John E. Kasper knew something about everything.

An accomplished engineer, he helped design the new filtration system for Highland Reservoir No. 1, allowing it to be both a recreational site and a source of clean drinking water for the city's East End.

A skilled carpenter, he helped rebuild the facility that now houses the Kentucky Avenue School in Shadyside.

A member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, he participated in re-enactments of medieval and renaissance times since 1976.

On Oct. 11, Mr. Kasper fell more than 20 feet from the decking of a house he had helped design and build in Wexford. He suffered several broken bones but was expected to recover. He developed a pulmonary embolism, though, and died Monday. He was 48.

Mr. Kasper, of East Liberty, worked for the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority for 12 years. During his time there, he helped design the membrane filtration plant in Highland Park, for which he received several awards, including a Historic Preservation Award from the city.

"John wasn't the average person," said Don Waldorf, project coordinator for engineering and construction for the authority.

Mr. Kasper was always looking for better ways to build things.

He arrived at work one day to tell Mr. Waldorf how he and his sons had made iron over the weekend by building a small foundry and melting iron ore in a friend's backyard.

"John was one of the few engineers that could take it right off the board and build it in the street," Mr. Waldorf said.

Mr. Kasper was a co-founder of the Kentucky Avenue School, a private school housed in the Third Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue in Shadyside. He helped redesign and build the school, installing the heating and air-conditioning system, building the kitchen, as well as hanging dry wall and ceilings, said Fran Weingrad, head of the school.

"He built it for his children," she said. "He wanted it to be a special place for kids to go to school."

Mr. Kasper's two sons, Kenneth, 9, and Robert, 6, are in the fifth and first grades at the school.

"He was extraordinary with his vision and insight," Ms. Weingrad said. "There wasn't a job he couldn't do."

Mr. Kasper was also known as a remarkable cook and baker.

Bob Hutton, a project coordinator with the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, spoke about what he called his friend's "cookie creations."

"You never knew exactly what you were going to get," he said. But, Mr. Hutton continued, they were always good.

Mr. Kasper would come up with recipes on his own, and even designed his own cookie cutters, once taking peanut-butter dinosaur cookies to his friends at work.

It was nothing, said his wife, Karen, for Mr. Kasper to prepare a meal for 250 people using medieval recipes.

"He was interested in everything," Mrs. Kasper said. "He was a lifelong learner."

The two met as members of the Society for Creative Anachronism 25 years ago. They were married 15 years.

Mr. Kasper bought his wife fresh flowers every Friday.

In April 2004, he left the water and sewer authority to pursue his own company, John Kasper Engineering Inc.

He was known by friends and family as being "a mountain of a man." He stood taller than 6 feet and weighed 340 pounds.

"Everybody thought that he was indestructible, including him," Mrs. Kasper said. "It's like saying it's a mountain that's dead. It's hard to wrap your head around it."

In addition to his wife and sons, Mr. Kasper is survived by his parents, Harvey and Christine Kasper, of Marysville, Ohio; and his sister, Mary Miller, also of Marysville.

Visitation will be today from noon to 1 p.m. at the Third Presbyterian Church, Shadyside, immediately followed by a funeral service. Interment will be in St. John Lutheran Church Cemetery in Marysville, Ohio.

The family asks that donations be made to the Kentucky Avenue School, 5701 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh 15232.