Philip D. Selim, 62, educator

Philip D. Selim, 62, an educator in Lower Merion for more than 35 years, died of heart failure March 2 at home in Drexel Hill.

Mr. Selim became a Eagle Scout while in high school in Fairfield, Conn. He planned to follow his father's footsteps and studied engineering at Lehigh University. By his junior year, he had decided to become a teacher. He earned a master's degree in science education from Lehigh while teaching, and later earned a doctorate in education administration from the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Selim first taught science at Lansdowne-Aldan High School, where he met his future wife, Lesley Kent, a guidance counselor.

From 1970 until 1979, he was a science teacher at Bala Cynwyd Middle School. He then served as assistant principal and interim principal at schools in the Lower Merion School District until 1993, when he was appointed assistant principal at Lower Merion High School. For 15 years, Mr. Selim was director of the summer school at Lower Merion High School.

After retiring as Lower Merion's assistant principal in 2005, he was a literacy and mathematics tutor; trained teachers to facilitate problem-solving sessions with students; was a mathematics and science coordinator at the Delaware County Intermediate Unit; and was a substitute teacher.

In 2006 and again in 2008, Mr. Selim substituted at Radnor Middle School for his daughter, Lauren Raines, when she was on maternity leave. He and his wife babysat their grandchildren when their daughter returned to teaching.

Mr. Selim was past chairman of the board of the Lower Merion Scholarship Fund. He served on the board of A Better Chance (ABC), a college-preparatory program for disadvantaged minority students, and was on the board of the Bethel Academy After School Program in Ardmore. He tutored at Bethel and recruited ABC students to tutor there as well, his wife said.

In addition to his wife of 33 years, daughter, and two grandchildren, Mr. Selim is survived by another daughter, Lindsey; his mother, Barbara D. Selim; and two brothers.

The funeral was Saturday at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.