In a 2001 interview with The Inquirer, Mr. Barker said the couple had not planned to adopt so many children.

"It just kind of happened," he said. "You see one of those kids, and how are you going to say no?"

The family's three-story Victorian home was a loving place where friends of the children were invited to supper, although a longstanding joke was that only the "first 12 to the table would get served," said Elizabeth, the couple's oldest and the only one without a handicap.

In 2003, however, tragedy struck when Diana Barker, then 69, was murdered in the house by the biological father of one of the younger children.

William Ershkowitz, who is now serving a 20-year prison sentence, lived with the couple and fathered a child with one of their adopted daughters. The Barkers also were raising the daughter's child.

Mr. Barker, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, heard Ershkowitz beating Mrs. Barker during an argument but was unable to get out of bed in time to rescue his wife of 32 years.

The Barkers took in boys and girls not easily placed by social agencies. Their brood included children with spina bifida and emotional or mental problems, and some who had been abused or neglected.

In news stories, the parents played down the effort of doing endless loads of laundry, preparing meals for a small army, and coordinating endless trips to school, doctors' offices and athletic events.

Among those who joined their family over 30 years, beginning in 1971, were three biological sisters and a pair of brothers. In raising them and their adoptive siblings, the parents became champions for the rights of disabled children.

Noticing that wheelchair competitions were open only to older youths, Mr. Barker founded the Junior National Wheelchair Athletic Association in the 1980s. Six of their children won competitions, which included track and field events, slalom, basketball, and swimming.

In 2001, the Barkers' dedication was recognized with a congressional award that was given to about 100 extraordinary adoptive couples across the country.

Mr. Barker, a Boston native who was raised with two brothers in Peterborough, N.H., earned his master's degree from Harvard University and worked as an architectural consultant with S. T. Hudson Engineers Inc. in Philadelphia.

As a boy, he spent summer vacations at a log cabin in Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H., and he continued the tradition with this own children. Every year, Elizabeth recalled, the family piled into an extended van with a motorized lift and headed north to swim and boat.

"He was the rock of the family," said Elizabeth, who, with two siblings, lived with her father until his death.

The Civil War reenactor - who "read every book on the Civil War that there ever was" - was "humble, like a big teddy bear, a wonderful, wonderful man who was strict when he had to be, and fun when he didn't have to be strict," Elizabeth said.

He was "a strong, quiet, educated man, someone definitely to emulate," said Mr. Barker's son Tony.

In addition to Elizabeth and Tony, Mr. Barker is survived by sons Christopher, Theodore, Jamie, Raphael and William; daughters Sara, Ashley, Erica, Victoria Preston, Suzanne Khoufory and Juliet Barker-Stevens and Carolyn Sapp, and 12 grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 20 Kings Highway East, Haddonfield. Donations may be made in Mr. Barker's honor to Amazing Tails Service Dogs L.L.C. Inc., an organization that trains dogs for the disabled, at 651 Scroggy Road, Oxford, Pa. 19363.