His daughter-in-law, Sylvia Hankins, said he was especially proud of his connection with Lehigh University.
"It made him who he was ... in his profession and as an individual," she said.
Mr. Hankins was an early leader in both high school and college.
Born in Merchantville, he was senior class president and varsity basketball team captain at both Merchantville High School, from which he graduated in 1935, and at Lehigh, where he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1939.
That year, he joined Peco as an assistant substation operator before becoming an assistant investigator of plant tests.
His degree earned him a Navy officer's commission during World War II. He completed radar officer training at Dartmouth and Bowdoin Colleges as well as at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and saw combat during the liberation of the Philippines and the battle of Okinawa.
Mr. Hankins returned to Peco in 1946 and was promoted in 1950 to engineer in the station economy division of the station operating department.
In 1956, he became assistant superintendent of the Eddystone Generating Station. In 1960, he was named its superintendent and in 1965, he became Peco's superintendent of generating stations.
The Lehigh University Alumni Association, for which he was a member of reunion committees, gave him its alumni award in 1989, on the 50th anniversary of his graduation. His granddaughter Carly recently became the third generation of the Hankins family to graduate from Lehigh, his daughter-in-law said.
Mr. Hankins was a member of the Edison Electrical Institute, for which he was a committee chairman. He also was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Union League of Philadelphia.
Besides his daughter-in-law and granddaughter, Mr. Hankins is survived by his wife, Margaret; son, Charles; and granddaughter Shelby.
A memorial service was set for 11 a.m. Saturday, June 9, at Lima United Methodist Church, 209 N. Middletown Rd. (Route 352), Lima.
Contact Walter F. Naedele at 215-854-5607 or wnaedele@phillynews.com.
