Orange St., Lancaster, where a funeral will follow at 11 a.m.

His daughter Sarah said Mr. Jarvis had designed the memorial garden at First Presbyterian, where his ashes will be buried.