M. Mark Mendel, 80, Phila. lawyer

M. Mark Mendel, 80, the combative, fiercely mustached Philadelphia litigator whom friends recalled as "larger than life" - a la Zorba the Greek - died at his home in Radnor yesterday of complications from long battles with failing kidneys and heart disease.

A specialist in medical-malpractice and public-utilities law, Mr. Mendel also is remembered for his role as the plaintiff's attorney in a 17-year-long libel case that pitted Philadelphia Magazine against a former New Jersey nightclub owner who claimed the magazine, in a 1971 article, falsely portrayed him as a cocaine dealer.

As the case wore on, the defense, in its appeal of the $7 million judgment against the magazine, claimed that Mr. Mendel had out-of-court contact with the trial judge.

Although battered for a time by negative publicity surrounding the accusation - and an appeals court decision that overturned the judgment - Mr. Mendel eventually was exonerated, said his friend, lawyer Dennis J. Cogan, who took Mr. Mendel's place as plaintiff's counsel. Ultimately, the case was settled in 1988 for an undisclosed sum on the eve of a second trial.

"If you were in trouble or needed something, Mark could be the dearest friend a person could have," Cogan said yesterday. "But you didn't want to be his enemy."

Mr. Mendel was born in Schwabisch-Gmund, Germany, near Stuttgart, and narrowly escaped the Holocaust: He came to the United States with his parents and sister, Sigrid, in 1939.

Cogan said Mr. Mendel was about 10 when the family prepared to exit Germany. At the border, he wore a watch that was a gift from an aunt, but a German official, possibly an SS officer, ripped the watch off the boy's arm.

The incident, Cogan said, planted the seeds of his future toughness.

"He said he was frightened that day," Cogan said. "He was ashamed that he was scared; he resolved that he would never be frightened again."

Mr. Mendel was active in city government, in bar association affairs, and as a booster for his beloved alma maters, Northeast High School and Temple University. He was a big man - 6-foot-2, 200-plus pounds - whose love of sports rivaled his appetite for fine food, said Susan Smolen, 63, his companion of six years.

Smolen, who donated a kidney to Mr. Mendel in 2006, said she was constantly amazed by his stamina. An expert skier, he loved to give lessons when he went to Aspen, she recalled.

He raised money for the U.S. Olympic Ski Team. He was a life member the Temple University Varsity Club, and a trustee of the Pop Warner Football League.

"He was a wild man," she said. "He was driven."

Mr. Mendel served as public utilities solicitor in the city's Law Department under Mayors Richardson Dilworth and James Tate. He was a former president of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association. In 1976, he received the association's distinguished-service award as "the trial lawyer who does the impossible."

With his wife, Grace A. Bastian, Mr. Mendel had two daughters and a son: Kathryn Sorkin, Sigrid Usen, and Richard C. Mendel. He also is survived by six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His wife preceded him in death.

Services are set for 11 a.m. Sunday at Joseph Levine & Son Funeral Home, 7112 N. Broad St. Burial follows in Montefiore Cemetery, Rockledge.