Philadelphia Club

The Atlantic City Country Club won the Suburban League team championship of the Golf Association of Philadelphia by defeating the Philadelphia Country Club, 35 to 28, in a title playoff yesterday. Atlantic City won the match at the Philadelphia club, 16 1/2 to 15 3/4, and the match on its own course, 18 1/2 to 12 1/4. The low scorers were Atlantic City's Duke Delcher, with a 1-under-par 70, and Philadelphia Country's Mike Fox, with a 72. Both rounds were shot at the Philadelphia club.

A. Atwater Kent Jr., a yachtsman and son of the radio pioneer, died Saturday at St. Mary's Hospital in West Palm Beach, Fla. He was 79. Born on Pine Street in Philadelphia, Kent left high school to work at the Atwater Kent Manufacturing Co. on Wissahickon Avenue, which his father, A. Atwater Kent Sr., had founded. In 1929, he became a vice president in the company, which was known for its high-quality radios. By 1937, however, his father had closed the company rather than allow a union to organize its workers.

In 1968, Lee F. Driscoll Jr. took his seat at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago as a peace delegate, committed to whichever candidate would end the war in Vietnam. As general counsel to the food-services firm that would become Aramark, Mr. Driscoll was a bit different from other antiwar delegates, but no corporate rebel. The firm "wanted my husband to be the public image of the company," his wife, Phoebe, said, "and was very supportive of his efforts. " Mr. Driscoll, 82, vice chairman of ARA Services in the 1970s, died of chronic heart disease Saturday at his home in Lower Gwynedd.

Richard Parry, 73, a longtime employee of the Central Intelligence Agency and a highly respected connoisseur of antique maps and prints, died Tuesday at his home in Chestnut Hill. Mr. Parry was one of seven sons of the late Common Pleas Court Judge George Gowan Parry. He worked for 23 years analyzing intelligence data for the CIA in Philadelphia. After his retirement several years ago, Mr. Parry, long an aficionado of antique maps, became a dealer in maps and prints dating from the 18th century and earlier.

Drew McGowan, a recent Penn graduate, won his second straight national Class B court tennis championship yesterday, defeating Robert Devens of New York City, 6-2, 6-3, at the Racquet Club. It was the fourth match of the day at the Philadelphia club for Devens, who played second singles for the 1994 Stanford University tennis team. He also lost to Will Rowe of Boston, 3-6, 6-4, 6-5, in the final of the Etchebaster Cup competition. John McLean won the national 55-and-over court tennis championship for the fifth time in six years by defeating Pete Bostwick, 6-4, 6-5, at the Tuxedo Racquet Club in New York.

John Cadwalader, 88, of Blue Bell, a retired Navy captain and descendant of an early Philadelphia family, died Sunday at Chestnut Hill Hospital. He had suffered a stroke two weeks earlier. Mr. Cadwalader was an English teacher at the University of Pennsylvania for five years before entering the Navy in 1940. He spent World War II in the Pacific as an officer on the battleship Washington and a gunnery officer on the USS Monterey. After the war, he received a doctorate in English literature at Penn but did not return to the classroom.

Pump up those soccer balls and dust off the cleats - professional soccer is about to return to the Philadelphia region. Major League Soccer plans a 2 p.m. press conference in in Chester tomorrow to formally announce what The Inquirer reported last week - that the region has been awarded an expansion team. The as-yet-unnamed Philadelphia club will be the league's 16th team. The announcement is scheduled to be made at the Wharf at Rivertown, an office complex that links downtrodden Chester's past and future, located in what was once the Philadelphia Electric Co. station.

Donaldson Cresswell, 87, retired executive vice president of PSFS, died yesterday at the Beaumont Health Care Center in Bryn Mawr. Mr. Cresswell graduated from Princeton in 1924 and the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1927. He was executive vice president of PSFS when he retired at age 55. Among the civic positions he held were chairman of the board of directors of Blue Cross of Philadelphia, chairman and director of the Corporation for Relief of Widows of Episcopal Clergymen in Pennsylvania Home, and member of the board of directors of Bryn Mawr Hospital.

Carson Puriefoy, retired regional manager of Wyeth Ayrst Pharmaceuticals and an early advocate of low-cost generic drugs, died of cancer Wednesday. He was 80 and lived in Yeadon. Puriefoy retired in 1980 after 35 years with the firm. He also was a founder of the Nile Swim Club, believed to be the nation's first privately owned swim club for African Americans. In 1935, according to a family member, Puriefoy became the first African- American to become a manager for American Stores, Inc., which later became Acme supermarkets.

Carroll R. Wetzel, 90, retired senior partner in a Philadelphia law firm and former president of the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society, died Saturday at home in Ambler. He retired in 1970 from Dechert, Price & Rhoads, with which he had been affiliated for 37 years. He had specialized in corporate law. A native of Trenton, Mr. Wetzel graduated from Andover (Mass.) Academy, Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., and the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. During World War II, he served with the Army Air Corps as a reconnaissance officer in England, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Richard W. Havens, 89, a retired bank chairman formerly of Gladwyne, died Feb. 11 at Sakonnet Bay Manor in Tiverton, R.I., after a fall at home. He had lived for the last 10 years in Little Compton, R.I. In 1953, at 33, Mr. Havens became president of Jenkintown Bank & Trust Co. Eight years later, he was named president of Industrial Valley Bank & Trust Co., created when Jenkintown Bank merged with Industrial Trust Co. From the early 1970s until retiring in 1985, he was chairman of the board.

