Alan J. Harper, a retired waterfront towing company executive, died Friday of complications from a broken hip at his Ruxton home. He was 85.
He retired in 1968 after a 35-year career with the A.J. Harper Lighterage and Towing Co. The firm was founded by his father with one steam tug, the Hamilton, at the turn of the century.
A.J. Harper, which operated scows and coal barges in Baltimore Harbor, began delivering coal in 1916 to the old Maryland Steel Co., which later became the Bethlehem Steel Corp.
The company, located at Spedden's Shipyard in Canton, eventually expanded to five tugboats and 24 barges with an operation that transported barges as far away as Trenton, N.J. "Uncle Alan never missed a day of work and liked looking after the tugs and the barges," said a nephew, Charles H. Harper Jr. of Guilford, who operated the successor firm of Charles H. Harper Associates Inc. until it closed in 1986.
"Sometimes he'd jump down onto a barge to help out with the maintenance work or could be found in a tug's engine room. He wasn't averse to rolling up his sleeves and working right alongside the other men," his nephew said.
Mr. Harper was born and reared in the Ten Hills neighborhood and was a 1921 graduate of Friends School, where he played football and lacrosse. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1933 from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, and continued his education at the University of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins University.
He enlisted in the Army in 1942 and served in intelligence with the 7th Headquarters Corps and participated in the invasion of Normandy, and campaigns in northern France, the Rhineland and the Ardennes. He was awarded the Bronze Star and discharged with the rank of staff sergeant in 1945.
He was married the next year to the former Alice Claire Gaskins, who died in 1984.
"He sat by the side of the road and was a friend to man," said his wife of nine years, the former Florence G. Gaskins. "If something went wrong, he was always there to help out his neighbors and friends."
He is also survived by another nephew, Harper Thayer of Morganton, N.C.
Services were to be held at 11 a.m. today at the Ruck Towson Funeral Home, 1050 York Road, with interment in Loudon Park Cemetery.