Peter DePaul, Residences at Dockside developer and great-grandfather to 33, died at 95
He was the developer of Delaware River waterfront condominiums, but his family will remember him for his relentlessness and Super Bowl parties.
Peter DePaul, 95, of Blue Bell, foreman of The DePaul Group, former president of the bygone Keystone racetrack, and father of 11 and great-grandfather to 33, died Friday, Dec. 2, of an infection at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Mr. DePaul, born and raised in Germantown, left high school during his freshman year in 1942 to join the family business, Tony DePaul & Son, a highway and utility construction and material company. During his 80 years there, Mr. DePaul grew the business into The DePaul Group, diversifying its portfolio to include 1,200 employees across road, residential, assisted living, and country club construction industries.
Employees referred to Mr. DePaul as the “Man in the Arena” — a reference to a motivational Theodore Roosevelt speech from 1910 — for his relentless and ever-present focus on the art of the deal, even as his family grew.
“When he wasn’t sleeping, he was thinking business,” said Pat Callahan, who worked closely with Mr. DePaul as the finance director for the DePaul Group for 29 years. “Once he got into something, he was going to elbow his way to the front of the line.”
Callahan remembered Mr. DePaul for his innate and occasionally obsessive business savvy: He would drive past apartment complexes and count the cars in their parking lots to estimate occupancy and would mentally tally how many tables were in a restaurant to see if they were turning profit during dinners.
Mr. DePaul has worked on several notable projects in the Philadelphia region with the DePaul Group, including the operation of three assisted living facilities in Central and South Jersey and the 1980s purchase of Warminster’s Spring Mill Country Club, where Mr. DePaul boasted two hole-in-ones.
The developer also oversaw the construction of the Residences at Dockside at Penn’s Landing, a hulking $75 million luxury complex on the Delaware River near Queen Village that helped revitalize Philadelphia’s waterfront.
“He threw himself into it,” said Callahan, who called the project one of Mr. DePaul’s most significant.
Mr. DePaul had six children with his first wife, Angela Volpe, who died in 1968 due to a lung disease. He married Nevis Dragani in 1970, a widow whom Volpe’s sister introduced him to at their parish. He raised five more children with her, and the two have 27 grandchildren and 33 great-grandchildren in all.
The construction business often played a role in family life. Today, four of Mr. DePaul’s children and at least one grandchild work for The DePaul Group — including his eldest daughter Donna Bartynski, who oversees residential construction. She recalled tagging along with her father to work as a child, excited to help. She said she also eagerly watched him tinker with their family home in Wyndmoor, which he built.
Bartynski said her father taught her what it meant to be persistent. “When my dad wanted to start a project,” she said, “he would go to you every single day and ask you the same questions because he wanted to see the project through.”
Bartynski’s son Andrew now works as a project manager for The DePaul Group, after starting in construction during summers in high school. He remembers driving to Old City in a limousine with his grandfather to negotiate with city leaders.
“[My grandfather] was always teaching you,” he said. “He always wanted to give knowledge out to everyone he touched.”
Mr. DePaul used to own a stable of competitive racehorses who ran tracks in New Jersey, Baltimore, and Delaware, and was president of The Keystone Racetrack before it became the Parx Casino in Bensalem. He also was a stakeholder in the bid for a Foxwoods Philadelphia Casino, and held positions on the boards of Temple University and Blue Cross.
Mr. DePaul enjoyed cooking and trying new restaurants with his children, who fondly remember feasting on his pasta with oversize Italian meatballs and sausages at annual Super Bowl parties at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The junior Bartynski also recalled spending Easter vacation in Florida, where Mr. DePaul would take the brigade of young boys golfing and host an egg hunt.
If he wasn’t in Florida, the Bartynskis said, he spent nearly every Saturday at La Collina in East Falls or perfecting his signature tomato salad, which included onions, cucumbers, “the perfect amount of salt,” per his grandson, and fresh Italian bread.
In addition to his wife and Bartynski, Mr. DePaul is survived by daughters Alison Schmitt, Cindy Saponaro, Susan Ramos, Andrea Naticchione, Lisa Ramos, and Donna Williams; sons Anthony DePaul, Alfred Dragani, and John Dragani; 27 grandchildren; and 33 great grandchildren. A son and two grandchildren died earlier.
Services were held Dec. 9.
Donations in his name can be made by check to the Nello Memorial Committee, 409 Stenton Avenue, Flourtown, Pa., 19031.