John McNelis, professor and activist

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John McNelis, 90, of Chestnut Hill, a retired college professor, community activist and lobbyist for the food industry in Pennsylvania, died Feb. 1 at The Hill at Whitemarsh, where he had been receiving rehabilitative care.

Mr. McNelis retired in 2003 as owner of PGA Services, a coupon clearing house and lobbying service for state food companies. Earlier he had been manager of the Pennsylvania Chain Store Council.

Mr. McNelis taught communications and management at what is now La Salle University in the 1960s and 1970s. At La Salle, he founded the school’s Urban Studies Center and helped to organize events designed to provide outreach to the Olney community where La Salle is located.

He was actively involved in the civil rights movement and supported the right of students to express their views in opposition to the Vietnam War in public demonstrations on campus.

He later taught business administration at Spring Garden College and Community College of Pennsylvania.

Born and raised in the East Oak Lane section of Philadelphia, he graduated from St. Joseph’s Preparatory School. As an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, he enlisted in the Navy during World War II and was assigned to the Philippines as a lieutenant jg.

Returning to the United States after the war, he completed his bachelor’s degree in economics at Penn and went on to receive a doctor of laws degree from Penn’s Law School. After working for a time at North Philadelphia Trust Company, he left the bank to complete a master’s degree in political science at Temple University.

A longtime resident of West Mt. Airy, Mr. McNelis was active in the Democratic Party in Philadelphia and had worked with his brother, George McNelis, on the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy in 1960. Together with a network of friends in Northwest Philadelphia, he was part of a progressive Catholic interracial group.

He was an active member of the Philadelphia Ceili Group and the Donegal Society, two Irish-American organizations promoting dance, music and Irish culture.

In his later years, he worked in the Germantown community as a volunteer math tutor, first to adults at St. Vincent’s Church in a GED preparatory course and, later, teaching children at the Chew and Belfield Neighbors Club program in East Germantown.

Mr. McNelis is survived by daughters Deirdre Anne McNelis and Mary Hope McNelis; sons John Michael McNelis and Angus Edward McNelis; a sister, Mary Anne “Polly” McNelis; and five grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his former wife, Dorothy, and a brother, George B. McNelis.

A celebration of Mr. McNelis’s life will be held at noon Friday, Feb. 10, at Our Mother of Consolation Church, 9 E. Chestnut Hill Ave. in Chestnut Hill, with interment at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. Memorial donations in his name may be made to St. Malachy’s School, 1012 West Thompson St., Philadelphia, PA 19122, or to St. Vincent de Paul Church, 109 East Price Street, Philadelphia, PA 19144. - WF

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