Joseph F. Weber, 89, engineer

After a mortar shell wounded Joseph F. Weber in southern France in 1944, field hospital physicians "would have chopped his leg off," son John said.

"But there was a newer doctor who had just come over," from the States and "he thought he could rework the veins and save his leg." And he did.

At military hospitals in England and the States, "it was a two- to three-year rehab process," and still the leg "bothered him for the last 70 years," his son said.

On Tuesday, Aug. 12, Mr. Weber, 89, of Ocean City, N.J., an operations manager for Mobil Oil in South Jersey, Illinois, and New Zealand, died of lung cancer at home.

Born in Greenwich Village, Mr. Weber graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx in 1942.

He earned a Purple Heart for his ordeal during the war.

When he returned to Philadelphia and married, he was trying to go to school at night and work, his son said.

Instead, he got into the co-op program at Drexel University, which allowed him to work at the Mobil Oil refinery in Paulsboro in the weeks when he wasn't a full-time student.

Mr. Weber earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at Drexel in the early 1950s and continued his Mobil career until retiring in 1988.

After working at Paulsboro until 1969, his son said, Mr. Weber was second-in-command at a Mobil refinery in Joliet, Ill., from 1970 to 1982, when the firm sent him Down Under.

"His job was to build the first natural-gas-to-gasoline plant on a large scale in New Plymouth, New Zealand," a Mobil joint venture that engaged him from 1982 to 1987, his son said.

His son, vice president of sales and ticket operations for the Phillies, said Mr. Weber felt Cardinal Hayes High School had shaped his life, and he was so insistent on the significance of education that "he made sure all of his children have master's degrees or more."

In addition to his son, Mr. Weber is survived by his wife of 20 years, Peg; daughters Patrice Teel, Jeanne Summers, Janet Jessup, and Anne Kane; and 12 grandchildren. His first wife, Marie, died in 1990.

Visitation was set for 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. Monday, Aug. 18, at St. Augustine Church, 1310 Ocean Ave., Ocean City, before an 11 a.m. Funeral Mass there.

Donations may be sent to the Joseph F. Weber Scholarship, Cardinal Hayes High School, 650 Grand Concourse, Bronx, N.Y. 10451.

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

610-313-8134 @WNaedele