Harry Kale, 90, retired architect, veteran

Harry Kale, a retired architect, died of Alzheimer's disease at Rydal Park retirement community Monday, Nov. 7, three days before his 91st birthday.

After serving in the Army, Mr. Kale earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating magna cum laude in 1950, he was an associate with the architectural firm of Harbeson, Hough, Livingston & Larson in Philadelphia.

In 1953, he became a partner with the firm of Eshbach, Glass & Kale in Philadelphia.

During his 30 years with the firm, Mr. Kale designed buildings for Kent & Queen Anne's Hospital in Chestertown, Md.; Rowan University; Rutgers-Camden; and eight structures at Pennsylvania State University.

Mr. Kale also designed buildings for the Rev. Leon Sullivan, who founded Opportunities Industrialization Center, a job-training initiative. Mr. Kale met the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on one of King's visits to OIC in the 1960s.

When Zion Baptist Church, where Sullivan was pastor, burned down in 1970, Mr. Kale codesigned a new church on North Broad Street featuring cantilevered balconies.

From 1983 until retiring in 2001, he was architect for Wordsworth Academy for children with behavioral challenges. Wordsworth has facilities in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Fort Washington.

Mr. Kale was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects in 1970. He was past treasurer of the Philadelphia chapter of the AIA.

Mr. Kale grew up in Atlantic City during the Depression, delivering bread for a nickel a week, ushering at Steel Pier performances, and managing a National Orangeade stand on the Boardwalk.

After graduating from Atlantic City High School, he worked at the Frankford Arsenal while taking classes at Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, now the University of the Arts. He studied drafting at the former Helen Fleisher Vocational School.

During World War II, he served in the Army as a draftsman and artillery mechanic. He landed on Omaha Beach on June 8, 1944 - D-Day Plus 2 - and saw action in the Battle of the Bulge.

Since 1955, he had been married to Yvette Kostoris Kale, a native of London. They met when she was studying for a master's degree in social work at Penn.

The couple raised a family in Lafayette Hill. Mr. Kale was former planning chairman of the Citizens Council of Whitemarsh Township, served on the Montgomery County Citizens Council, and was a member of the Plymouth Meeting Historical Society.

He and his wife enjoyed the theater, classical music concerts, and tennis. In the early days of their marriage they learned to ski, and they later taught their children, Yvette Kale said. For years, she said, they skied in Vermont on winter weekends, sharing a small cabin with another family.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Kale is survived by sons David and Jeffrey; a daughter, Lisa Feulner; and four grandchildren.

A funeral was Wednesday, Nov. 9, at Goldsteins' Rosenberg's Raphael-Sacks Memorial Chapel. Burial was in George Washington Memorial Park.

Donations may be made to Alzheimer's Association, 399 Market St., Philadelphia 19106.