In October, three months before his 100th birthday, Walter M. Strine Sr. watched a performance of My Fair Lady from the front row of the Media Theatre. When the theater opened in 1927, he had watched the early talking picture, The Jazz Singer, from the balcony.
Mr. Strine, who ran a successful real estate firm, financed and supervised the theater's restoration 15 years ago. He died Monday at Plush Mills Senior Residences in Wallingford.
The refurbished theater opened in 1994 with a performance of My Fair Lady in honor of Mr. Strine's wife. When the two-year renovation was almost complete, he told an Inquirer reporter: "Yes, we stayed on budget, an unlimited budget."
Mr. Strine extended the stage of the theater, which had been built for vaudeville, to allow musicals and bought two neighborhood storefronts to widen the lobby. Artisans painted an elaborate ceiling and carved plaster trim, and in the basement of his Media home Mr. Strine polished the crystals of the two-ton, ball-shaped chandelier.
By 2008, when the Media Theatre reprised My Fair Lady, the building was owned by the borough and operated by the nonprofit Society for Performing Arts.
"Walter Strine was a special visionary," said the theater's artistic director, Jesse Cline, whom Mr. Strine hired in the 1990s. "He had a dream to bring professional music theater to State Street in Media.
"He loved music theater. His taste was for the classics such as My Fair Lady and Show Boat. I am greatly saddened that he will not be with us for the opening production of Show Boat," Cline said.
Mr. Strine left his hometown of Milton in Northumberland County at age 15 to attend the Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades in Media, where he studied the trowel trades. He graduated in 1929.
After several hard winters laying bricks, he was a vocational instructor at Glen Mills School for 15 years. At night he took education courses at the University of Pennsylvania and later took business courses at the Wharton School.
Mr. Strine established the Media Real Estate Co. in 1945. By the 1990s, he owned most of the rentable properties in Media, more than 1,000 apartments, many Delaware County office buildings, and holdings around the country and in Canada. Until he was 98, he was active in the business and maintained his broker's license, said his son William, who operates the company with his brother, Walter Jr.
A longtime community activist, Mr. Strine helped organize the first Cub Scout troop in Delaware County in 1931, William Strine said. He was a former member of the Media Borough Council and a past president of the Media Lions Club, the Media Business Association, and the Media Community Concert Association. He was vice president of the Williamson School and funded a new library and learning center. He also provided money for an addition to the Media Youth Center.
Mr. Strine was a Mason and served on the boards of the Middletown and Media Presbyterian Churches.
He met his future wife, Elizabeth Sterling, at Middletown Presbyterian Church, where she was playing the organ. After they married in 1931, she gave piano lessons at home, and for 35 years played organ at Media Presbyterian Church. In 2007, five years after she died, Mr. Strine bought a new organ for the church, which was dedicated in her honor.
In 1987, when Milton High School was threatened with demolition, he bought the building and converted it into a retirement home and theater. He recycled blackboards and turned them into tile floors, he told The Inquirer in 1994.
He had a habit of discovering hotel liquidation sales, he said, where he bought light fixtures, mirrors, and furniture to decorate the apartments at the retirement home and for the dressing rooms at the Media Theatre.
In addition to his sons, Mr. Strine is survived by six grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Friends may call from 6 to 8 p.m. tomorrow at the J. Nelson Rigby Funeral Home, 1 W. Baltimore Ave., Media. A funeral will begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Media Presbyterian Church, 30 E. Baltimore Ave., where friends may call after 9. Burial will be in Old Middletown Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Middletown Township.
Memorial donations may be made to the Williamson School, Summer Rook Program, 106 S. New Middletown Rd., Media, Pa. 19063.
Contact staff writer Sally A. Downey at 215-854-2913 or sdowney@phillynews.com.
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