Bruce A. Mahon, 84, banker, developer, veteran

The stories that Bruce A. Mahon told about combat, when he was an infantry officer during the Korean conflict, "were amazing," his daughter Katharine Krassan said.

But one, without a moment of combat, was no less striking.

"It was just before the war was about to end," she said, "and the soldiers knew that the war was about to end."

Still, they had to go out on their nightly patrols.

One night, Mr. Mahon and his infantrymen "were going down this hill, and the North Koreans were going down the other hill," she said.

"And they saw each other. They looked, with a knowing look," she said.

"Instead of engaging, both went back to their respective camps."

On Sunday, June 21, Bruce A. Mahon, 84, of Lumberton, a banker and developer who was director of the Burlington County Board of Freeholders from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, died of congestive heart failure at home.

As director and as the freeholders' finance committee chair in those years, his daughter said, Mr. Mahon "was instrumental in helping found" what is now Rowan College at Burlington County, as well as the Burlington County Institute of Technology, the Burlington County Special Services School, and the Burlington County Library.

Mr. Mahon was the founder and board chairman of Carnegie Bank in Princeton in the late 1980s, she said, as well as for Admiralty Bank in the 1990s and Anchor Commercial Bank in the early 2000s, both in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

He had bought McCay Insurance Corp. in Bordentown in the 1960s "and made it a major insurance company," with a sister real estate agency, she said.

Mr. Mahon helped develop shopping centers, hotels, and office buildings in New Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, she said, including the Burlington Center Mall in Burlington Township.

Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Mahon entered Gettysburg College on a full basketball scholarship, as a 6-foot, 4-inch forward, dropped out to become an Army officer, and returned to earn a bachelor's degree in history in 1954.

He later attended management programs at Harvard University and Rutgers-New Brunswick.

Robert D. Hurley met Mr. Mahon in 1949 at Gettysburg, when Hurley was on the football team and Mr. Mahon was on the basketball team.

"He was a very popular individual," Hurley said.

After a 26-year Army career, Hurley retired in 1988 as "head of administration at Six Flags Great Adventure. He used to refer to me as the Lion Tamer."

Mr. Mahon was a Mason, a member of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and a member of several economic, environmental, and philanthropic organizations.

Besides his daughter Katharine, Mr. Mahon is survived by a son, Tony; a daughter, Candace Hill; and five grandchildren. His wife of 50 years, Marcia, died in 2002.

Services are private.

Donations may be sent to Gettysburg College for Bruce A. Mahon '54, 300 N. Washington St., Box 425, Gettysburg, Pa. 17325.

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

610-313-8134@WNaedele