Eugene Fressenjat "Gene" Raphel, a World War II veteran and surveyor whose clients for the past 55 years included the federal, state and county jurisdictions as well as numerous commercial firms and private individuals, died Jan. 7 of a stroke at his Monkton home.
He was 90.
Mr. Raphel, the son of a businessman and a homemaker, was born on Woodbine Farm in Upper Falls. After graduating in 1937 from St. Stephen School in Bradshaw, he began his lifelong career in land surveying with the Roland Park Co.
In 1939, he went to work for what was then Whitman, Requardt and Smith, designing and laying out the railroad network for the wartime expansion of Edgewood Arsenal.
As a member of the U.S. Engineering Department from 1940 to 1942, Mr. Raphel worked on the surveying of the Lend-Lease area in Bermuda and performing offshore hydrographic sounding for a proposed air base.
After completing its work in Bermuda, the survey team surveyed the initial route for the Alaska-Canadian, or Alcan, Highway through British Columbia and the Yukon Territory to the Alaska border, which took on greater strategic importance after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and the outbreak of World War II.
Over the objections of the U.S. Engineering Department, which felt his work was of critical importance to the department, family members said, Mr. Raphel decided to enlist in the Army in 1943.
As a member of the 1921st Airborne Engineer Battalion, Headquarters Company, 806th Engineer Aviation Battalion, he was deployed to the Pacific and fought in the battles of Saipan and Okinawa.
"He recounted that the 'Army needed places to land B-29s in the Pacific. We did reconnaissance to search for and survey sites for landing strips,' " said a daughter, Alice Linberg of Laytonsville.
Mr. Raphel didn't discuss his wartime exploits until recent years, recounting the hardships of shipboard life preceding the amphibious invasions of Saipan and Okinawa, the futility of trying to dig foxholes in the hard coral beaches of Saipan while under intense Japanese artillery barrages, and the horrors of kamikaze attacks at Okinawa.
He warmly recalled the camaraderie that he and his men shared and hearing the news of the Japanese surrender in August 1945 while stationed on Okinawa.
"We heard they had accepted the terms. Everybody on the island laid down in their foxholes and shot every daggone round we had straight up in the air," Mr. Raphel told family members.
"The whole island looked like it exploded. We threw so much shrapnel up in the air, but everyone forgot that what went up was going to come down. You've never seen such a sight," he said.
Returning to Baltimore after being discharged from the Army in 1946, Mr. Raphel resumed his career when he formed a partnership with W.H. Primrose & Associates.
In 1953, he established his own firm, E.F. Raphel & Associates, and for the next 55 years until retiring in 2008 and closing his business, performed survey work for the federal, state and county governments as well as numerous commercial firms and private individuals.
The Baltimore County Circuit Court appointed Mr. Raphel to the Maryland Board of Property Review. He served as a member and chair until resigning in June 2010.
"Gene was good at what he did, and the world knew it," said Richard "Dick" Moore, past president of Gaylord Brooks Realty Co. "He loved a surveying or land title challenge. He had no interest in worldly treasures, save his family and friends. He cared little for money."
Asked by a friend to drive his date to a party in 1948, Mr. Raphel picked up Alice Smyser, a Goucher College student, at her dormitory. They married in 1950.
"Dad often told us, 'I picked her up and never gave her back,'" said Mrs. Linberg.
After living briefly in Towson, the couple moved to a Monkton farm two years later, where Mr. Raphel raised horses, chickens, flowers and enough vegetables that he could share with family, friends and clients.
Mr. Raphel had been a longtime active member of the United States Pony Club and served in many capacities with the Elkridge-Harford Hunt Pony Club from 1963 until his death.
Through the years, hundreds of young pony club members were coached by Mr. Raphel, who allowed his farm to be used by the club's Mounted Games Team for the past 45 years as its practice field.
An accomplished horseman, Mr. Raphel served as a patrol judge for more than 30 years of the annual springtime My Lady's Manor point-to-point race.
Mrs. Raphel, a retired Carroll Manor Elementary School educator, died in 2008.
Mr. Raphel was a communicant of St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Hydes.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Jan. 22 at St. James Episcopal Church, 3100 Monkton Road.
Also surviving are a son, Eugene F. Raphel Jr. of San Francisco; another daughter, Dr. Corinne "Teener" Sweeney of Kennett Square, Pa.; a sister, Madeline Seipp of Towson; five grandchildren; and two great-granddaughters.
The date of services for Mr. Raphel was incorrectly reported in earlier versions of this article. The Baltimore Sun regrets the error.