William H. Oldach Jr., 93, formerly of Chestnut Hill, a retired marketing consultant and a longtime community volunteer, died April 26 at the VNA Hospice in the East Falls section of Philadelphia. He had been living at Wesley Enhanced Living at Stapeley in Germantown at the time of his death.
Mr. Oldach was an independent consultant for nearly two decades before retiring in the late 1990s. Earlier he had been a marketing research consultant for Chilton Research Services and a sales engineer for Leeds & Northrup.
Born and raised in Germantown, he was a graduate of Germantown High School and the University of Pennsylvania, and received an MBA from Columbia University. During World War II he served as an officer in the Navy and took part in the Battle of Okinawa.
He was active in the community, serving as a volunteer for the Chestnut Hill Town Watch, the Chestnut Hill branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, and as a Judge of Elections for the Philadelphia Board of Elections for many years. He also served Germantown Friends School as chairman of its Annual Giving Campaign in the 1970s.
An avid sailor, he was active in Star class racing in the 1950s and 1960s and was a longtime member of Riverton Yacht Club. Any vacation time was spent sailing and crabbing on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
In his seventies, after his daughter had moved to France, Mr. Oldach enrolled in French classes at Chestnut Hill College and learned to speak French quite fluently. One of his greatest pleasures in his later years was trips to France to visit his family there.
He was a member of the Union League of Philadelphia.
Mr. Oldach was married for 47 years to the former Betty Jane Ross, who died in 2008. He is survived by a son, William H. Oldach III, of Potomac, Md.: a daughter, Elizabeth Silhol, of Vernouillet, France; and five grandchildren.
A funeral service was held May 1 at the First Presbyterian Church in Germantown. – WF
