In Memoriam

Rainer John Westphal (1935 - August 7, 2023)

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary..."

If you knew Ray Westphal, then you knew that at any moment he could, and often would, recite in its entirety, Edgar Allen Poe's famous, and painfully long, "The Raven."

The poem, like Ray's life, is known for meticulous logic, complex rhythm, and melodic cadence.

Ray was born in 1935 in Pelham New York, to immigrants, Gertrude, and Franz Westphal. They fell in love in Germany, sailed separately to the United States, married, and had two children, Ralph, and Ray. Ray's Father was a skilled upholsterer who owned a small shop in Pelham. During a post high school year at Iona Prep, Ray heard about a school in Philadelphia where a work study program could help him afford college. Ray applied, hopeful for better opportunities.

One came "Tapping at his Chamber door" when he was accepted at Drexel University.

At Drexel, Ray thrived. He had a passion for learning, especially in the exciting new field of computer science. He enjoyed campus life, his fraternity TKE, friends, athletics, and his service in the United States National Guard. A blind date, with a beautiful and feisty Italian coed, blossomed into a scandalous romance for its time. Love prevailed, Germany and Italy were unified, in at least one wild way, and he and Antoinette Lucia Passo were wed in May of 1960.

Ray's education in Computer Science led to a job at Educational Testing Services in Princeton, New Jersey, where he was part of the team that designed the scoring system for the SAT. Don't blame him! His children Jeff, Stefanie, and Amanda came along, and the young family lived and played in Belle Mead, New Jersey. From there he worked in consulting for Peat, Marwick, and Mitchell and moved the family to Strafford, PA.

In 1969, he was abruptly laid off. Perhaps he thought, "Is this it, and nothing more?"

Ray often said that standing, sullen, in the unemployment line was the single most defining moment of his life. He found a job at Sorbus Corporation in King of Prussia, where he helped develop a lease accounting system that included a corporate tax rate table feature. The unit was struggling, and with another lay off looming, he and Antoinette risked everything on a bet that the tax rate table was a niche opportunity to meet an unmet corporate need. In 1978, they started Vertex Inc, with one employee, a second mortgage, and a whole lot of determination. Finally, as his own boss, Ray pledged never to face another lay off again.

"Presently their souls grew stronger, hesitating then no longer."

Ray led Vertex for twenty years; creating one of the first true outsourcing companies in the United States. Vertex delivers corporate tax research, software, tools, and consulting services that enable companies to calculate, comply, and remit their tax obligations with confidence. Today, Vertex (VERX) is the leading public corporate tax compliance technology company in the world, employing thousands, and serving countless, for the betterment of global commerce. His values of very hard work, coupled with a whole lot of fun, are bedrock corporate values to this day, and tales of his genius, guile, and extreme generosity were legend.

In 1995, a most unwanted "visitor came entreating entrance at the chamber door."

Antoinette was diagnosed with breast cancer. Ray's retirement focused on her, travel, the shore with family, great golf, fascinations with science, service at Drexel, the study of, and contributions to reduce recidivism, and an ongoing quest for new ideas and curiosities.

Antoinette succumbed to breast cancer in 2004. "That is it. And nothing more."

But there was more. In 2005, Ray met the second love of his life, Cindy Craft. They married in 2008 and enjoyed many years of happiness together. He adored their cabin (Ray's Roost) in Utah, home in Naples, Florida, traveling, hiking, and golf adventures. He also became engrossed in a new business idea, with an obsession, that was at times, perplexing.

"So gently you came rapping, and so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door. That I scarce was sure I heard you. Here I opened wide the door. Darkness there and nothing more."

Ray's journey with dementia was gradual, but sad and steady, and it stole his light away bit by insidious bit. In recent years, he took great joy in the simple pleasures of basking in the warm sun, exchanging barbs with his treasured lifelong assistant Jill Nestor, too many fine cigars, Dairy Queen ice cream cones, and the gentle sway of his beloved little leaf linden tree standing majestically in his backyard.

He was a man of incredible range who read ferociously but would drop that same book in a heartbeat for a game of pick-up basketball. He loved deeply, but also critiqued fiercely. He appreciated the Philadelphia Orchestra as well as the Oak Ridge Boys. He led harshly at times, but was beyond generous in spirit and action. He received many awards but never sought nor coveted them. And like any true Philadelphian, he adored his hometown teams, or called them all bums, often within the same five minutes.

