John H. Gimbel Jr., a retired chief financial officer of a commercial construction firm, died Sunday of a heart attack while driving to church along the Baltimore Beltway. He was 82 and lived for more than 45 years in Lutherville before a recent move to Oak Crest Village in Parkville.

Before he retired 20 years ago, Mr. Gimbel was vice president of finance for John H. Hampshire Inc., a Remington plastering and drywall firm, where he had been a 35-year employee.

Born in Baltimore and raised on Wilkens Avenue, he was a 1936 graduate of City College. He earned a degree in accounting from the Johns Hopkins University, where he was a member of Delta Sigma Pi fraternity. He became a certified public accountant.

During World War II, he served in the Army's quartermaster corps and attained the rank of captain.

He was a former president of the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants, and active in national accounting professional societies.

Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Brown Memorial Woodbrook Presbyterian Church, 6200 N. Charles St., where Mr. Gimbel had been a deacon and elder.

Survivors include his wife of six years, the former Agnes Muhl Turner; a daughter, Nancy K. Daniels of Lutherville; two stepsons, J. Andrew Turner of Austin, Texas, and Philip L. Turner of Annapolis; a stepdaughter, Katherine Richardson of Upper Marlboro; and 10 grandchildren. His first wife, Margaret E. Koch, died in 1996. A son, Robert J. Gimbel, died in 1997.