W. Raymond Ketrow Jr., an engineering designer with Allegheny Power and owner of an organic gardening supply company, died of cancer Sunday at his Hagerstown home. He was 55.

Mr. Ketrow was born in Altoona, Pa., and earned an associate's degree in electrical engineering from Penn State Altoona, and another in accounting from Hagerstown Community College.

He had worked 35 years for the power company in Hagerstown.

An accomplished rose and organic gardener, he started a business in 1979 that sold organic fertilizers and plants. For more than 15 years, he wrote a gardening column for the Herald-Mail newspaper in Hagerstown.

He was a member of Masonic Friendship Lodge 84 and the Cumberland Valley Rose Society.

Mr. Ketrow was treasurer of the Washington County Council of PTAs, a member of the Maryland Congress of Parents and Teachers and a past president of the North Hagerstown High School PTA.

He was a member of Haven Lutheran Church in Hagerstown, where services were held Wednesday.

Mr. Ketrow is survived by a daughter, Devon A. Ketrow of Hagerstown; a brother, Donald Ketrow of Duncansville, Pa.; and three sisters, Beth Orberg of Altoona, and Renee Butler and Cathie Pollard, both of Martinsburg, Pa. His marriage to the former Shirley Brown ended in divorce.