Joseph F. Ruffenach, funeral director

Joseph F. Ruffenach, 80, retired owner of his family's funeral home, died of renal failure Tuesday, Jan. 11, at his home in South Philadelphia.

In 1928, Mr. Ruffenach's father, Victor, opened what is now Joseph F. Ruffenach Funeral Home on 21st Street near Snyder Avenue.

Mr. Ruffenach's son, Michael, said his father was supervisor of the funeral home from 1951 until 1969, and owner until 1995.

Mr. Ruffenach graduated from Southeast Catholic High School in 1948, where he earned a letter as an offensive end and defensive tackle on the football team.

While working at a bakery that supplied a supermarket chain when he was 19, Mr. Ruffenach lost two fingers on his right hand while cleaning a machine. "The power was supposed to be off," his son said, "and he was stuck there for hours."

Despite the handicap, Mr. Ruffenach graduated from Dolan College of Embalming in 1951.

When he was 37, in 1967, his wife, Monica, died and he was left to raise their six children.

His son said he founded the annual joint football banquet for seniors at what are now Edward W. Bok Technical High School, SS. John Neumann and Maria Goretti High School, and South Philadelphia High School, and was its chairman since the 1980s.

In 2010, Mr. Ruffenach earned the International Lions Club Melvin Jones Fellowship Award, his son said, which made him only the fifth recipient in the 76-year history of the South Philadelphia Lions Club. His son said he was a member and a board director of that club for more than 50 years and its president in 1966.

Mr. Ruffenach was chairman for 30 years of the annual hall of fame banquet of the St. John Neumann Millay Club, which, his son said, named him its Man of the Year in 1985 and gave him its Abbot Pennings Award in 2010.

Once a month, Mr. Ruffenach would meet with friends and former classmates from his youth to reminisce, his son said, about "how much better athletes they all got as they got older."

Besides his son, Mr. Ruffenach is survived by sons Joseph F. Jr., Paul, and Steven; daughters Joan and Monica C. White; 14 grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and his companion of 28 years, Lucy Cohen.

A viewing was set for 8 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18, at Joseph F. Ruffenach Funeral Home, 2101 S. 21st St., before a 10 a.m. Funeral Mass at St. Edmond Roman Catholic Church, 21st Street at Snyder Avenue. Burial is to be in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Cheltenham.