Mr. Del Raso's father, Joseph, had founded the firm with a brother, Michael, after emigrating with their parents from Italy in 1909 and after working on subway construction in Manhattan and Philadelphia.
Belgrade was its name because the firm began in Southwest Philadelphia, where that was the name of a phone exchange.
A 1996 profile of Vincent Del Raso reported that Joseph "turned over the reins to his son, Vincent, 10 years before his death at 65 in 1965."
In that article, Mr. Del Raso said Belgrade tended not to bid on public projects because "anybody who can get a bonding company to post a bond can go in and bid" on the job.
"It's not an area we're accustomed to," he said. "The competition is more evenly matched in private construction."
Born in Southwest Philadelphia, Mr. Del Raso graduated in 1947 from Belmont (N.C.) Abbey, a military prep school at the time.
A son, Joseph, a partner in the Pepper Hamilton law firm, said that Mr. Del Raso operated the former Red Lion Inn, on Lancaster Avenue in Ardmore, which the family owned from 1947 to 1955.
"My grandfather owned the restaurant and my father ran it for him at the same time he was spending a significant amount of time in the construction company," Joseph Del Raso said.
Though the teenage Mr. Del Raso ran the Red Lion, his son said, "he couldn't get behind the bar till he was 21."
Memories of the restaurant show how different life was in the late 1940s.
Joseph Del Raso said the Red Lion was packed on Wednesdays, because that was when wealthy Main Line families gave their resident staff members the day off.
And because World War II had interrupted the college educations of a generation, the Red Lion was popular with some underclassmen at Main Line colleges who now were of drinking age.
Mr. Del Raso himself was in the Army in 1950 and 1951. He was discharged early with eardrum damage suffered during artillery training and attended night classes in engineering at Drexel University.
He was a founder and a director in 1986 of Constitution Bank in Philadelphia, from which he retired in 1994.
Mr. Del Raso was a member of the Villanova University Development Council and an advisory board member at Archmere Academy, Malvern Preparatory School, St. Aloysius Academy, and Villa Maria Academy. He and his wife, Dolores, were cochairs of the centennial ball at Villa Maria in 1972.
He also helped finance the National Italian American Foundation, his son said.
Besides his wife of 59 years and son, Mr. Del Raso is survived by daughters Laura Melvin and Bernadette Dougherty and 12 grandchildren. A son, Thomas, died in 2010.
A visitation will be held from 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, at Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church, Old Eagle School Road and Lancaster Avenue, Strafford, followed by an 11 a.m. memorial Mass.
Contact staff writer Walter F. Naedele at 215-854-5607 or wnaedele@phillynews.com.
