Edward J. Laska, 89, court reporter

Edward J. Laska, 89, a court reporter and father of 11, died of complications from leukemia Friday, Feb. 18, at Riddle Village, a retirement community in Media.

Mr. Laska was born in Philadelphia. His parents were unable to care for him, and he was placed in foster care when he was 5. At age 16, he was working as a shoemaker, but he was able to graduate from Northeast Catholic High School, daughter Jeanne Walters said. He then went through stenographer's school.

During World War II, he was a yeoman in the Navy and served aboard a landing craft in the Pacific.

In 1943, before shipping overseas, he married Mary Hines. The couple met at a roller skating rink on Frankford Avenue.

After his discharge, Mr. Laska became a court reporter in Philadelphia. In the 1960s, he and his family moved from Mount Airy to Wallingford, and he became a court reporter at the Delaware County courthouse. To support his expanding family, he moonlighted as a stenographer at zoning hearings and other municipal meetings in the county. Working an average of 70 hours a week, he financed his children's private high school and college educations.

Because of his own difficult childhood, he made time to be a hands-on father, his daughter said. Each year, he would pile everyone into a station wagon for family vacations in Avalon, N.J., where he would rent several side-by-side motel rooms.

His daughter recalled a road trip to New England: "When we stopped at toll booths, you could see the other drivers trying to count how many of us there were."

Mr. Laska retired in 1991 to help his wife, who was losing her sight. After his wife died in 1995, Mr. Laska met Barbara Harris at a support group for widows and widowers, and they married in 1997.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Laska is survived by sons Francis, Gerald, Peter, and Michael; daughters Mary Cannella, Karen Alston, Alene Hartman, Anne Schier, and Susan; stepsons Brian and Robert Harris; a brother; 23 grandchildren; and 15 great-grandchildren. A son, Edward, died in 2000.

Friends may call from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23, at Carr Funeral Home, 935 S. Providence Rd., Wallingford. A Funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 24, at St. John Chrysostom Church, 617 Providence Rd., Wallingford. Friends may call from 9 a.m.