John P. LaForce, 79, an employee of Philadelphia’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) for more than half a century, died Nov. 20—just days before his 80th birthday.

LaForce joined the former Philadelphia Transportation Company as a streetcar operator in 1954, ultimately rising to the position of deputy chief engineer, infrastructure. SEPTA presented him with a special citation in 2004 in recognition of his 50 years of service.

SEPTA Director of Public Affairs Richard C. Maloney said of LaForce: “For a transportation system as technically huge and complex as SEPTA, John was the one guy who knew how virtually everything worked—down to the last screw and circuit-breaker. He had a photographic memory of the entire SEPTA infrastructure for the last 50 years—literally.”

LaForce joined the U.S. Navy when he was 17, serving in the Pacific fleet after World War II and in the Atlantic fleet during the Korean War. He earned an engineering degree at Temple University.

For APTA, he was a member of the Power, Signals, and Communications Technical Forum.

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