Frank A. Davolos Sr., electrical engineer

Rosemary Davolos Curtis and her brothers and sisters got to run the bases at the Vet two years before Larry Bowa and Tim McCarver did.

In 1969, construction had been completed on Veterans Stadium, but it would not open until 1971.

So on one memorable day in '69, Frank A. Davolos Sr. took Rosemary and his other children to the Vet and let them run on the base paths and across the empty field.

"I remember running on the AstroTurf and having a good time with it," Curtis recalled.

As the chief electrical engineer for George M. Ewing Co. during the construction of the Vet, Mr. Davolos could give that sort of gift to his children.

On Thursday, May 23, Mr. Davolos, 85, a resident of Cinnaminson for more than 40 years, died of cancer at the Wuesthoff Medical Center, in Rockledge, Fla. He had lived in Florida since 2006.

Besides treading the turf on that day in 1969, Curtis said in a phone interview, "we were running up and down the concourses. We thought that was really cool."

Mr. Davolos was a Phillies fan, despite the terrible teams in those days, and he encouraged that spirit in his children.

"It seems like we went to ball games as kids," Curtis recalled, watching from box seats doled out by the Ewing firm.

Because Mr. Davolos had seven children, Curtis said, she averaged only about three games a season.

When the city decided to level the stadium, one of his sons gave Mr. Davolos a photo of the implosion as a gift because, she said, the Vet "was an important thing for him."

Born in Camden, the son of immigrants from the Calabria region of southern Italy, Mr. Davolos graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School there in 1945.

After Army duty in postwar Germany in 1945-46, Mr. Davolos earned a bachelor's in electrical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in 1950.

He worked at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and other firms, joined the George M. Ewing Co. in 1960, and became its chief electrical engineer in 1962.

His 12-year career with Ewing involved work on, among others, a library at Drexel University, the Rohm & Haas headquarters facing Independence Mall, and the rehabilitation center at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington.

From 1973 until his 1983 retirement, Mr. Davolos worked on nuclear power plants for Stone & Webster Construction Inc., of Stoughton, Mass., at its office in Mount Laurel.

Though he had not studied nuclear engineering in college, his daughter said, "he had a strong interest . . .. So he took advantage of that when he went to Stone & Webster," which gave him "more advanced training."

In his leisure time, Mr. Davolos did not choose the easy way, either.

"I was taught to play chess when I was 5," Curtis said, "because he wanted more opponents. He was beating my cousins."

"I played against him for quite a few years," she said, but for him that was not enough.

"When they first came out with a computerized chess game, he really enjoyed that, because he could kick it up a notch."

Besides his daughter Rosemary, Mr. Davolos is survived by his wife of 60 years, Margaret; sons Frank A. Jr., James, and Anthony; daughters Charlotte and Mary; 14 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren. A daughter, Margaret Sweeney, died in 2002.

A life celebration is planned for sometime in September at a relative's home in Montgomery County.

Donations may be made in his name to the American Cancer Society of Brevard County, 4450 W. Eau Gallie Blvd. Suite 280, Melbourne, Fla. 32934.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.afcfcare.com.