In 1968, Lee F. Driscoll Jr. took his seat at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago as a peace delegate, committed to whichever candidate would end the war in Vietnam. As general counsel to the food-services firm that would become Aramark, Mr. Driscoll was a bit different from other antiwar delegates, but no corporate rebel. The firm "wanted my husband to be the public image of the company," his wife, Phoebe, said, "and was very supportive of his efforts. " Mr. Driscoll, 82, vice chairman of ARA Services in the 1970s, died of chronic heart disease Saturday at his home in Lower Gwynedd.

Pump up those soccer balls and dust off the cleats - professional soccer is about to return to the Philadelphia region. Major League Soccer plans a 2 p.m. press conference in in Chester tomorrow to formally announce what The Inquirer reported last week - that the region has been awarded an expansion team. The as-yet-unnamed Philadelphia club will be the league's 16th team. The announcement is scheduled to be made at the Wharf at Rivertown, an office complex that links downtrodden Chester's past and future, located in what was once the Philadelphia Electric Co. station.

Two people, including an off-duty city police officer, are dead after an altercation at a West Philadelphia nightclub early yesterday morning. About 2 a.m., officer Hasan Long, 27, of the 14th Police District, was celebrating his fiancee's birthday at the Asmara Conxion Lounge on the 6500 block of Haverford Avenue. Long, who was unarmed, was involved in an altercation with a man at the club who wanted to use the space Long and his party were occupying, police said. Charles Polk, 30, of the 7300 block of Ruskin Road in Philadelphia, assaulted Long, drew a handgun, and shot the officer in the torso five to seven times, police said.

Because she doesn't want to sound arrogant or tempt fate, Virada Nirapathpongporn refuses to concede that, yes, she believes it is her time to win the U.S. Women's Amateur. "That's kind of getting ahead of myself," Nirapathpongporn, 21, a first-team all-American at Duke, said yesterday in a tone as measured and controlled as her golf game. But after the way she methodically mowed down yet another victim yesterday at Philadelphia Country Club in Gladwyne, Nirapathpongporn must be considered the heavy favorite in today's 36-hole final against 16-year-old Californian Jane Park.

If the first day of the U.S. Women's Amateur was pretty much a washout on Monday, yesterday was even wetter. "The golf course is unplayable," Dave Eaton, head pro at Philadelphia Country Club, said as he officially confirmed shortly after 4 p.m. what was obvious after four solid hours of rain. "There's standing water everywhere: in the bunkers, the fairways, the greens. " Meanwhile, on the club's back terrace, officials from the U.S. Golf Association were breaking the news to the players, who had spent most of the second day in the clubhouse, chatting, playing cards, reading, napping, or watching movies on TV. Weather and course conditions permitting, second-round play will resume at 7:30 this morning, with a shotgun start.

After the summer of guts and glory she has had, it's tempting to refer to the U.S. Women's Amateur, which begins tomorrow at Philadelphia Country Club, as the "Michelle Wie Show. " But do so at your own risk. All weekend long, top women amateurs have been arriving in town - amateurs who would like nothing better than to mow down young Ms. Wie in a match and prove for all the world to see that they, not she, deserve star status. Among them is Morgan Pressel, who beat Wie two weeks ago in the Girls' Junior in Connecticut.

Can you canoe? If so, the Philadelphia Canoe Club wants to know about it. On Sunday, the club will hold its annual open house and regatta on club grounds, where the Wissahickon Creek spills into the Schuylkill. It is a veritable paradise by the river. "It's the premier event during the year to open the clubhouse and the grounds to the public," said club member Richard Greene. "But it's also a time for members to rally around the club to spruce it up and show it off. " The land the club occupies is part of the Fairmount Park System, and in keeping with the beauty of Philadelphia's 1,700 acres of protected public greenery, it is an oasis in the city.

The leader of the United States Curling Association ought to live in a tiny north-woods town, where people slide rocks on ice because, hey, what else are you going to do on a Saturday night? It's surprising, then, to read on the red-white-blue letterhead of the national curling organization that its president, Peggy Hatch, resides not in Bemidji, Minn., but in Philadelphia. Center City no less, where, typically, the only sporting activities involving rocks and household implements are parking-spot disputes.

Paul J. Colletti, 68, of Blue Bell, a clothing manufacturer and an industry consultant, died Saturday at Chestnut Hill Hospital of an aneurysm. He began his career in Philadelphia as an assistant to a clothing designer and over the years owned and/or operated clothing manufacturing facilities in Philadelphia, Norristown and Quakertown. His companies made clothes under such labels as Stanley Blacker, Jones New York and Hart Schaffner & Marx. His consulting assignments had taken him to the Far East and Central and South America.