John P. LaForce, 79, a SEPTA mainstay

SEPTA MIGHT BE a vast and complicated transit operation, but it was John LaForce's playground.

"For a transportation system as technically huge and complex as SEPTA, John was the one guy who knew how virtually everything worked - down to the last screw and circuit-breaker," said Richard C. Maloney, SEPTA's director of public affairs.

"He had a photographic memory of the entire SEPTA infrastructure for the last 50 years - literally."

No wonder. John started working for Philadelphia's transit system in January 1954, when it was run by the Philadelphia Transportation Co.

He started as a streetcar operator, and over the years drove buses, subways and trolleys, became a specialist in signals, chief engineer of power and deputy chief engineering officer, his last title.

And, nearing 80, he had no intention of retiring.

John Peter LaForce, a Navy veteran who was active in veterans' organizations, a Mason and a devoted family man, died Tuesday of complications from leukemia. He would have been 80 on Sunday. He lived in Fox Chase.

When he was honored in 2004 by SEPTA with a special citation for his 50 years on the job, board chairman Pat Deon said, "Well, John, tell us why you haven't retired yet."

John replied, "Well, Mr. Chairman, I still haven't been able to figure out how the SEPTA pension plan works."

When John drove buses for the old PTC, they had stick shifts. He would take fares, make change, hand out transfers and shift gears in a feat of manual dexterity unknown today. He made $2.03 an hour.

In 1969 he started going to Temple University at night, and after 10 years he earned an engineering degree.

He became an expert on signals and was promoted to senior signal engineer in 1979. He designed signals that made trains and tracks safer, the agency said.

John was a loyal Phillies fan who could remember when he and a friend were the only fans sitting in the left-field upper deck at Connie Mack Stadium in 1961 as Gene Mauch's team dropped another game in a 23-game losing streak.

But discouraging seasons, like the one just past, did not keep John from wearing a Phillies cap, which he was still wearing in his final days at the transit agency.

John was born on a 20-acre dairy farm in Wyandotte County, Kansas, to Walter E. LaForce and the former Irene Debus. When he was a child, his father sold the farm and opened a gas station near a rail yard in Kansas City, starting John's long fascination with trains.

He always remembered hearing the lonesome train whistles as a child, and by the age of 14 he had memorized the entire route system and timetables of the Kansas City train network.

John joined the Navy at age 17, serving in the Pacific fleet after World War II and in the Atlantic fleet during the Korean War.

He met Diane Raysik at a USO dance and they were married in 1954.

John was active in the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Fleet Reserve Association, the Enlisted Reservist Assocation and various railroad organizations.

He was proud of his membership in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or IEEE. He also was a member of various Masonic groups.

Besides his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Donna LaForce; four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Services: 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at Wackerman Funeral Home, 8060 Verree Road. Friends may call at 6 p.m. Monday at the funeral home. Burial will be in Washington Crossing National Cemetery, Newtown, Pa.