Walter J. Logan Sr., 88, airman and builder

Walter J. Logan Sr., 88, formerly of Gulph Mills, a Tuskegee Airman who built more than 175 homes in the Philadelphia area, died of heart failure Tuesday.

Mr. Logan grew up with 11 siblings in Atlanta and learned carpentry from his father. In the early 1940s, he worked as a machinist at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

When war broke out, his son Kenneth said, Mr. Logan tried to join the Navy, but black people then could only be cooks in the Navy, and he didn't cook. Instead, Mr. Logan joined the Army and was selected to be one of the elite group trained to be pilots at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The war ended before he could serve overseas.

After his discharge, Mr. Logan worked in the construction industry and studied engineering at Drexel Institute. In 1956, he built his first house in Abington Township. He later built a development of split levels and another of townhouses in Yeadon, and built homes in Lansdowne.

In the 1970s, he built a subdivision in Gulph Mills that included his own home. He also built homes for two of his sons in Wyncote and Radnor, and constructed homes in Delaware and New Jersey as well as in Pennsylvania. Though he built several upscale homes, his son said, he was a trailblazer in building affordable housing, and sought creative ways to turn renters into homeowners.

After building his last home in Wayne in the mid-1990s, Mr. Logan continued to buy and sell real estate from an office in Upper Darby and more recently in King of Prussia.

Mr. Logan enjoyed cards, pool, golf, and dancing to music from his collection of jazz and rhythm and blues records.

After his first marriage ended in divorce after 23 years, he married Sandra Gail Venuto. She died in 2005.

In addition to his son, Mr. Logan is survived by sons Walter Jr. and Frank; daughters Judith Royal, Twila and Heidi; five grandchildren; a great-granddaughter; and his former wife, Beatrice.

A funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Upper Merion Baptist Church, 585 General Steuben Rd., King of Prussia. Friends may call at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Valley Forge Memorial Gardens.