Hydro-electric builder

NEW ROADS – Services are Monday for consulting engineer Joseph Lancaster, Jr. He died June 27 at age 85.

He was a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II and retired president of Forte and Tablada Consulting Engineers. He was project manager for the design and the construction of Sidney A. Murray Hydro-electrical, power plant, the first in Louisiana. He served on the New Roads Town Council, was a volunteer fire fighter and was founding president of the False River Golf and Country Club.

Survivors include his wife Willie Mae, a son and two daughters.

Arrangements are by Niland.

Lawyer, World War II hero

SHREVEPORT – Services are Monday for attorney Eugene Musgrave, who as a U.S. Navy enlistee during World War II swam shark-infested waters to rescue a general whose plane was down in the Pacific Ocean. Musgrave died June 29 at age 88.

Musgrave helped save Gen. Nathan F. Twining in 1943. In appreciation, he was granted early release from active duty to attend Rice University. He was a petroleum landman for most of his professional life.

Survivors include three daughters.

Arrangements are by Rose-Neath.

Hotel developer

NEW ORLEANS – Services for businessman and hotel developer Bernard Mason will be Tuesday. He died June 30 at age 78.

He was a Mississippi River delta planter before developeing, designing and operating hotels in the French Quarter and Perdido Key near Pensacola, Fla.

He and his partners purchased the Maison Blanche Department Store building in 1997 and began converting the upper floors into the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. In 1998, Dillards shuttered the Canal Street Maison Blanche location, leaving the first three floors of the building vacant - a potentially disastrous circumstance for a luxury hotel whose construction was under way. Working quickly, Mason and his architects redesigned those first three floors into the gallery of shops, lobby and meeting space of today.

Survivors include his wife Earline, a son and a daughter.

Arrangements are by Tharp-Sontheimer, Metairie.