Ray is survived by his loving wife Cindy, his son Jeff, and wife Jenifer Westphal, daughter Stefanie (Westphal) and husband, Christopher Thompson, daughter Amanda (Westphal), and husband Conrad Radcliffe, as well as 11 Grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren. Friends and family will gather in celebration of Ray's life Friday, August 11, at 10am for visitation, at West Laurel Hill Cemetery, 225 Belmont Avenue, Bala Cynwyd, and 11am service. Private interment to follow. In lieu of Flowers, please consider a donation in Ray's honor to the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design at Drexel University. Yes, he did that too. For her.

"Till I scarcely more than muttered, other friends have flown before. On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before."

"Quoth the Raven. Nevermore."

William B Eagleson Jr (December 10, 1925 - February 5, 2021)

William B. Eagleson, Jr. was the former chairman of Girard Bank, Philadelphia, and chairman emeritus of Mellon Bank Corp. Bill, as he was known to his family and friends, enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the banking industry. He joined the then Girard Trust Company in 1951 as a security analyst after two years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and he spent the balance of his business career with the company and its successors. He was elected president in 1970 and chairman of the board in 1973, a post that he held for eleven years. He led Girard in the 1981 acquisition of the Farmers Bank of Delaware, the first out-of-state expansion by a Pennsylvania bank, and later the merger in 1983 with Mellon Bank Corp. Bill served as chairman of Mellon until his retirement and then as chairman emeritus. From 1988 to 1995 he was chairman of Grant Street National Bank in Pittsburgh, a so-called “bad bank” formed by Mellon to liquidate problem assets. He was a member of numerous committees of the Association of Reserve City Bankers, and of both the American and Pennsylvania Bankers Associations, and served on advisory bodies to the U.S. Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

He had extensive business experience in Japan and elsewhere in East Asia, serving for many years as a director of the Private Investment Company for Asia, a multi-national private sector development organization headquartered in Singapore. He was a director of the International Monetary Conference, and served for many years on the Advisory Committee on East Asian Studies at Princeton. He was an advisor to several major Japanese financial institutions and was, for nine years, Honorary Consul General of Japan in Philadelphia. The government of Japan conferred on him The Order of the Sacred Treasure in 1999.

Bill served at various times as a director or trustee of Anchor Hocking Company, Pennwalt Corporation, Foote Mineral Company, Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, General Accident Insurance Company, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. He was a trustee of Lehigh University, active and emeritus, for more than forty years and chairman of its Finance Committee, a trustee of the General Theological Seminary, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and a director of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association of which he was Treasurer.

He served on the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and as chairman of the Philadelphia Police Study Task Force created by then Commissioner Kevin Tucker to recommend reforms for a department plagued by corruption and a lack of public confidence. He was the first chairman of the Private Industry Council of Philadelphia created to implement new federal job re-training legislation, and later was appointed by then governor Thornburg to be chairman of the Pennsylvania State Job Training Council.

Bill was born in 1925 in Philadelphia and resided in Lafayette Hill, PA. He was a W.W. II Navy veteran who saw service in the Pacific, a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude alumnus of Lehigh from which he also received an honorary LL.D. degree, and of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he earned an MBA. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society. In his free time, Bill pursued a variety of interests including Asian art and antiquities and Irish music. He was a lifelong student of the Japanese language and a voracious reader; his favorites included biographies and historical fiction as well as the New York Times and the Economist. Bill was a devoted member of the Episcopal church and rarely missed a Sunday service. He loved to travel and had the opportunity to do so frequently for business and pleasure including to Asia, Sanibel Island, and throughout the United Kingdom.

His wife of 60 years, the former Catherine West McLean, died in September 2020. He is survived by a daughter Elizabeth Eagleson Mackie (Keith) of Darien, CT, a son John Eagleson (Bowen) of Atlanta, GA and four grandchildren: William and John Mackie, and Lucy and McLean Eagleson. His brother, Peter S. Eagleson, died in January 2021.

Catherine "Cantor" (McLean) Eagleson (June 28, 1935 - September 7, 2020)

Cantor, as she was known to both family and friends, was born in Buffalo, NY on June 28, 1935. The youngest of four girls, she was the daughter of Hugh and Elizabeth McLean of North Tonawanda, NY. Cantor graduated from The Buffalo Seminary in 1953 and Wellesley College in 1957.

After Wellesley, she moved to Philadelphia and joined Girard Trust Bank where she met her future husband, William B. Eagleson, Jr. "Bill" on her first day of work. They married in 1960 and resided in Devon, Malvern, Radnor and, for the last 15 years, Lafayette Hill. During their 60 years of marriage, Cantor and Bill had opportunities to travel for business and pleasure and made many trips to Asia, Europe and within the US.

