Milton Wexler, 92; headed the Clover Knitting Mills

Milton Wexler, 92, of Delray Beach, Fla., president and chief executive officer of Clover Knitting Mills in Philadelphia from 1971 to his retirement in 1984, died Sunday, June 24, of Alzheimer's disease at Delray Medical Center.

Mr. Wexler had lived in Delray Beach for five years after moving from Plymouth Meeting to Boynton Beach, Fla., in 1988.

Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Wexler studied at what is now Neshaminy High School and served in the Army infantry from 1943 to 1945.

After surviving island combat, Mr. Wexler witnessed the September 1945 Japanese surrender on the Missouri, his son, Brad, said.

As a teenager in the 1930s, Mr. Wexler began working with his three brothers at Clover, owned by their family, at M and Erie Streets in Juniata Park.

At its busiest, in the 1970s, the firm employed more than 500 workers producing men's and women's sweaters. Foreign competition caused the firm to close in the early 1990s, Brad Wexler said.

In 1970, Mr. Wexler became president of the Pennsylvania branch of the Knitted Outerwear Manufacturers Association, a national trade organization. In 1973, the state branch named him its man of the year.

Mr. Wexler led the group into the 1980s as its chief negotiator with unions, his son said.

The manufacturers' association contributed millions to what was then the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, now Philadelphia University, his son said.

Mr. Wexler also led the association to be a fund-raiser in the 1970s and the 1980s for Israel Bonds.

Besides his son, Mr. Wexler is survived by a daughter, Sharon Weintraub; six grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. His wife, Edith, died in 2005, and a son, Harold, died in 2004.

A funeral service was set for 11:30 a.m. Thursday, June 28, at Goldsteins' Rosenberg's Raphael-Sacks funeral home, 310 Second Street Pike, Southampton, with interment in Roosevelt Memorial Park. A reception is to follow at the Brickside Grille, 540 Wellington Square, Exton.