Edgar DeGasper, director of food service for Buffalo Board of Education

DeGasper

Edgar DeGasper, 85, of Williamsville, died on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008.

Mr. DeGasper took ground school instruction at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, receiving his private pilot's license just prior to Pearl Harbor. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, achieving the rank of captain while flying in the Pacific Theater. He was also a flight instructor and was in the same flight squadron as actor Tyrone Power and baseball star Ted Williams. After the war, he was a commercial pilot for Braniff Airlines for a short time.

Mr. DeGasper received a Bachelor of Science degree in hotel and restaurant management from Cornell University in 1948. He was the only person to evaluate the food service operations of all three branches of the military. Holding the honorary rank of brigadier general, he traveled to Japan, Asia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Korea and numerous bases throughout Europe and the United States.

Mr. DeGasper was director of food service for the Buffalo Board of Education for 33 years. He oversaw 42,000 meals a day during the school semesters.

He was elected president of International Food Service Executives Association on three separate occasions and received the highest award, "The Dignified Order of the Dinner Gong."

In addition, he served as president of the Erie County School Food Service Association, New York State School Food Service Association and the Cornell Society of Hotelmen of Western New York. He helped plan and dedicated the Statler Wing at Emerson High School and was involved in planning future extensions.

He was also a member of the National Restaurant Association of Western New York, the Retired Teachers Association of New York, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Clarence Flying Club, the advisory board of Amherst Museum and Confrerie La Chaine des Rotisseurs, Gourmet Society.

He jointly ran business and real estate ventures with his brother, Kenneth. They also owned an airplane.

Mr. DeGasper is survived by his wife, Beatrice, of Williamsville; one son, Michael Keenan, of Houston, Texas; five daughters, Kathleen Keenan, of Williamsville, Lisa Flandreau, of New Port Richey, Fla., Mary Jo Keenan, of Springfield, Mo., and Colleen Leiker and Rosemary Keenan, of Williamsville; one brother, Kenneth, of Williamsville; and five grandchildren.

Services were held on Monday, Jan. 21 at St. Gregory the Great Church. Arrangements were made by Amigone Funeral Home Inc.