James R. Callaghan | Army colonel, 86

James R. Callaghan, 86, of Doylestown, a retired Army colonel and RCA project director, died Wednesday at home of pulmonary fibrosis.

A native of Lebanon, Mo., Mr. Callaghan enlisted in the Army during World War II. He served in Italy, Germany and Austria, where he met Susan Doherty, a Boston native who was working for the War Department.

They were married for 47 years until her death in 1996. The couple raised three children at Army bases in the United States and overseas. Mr. Callaghan served in Korea during the Korean War. While in the military he earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland.

In the 1970s, after retiring from the Army, he worked for Philco in Willow Grove and then was a project director for RCA in Camden until 1987.

For 16 years, Mr. Callaghan was a volunteer at Doylestown Hospital. He enjoyed woodworking and ceramics; daily swims; growing roses, African violets and vegetables; the beaches in North Carolina and New Jersey; and participating in a monthly neighborhood sing-a-long group.

Since 2004, he had been married to Deborah Rutherford Callaghan. In addition to his wife, Mr. Callaghan is survived by a daughter, Lisa Ettore; a son, Charles; stepchildren Jennifer and Michael Tesno; two brothers; and five grandchildren. Son James Jr. died in 1967.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. today at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, 235 E. State St., Doylestown. Burial will be June 30 in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.