Lester J. Lishon III, 75; ran car-transporter firm

Lester J. "Jack" Lishon III, 75, formerly of Downingtown, president of an auto-transporter company who also assisted the homeless, died Saturday, Dec. 11, of complications of dementia at Shannondell, a retirement community in Audubon.

From 1974 until 1986, Mr. Lishon was president of Nu-Car Carriers, his family's firm in Bryn Mawr. Nu-Car, founded in 1945 in Chester, became the largest transporter of cars for Ford Motor Co. on the East Coast.

After Mr. Lishon became president, the firm expanded to deliver Hondas, Toyotas, and Jaguars from East Coast ports. When the firm was sold in 1986, it had a fleet of more than 1,200 tractor-trailers.

In the 1990s, Mr. Lishon joined with his son, Les, in the operation of Reifsneider Transportation. They transformed what was a sludge hauler into an environmental services company, cleaning up and legally transporting and disposing of industrial wastes, his son said.

Mr. Lishon grew up in Newtown Square and graduated from Hatch Preparatory School in Newport, R.I. For three years he attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute. While there, he met his future wife, Marjorie Swisher, on a blind date. They married in 1957.

Mr. Lishon worked for Tidewater Express, a family trucking firm in Milford, Del., before joining Nu-Car Carriers in 1968.

He obtained a pilot's license in the mid-1960s and flew his own planes for the next 20 years. His last plane, a Cessna Skylane 182, was his pride and joy, his son said.

Mr. Lishon was a former president of the Jaycees of Milford, Del., and later a volunteer with His Mission in Kennett Square, which provides services to the homeless and seeks permanent living arrangements for them. Mr. Lishon would find donations for household items. If he could not, he either bought them himself or took them from home, his son said. "My mother would go looking for food in the kitchen cabinet or would go to turn on a lamp, only to find that my father had given it to the mission."

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Lishon is survived by a daughter, Kim; a sister; and four grandchildren.

A life celebration will be at noon followed by a memorial service at 1 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 16, at Boyd-Horrox Funeral Home, 200 W. Germantown Pike, East Norriton. Burial will be in Valley Forge Memorial Gardens, King of Prussia.

Donations may be made to His Mission, 342 Birch St., Kennett Square, Pa. 18348.