Cantor loved birds, Sanibel Island, crossword puzzles, family gatherings and volunteer work. Over the years, she was active with Paoli Memorial Hospital, The Academy of Natural Sciences, The Hill at Whitemarsh, St. Thomas' Church, Whitemarsh, and was a loyal benefactor of The Buffalo Seminary in Buffalo, NY and St. James School in Philadelphia.

In addition to her husband, Cantor is survived by her children, Elizabeth Eagleson Mackie (Keith), and son John Eagleson (Bowen) and four grandchildren: William and John Mackie, and Lucy and McLean Eagleson. Her sisters, Jean McLean Bostwick and Margaret McLean Caywood, also survive her. She was predeceased by another sister, Mary McLean Thrush.

Geraldine Dana Tisdall (March 10, 1928 - January 5, 2017)

Mrs. Tisdall, who was known as “Gerrie”, was an avid gardener and landscaper, an accomplished golfer and painter, a homemaker and the mother of four children. She was born and raised in Swarthmore, PA by her parents Arthur R. and Grace G. Dana, as the youngest of three girls. Her sisters Phyllis Howkins and Dorothy Peyser predeceased her. Gerrie graduated from George School, Newtown PA, in 1945, and earned a B.A. at Connecticut College for Women, New London, CT, in 1949, with a major in Fine Arts and training as a medical illustrator. She received an Associate of Science degree in Landscape Design from Temple University in 1984 Magna Cum Laude.

She married Edward Thomas Tisdall of Holyoke, MA in 1948. They lived in Swarthmore PA, Stamford CT, Hillsdale NJ , Dayton OH, Albany NY and finally settled in Villanova PA in 1962. In 1980, Gerrie moved to Chestnut Hill PA and then Wyndmoor PA before her final move to Foulkeways, Gwynedd PA in 2004.

Gerrie pursued many interests. She was an artist specializing in watercolor. She was active at the Wayne Art Center, Wayne PA and exhibited her work at several art shows there, winning the Margaret Chrystie Memorial Award for best watercolor and other prizes, in addition to mounting a one-woman exhibit. She also had a one-woman show at the Radnor Memorial Library. She was active in the Random Garden Club and participated in their entries to the Philadelphia Flower Show. She was also a lifelong and accomplished athlete. She was a club champion at Overbrook Golf Club, and a member of the Philadelphia Cricket Club in Chestnut Hill PA where she played on the golf team. She also was a member of Hit or Miss, a women's golf group.

Gerrie was a member of Radnor Friends Meeting in Radnor PA. She was a supporter of many charities including the American Friends Service Committee, Open Land Foundation, the Sierra Club, Smile Train and Doctors Without Borders among others.

Alex Ovsen (February 23, 1923 - July 27, 2016)

John Lane Morrow (March 31, 1933 - June 1, 2016)

John Morrow grew up in Runnemede, NJ where he excelled in track and field at Audubon high school.  He joined the Navy and this is where he began his career in computer programming.  John and his first wife, Emma, had three children. John’s second wife, Catherine married her husband and an extended family.  John and his wife moved to Newtown Square in 2012 and enjoyed retirement.  

John was an awesome cook, and cooked all holiday meals.  He served God and enjoyed Scottish music and singing hymns.  He would always remind his children to have the songs "within your heart."  John was noted for sharing his life experiences so that in sharing an insight, it might support another fellow.  Kindness he learned from his Father and through teachings of Kripalu yoga.  He and his wife were pioneers in computers having lifelong careers at the Railroad.  

John was formerly of Bristol PA. He was the beloved husband of the late Catherine T. (nee Walsh); loving father of John (Kathy) Morrow, JoAnne Morrow Vereneck and Joyce Morrow; brother of the late Alice Hendrix; and dear grand-father of Shelby, Lindsey and Michael.  He is also survived by nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

Reverend Josephine Baker (August 31, 1920 - November 20, 2013)

As the former Josephine L. Redenius, Dr. Baker came to Valley Forge Military Academy & College in 1967 as the Director of Public Relations and Development. She had recently retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after serving 24 years in the Women's Army Corps (WACS). She was one of the first of 200 commissioned women in the Regular Army. Her career in the Army took her around the world. She visited 16 countries in Africa, and 13 in Asia. She joked that the only two places on Earth that she had not visited were the North and South Poles. Her military career took her from serving in the Manhattan District Counter-Intelligence Corps, to being lexicographer for the first volume of atomic terms; Secretary General Staff in Armed Forces, Far East; Public Information Officer in the Pentagon; Chief of WAC Recruiting; and Information Liaison Officer for the U.S. Army also in the Pentagon. In 1967 when she retired, she had become the second highest ranking woman officer in the U.S. Army.