On Dec. 22, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, Charles Frederick Lang Sr. was in Belgium's Ardennes mountains when German mortars wounded the 26-year-old U.S. Army infantryman in the chest, stomach and legs.

"He was lying face down in the snow," said Mr. Lang's eldest son, Charles "Fritz" Lang Jr., when a German lieutenant kicked the wounded man onto his back, kicked him again and said, "him kaput."

But Mr. Lang survived because a half-inch-thick copy of the New Testament, stuck in the pocket of his shirt, prevented the shrapnel from reaching his heart. In a field hospital, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower pinned a Purple Heart on him.

As he lay recovering, German pilots strafed the hospital, and he was wounded again when shrapnel lodged in his temple.

Mr. Lang, the mayor of Haysville for 30 years, died Monday of pneumonia at Sewickley Valley Hospital. He was 89.

He also served as council president in the borough of about 45 homes, a half-dozen businesses and 150 people. Haysville, which sits between the Ohio River and Ohio River Boulevard, is near Sewickley.

Though disabled by his war wounds, Mr. Lang, who had grown up on a Haysville farm, supported his wife and four children by raising chickens, turkeys, pigs and a few cattle. A frugal, resourceful child of the Depression, he also was a good carpenter, mechanic and gardener.

"He was good with his hands and he had this ability to think things through," said his son. "I never saw an engine that he couldn't make run or a piece of equipment. He could fix anything. If he couldn't afford it, he'd make it."

His son added that his mother, Lorraine Dunlap Lang, canned produce from the family's large garden.

The younger Mr. Lang worked with his father raising chickens and turkeys and doing other odd jobs.

"We would go out and mow fields for other people and do plowing," he recalled.

"He was a strict father and instilled a lot of values in me that either directly or indirectly have stood me in good stead over the years. Every skill I got I learned from my dad, with the exception of preaching. I'm a half-decent carpenter. I'm a half-decent auto mechanic. I've built boats. Those are skills I learned from my dad."

When the son ruined the transmission of a 1940 Chevy Coupe that had cost $15, his father "told me how to take it apart and then walked away. That had the desired effect," he said, adding that he learned how to take better care of cars.

He also succeeded his father as mayor of Haysville.

His first wife died on April 11, 1996; the elder Mr. Lang remarried in 1998 to Jean Funkhouser.

"He was peaceable. He didn't like any arguments or fights. It would take a lot to get him angry," said Mrs. Lang, adding that her husband loved to draw and also carved dulcimers. The couple, who recently marked a 10th wedding anniversary, married on Valentine's Day in Sewickey United Methodist Church.

In his early tenure as mayor of Haysville, the elder Mr. Lang often ran his snow plow on the roads of his community.

"He was never paid for anything like that," Mrs. Lang said.

In addition to his wife and eldest son, Mr. Lang is survived by a second son, George S. Lang, of West Palm Beach, Fla.; a sister, Lillian Haper, of Morgantown, W.Va., and 12 grandchildren.

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. today at Copeland's, 702 Beaver St., Sewickley, followed by burial with full military honors in Sewickley Cemetery.

Memorials can be made to Sewickley United Methodist Church, 337 Broad St., Sewickley, PA 15143.