Irvin Isen, 87, retired president of Paramount Packaging

Irvin "Ernie" Isen, 87, of Penn Valley, retired president of Paramount Packaging in Chalfont, died Friday, March 2, at Lankenau Hospital of complications from Parkinson's disease.

After service in World War II, Mr. Isen began working with his three brothers in the family's paper businesses.

Eventually the brothers hired managers for two of the companies and ran the day-to-day operations of the third, Paramount.

By the 1960s, the firm was focusing on polyethylene packaging. In 1972, Paramount was the largest manufacturer of plastic bread bags in the United States, producing 1.5 billion of them, Mr. Isen's son, Jonathan, said.

As president of Paramount, Mr. Isen knew that the line about the importance of plastics in the movie The Graduate was both funny and true, his son said.

Combining his ideas with the skills of Paramount engineers, Mr. Isen developed new packaging products and was responsible for more than a dozen patents, his son said.

Paramount developed packages with handles for disposable diapers and produced packaging for Huggies and all of Kimberly-Clark's personal-care products. It teamed with a French company to develop packaging for gourmet coffee and produced wrappers for Hershey bars.

The Isen brothers sold Paramount in 1997. Mr. Isen grew up in Wynnefield and graduated from Overbrook High School in 1942. During World War II, he served in the Army Quartermaster Corps in New York City.

Since 1955, he had been married to Carole Brenner Isen. The couple, who met at a party, supported many charitable and arts organizations in the city. In 1978, they cochaired the Harvest Ball to benefit Albert Einstein Medical Center. The Inquirer reported at the time that the event was the most successful in the Harvest Ball's 26-year history.

Mr. Isen loved swimming in the pool at his home. He loved entertaining, hosting poolside parties, and inviting numerous friends and family to Rosh Hashanah dinner every year, his son said.

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Isen is survived by a daughter, Tina Fox; brothers Theodore and Harold; and four grandchildren. A brother, Alan, died in January.

A memorial service was held Monday, March 5, at Har Zion Temple in Penn Valley.

Donations may be made to Parkinson Council Inc., 111 Presidential Blvd., Bala Cynwyd, Pa. 19004.