Peter Parisi, 92, teacher in Phila.

Peter Parisi, 92, of Drexel Hill, a wartime athlete, and a retired teacher and truant officer with the Philadelphia School District, died of pneumonia Friday, April 17, at Delaware County Memorial Hospital.

A South Philadelphia native, Mr. Parisi was the son of Italian immigrants. He grew up above Parisi's Sanitary Bakery, which his father owned and operated, and attended South Philadelphia High School.

Very early, Mr. Parisi attracted attention as a star catcher on several baseball teams in Philadelphia, and that prowess on the diamond stood him in good stead once he joined the Navy in 1942.

His initial deployment was to the Algiers Naval Base in New Orleans, where he played baseball beside many well-known players, both professional and semiprofessional. At that time, the USO Baseball League of New Orleans consisted of nine teams, including the Navy sailors.

"At the Algiers Naval Base, all I did was play baseball and have liberty every night. I loved New Orleans' food, music, people, and even the climate. I realized then that I would never have it so good again," Mr. Parisi said in a newsletter recapping his baseball and World War II service.

In December 1943, Mr. Parisi sailed for England and joined a Navy ship salvage unit at Plymouth.

"All we did was play baseball. This baseball in the service was taken very seriously. A pitcher and I were sent to Exeter on 'temporary duty' because the Navy team there had a big game coming up," Mr. Parisi said.

"We were all looking forward to playing the Army Air Force team in London on June 7, when I was recalled back to my outfit to get ready for D-Day," he said.

Mr. Parisi was assigned to a unit that landed on Omaha Beach 12 days after D-Day. The outfit's mission was to clear sunken vessels from the harbors of Cherbourg and Le Havre - a dangerous job, since the Germans had planted mines in the wreckage. The French government later honored him for helping to liberate France.

Decades later, in the 2000s, Mr. Parisi reconnected with some of the wartime players, including Ray and Lenny Yochim of New Orleans. "The old ball players went through archives and old team photos together, trying to figure out who played against whom in the early 1940s," said his son, Eric.

After the war, Mr. Parisi attended what is now West Chester University, and earned a master's degree in education from West Virginia University, both on the GI Bill.

Mr. Parisi spent a year teaching on a reservation of the Hopi and Navajo nations in Arizona before returning to Philadelphia to teach sixth grade and serve as a home and school visitor, or truant officer. He enlisted the family, school, and social-service agencies to get truants back to classes. He retired in 1991.

He married Erika F. Parisi, an anesthesiologist at Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park. The couple raised two sons in Drexel Hill. She died in 2006.

Into his 90s, Mr. Parisi was a fixture in the neighborhood, walking his pug dog, Luie, to the bank or the grocery, "spreading his good cheer and refusing offers of a ride home from neighbors," his son said.

Besides his son, Mr. Parisi is survived by another son, Stefan; three grandchildren; and a brother.

Services were Saturday, April 25.