Stricken by polio as an infant, Mr. Sheble was quarantined and slept on the porch of his family's Mount Airy home. His older brother, Walter, escaped the epidemic.

Mr. Sheble did not allow a limp, braces, or a series of operations make him a polio victim. "He was proud to be the star of the 90-pound football team at Germantown Academy, from where he graduated in 1947," said his daughter Martha Agate. "In later life he did not let post-polio syndrome stop him from running with his grandchildren. If he fell down, he got up."

After earning a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1951 from Princeton University, Mr. Sheble worked for York Corp. until 1963. He took a job with Delaware Valley-York Inc. in Horsham and was promoted to president before retiring in 1992.

Mr. Sheble married Barbara Lovett in 1953, and the couple raised four daughters in Chestnut Hill and Lafayette Hill. For 38 years, they were summer residents of Belgrade Lakes, Maine.

Mr. Sheble restored an Adirondack hunting lodge and carefully planted a garden to memorialize his father. "He held elaborate scavenger hunts for the kids along the manicured paths," his daughter said. "He was the gentlest of men."

At home in Lafayette Hill, Mr. Sheble marveled at his dogwood tree, which bloomed each year for his May 5 birthday.

Mr. Sheble was on the building committees of Germantown Academy and the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill and generously gave his time to Germantown Hospital, Arcadia University, and to the upkeep of Union Church of Belgrade Lakes.

In retirement, he was a math tutor for students at Henry Elementary School. "It was just one way he gave back the joy he found in life," his daughter said.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Sheble is survived by daughters Jane Macko, Harriett Perez, and Anne Sheble; 11 grandchildren; and his brother.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia 19118. Memorial donations may be made to the church.