John DiFiori, 83; taught biology at South Philly High

In 1992, John A. DiFiori, a retired South Philadelphia High School biology teacher, rode his bicycle from Manhattan Beach, Calif., to Revere, Mass., as part of an annual seven-week group event, Pedal for Power Across America.

The former League of American Wheelmen ran the tour as a fund-raising event, with Mr. DiFiori cycling for an environmental program at his former school.

He had retired in 1991, the year he turned 59, but long-distance cycling had been in his bones for years.

In his basement, near his bicycle, are frames holding badges that marked his years on the road.

"There are 65 patches, from different events with large groups," his wife, Ginny, said.

And though she was uncertain when he began long-distance cycling, she said: "We have a picture of him on his tricycle, looking very happy."

On Monday, June 27, Mr. DiFiori, 83, of Westmont, a biology teacher at South Philadelphia High from 1960 to 1991, died of heart failure at home.

A former student, Sheila Shoemaker Amand, recalled her high school sophomore year as his student.

"We raised hamsters in a room in the back of the lab," she said. "We each had two, six of us, the full year," and on weekends they took them home.

"He made biology very interesting and fun."

Amand knew him as a mentor. "We have been friends until the day he died. And I'm going to be 60 in October."

Born in Pittsburgh, Mr. DiFiori graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1951, where he was an offensive lineman on the football team, a javelin thrower on the track team, and a wrestler.

While in high school and college, his wife said, he worked at two of his family's three businesses, a DiFiori Pizza on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania and another in Drexel Hill.

Mr. DiFiori earned a bachelor's degree in education in 1955 and a later a master's in psychology, both at Temple University. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the wrestling team for four years.

A Navy veteran, from 1956 to 1958, he was a radar specialist on a destroyer escort, for a time in the Mediterranean.

One of Mr. DiFiori's adventures, his wife said, was the weeklong Des Moines Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.

Donald Villanova, 84, did not ride with him in Iowa but did share other exhausting endeavors.

In charge of cycling events for the Outdoor Club of South Jersey in the 1980s and 1990s, Villanova said, he did 100-mile events with two dozen cyclists, including Mr. DiFiori, from Mount Laurel to the Shore and back.

And three or four times, they rode from northern to southern Ohio and back as part of the Tour of the Scioto River Valley.

"He was very, very strong," Villanova said.

Besides his wife, Mr. DiFiori is survived by sons John P. and Michael, daughter Carolyn Hopkins, a brother, a sister, seven grandchildren, and his former wife, Rita.

Donations may be sent to railstotrails.org/rememberJohnD.

Condolences may be offered to the family at jacksonfh.net.

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