Donald B. Remmey, businessman, activist

After he sold his family business in 1986 to his son, Donald B. Remmey decided to help the homeless.

Working with the Philadelphia arm of the Catholic Worker Movement, his son, Donald Jr., said, Mr. Remmey in the 1990s helped rebuild houses in the Yorktown neighborhood of North Philadelphia.

And for the last 15 years, his son said, Mr. Remmey, who lived in Abington Township, helped with breakfasts for the homeless on two mornings a week at the Kensington office of St. Francis Inn.

On Dec. 15, during a trip to attend a sister-in-law's funeral, Mr. Remmey, 86, took ill. He died of endocarditis at San Diego Hospice in Carlsbad, Calif.

He was the former owner of Remmey Wood Products in Southampton, Bucks County.

Born in the Frankford section of Philadelphia, Mr. Remmey graduated from Frankford High School in 1941, where he was named most likely to succeed.

After studying at Ursinus College in 1942-43, he graduated from officer candidate school at Virginia Military Institute and served as an Army lieutenant in the Philippines in 1944 and 1945.

He then joined the family firm, Richard C. Remmey Brick Co. in Philadelphia.

To improve the way that bricks were packaged and shipped, his son said, in 1958 Mr. Remmey began manufacturing wooden pallets out of a rented garage in Huntingdon Valley.

In 1966, he moved that firm, Remmey Wood Products, to Southampton, and 20 years later he sold it to his son.

Today, his son said, Remmey - The Pallet Co. is headquartered in Willow Grove with factories in Beaver Springs and Lehighton.

Mr. Remmey traveled to Iraq with former Attorney General Ramsey Clark to deliver medical supplies during the trade embargo against Saddam Hussein, his son said, one of several foreign trips that he made with peace organizations.

Besides his son, Mr. Remmey is survived by his wife of 33 years, Laura; daughters Joan and Pattie; stepsons Frank, John, Tim, and Tom Magee; a sister; 15 grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. He is also survived by his former wife, Shirley Tower.

A memorial is set for 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 8, at St. Malachy Catholic Church, 1429 N. 11th St.