Some kids play with toy construction equipment, but Kennedy Beckwith Nelson's dad owned the Caterpillar machinery dealership, so her memories of Saturdays are going into the yard at her dad's company and driving the real equipment around.

James S. Beckwith was an involved father, both with his own children and with those he met through the YMCA. Some of those kids impressed him so much, he sent them to college.

"He cared about people deeply," Mrs. Nelson said.

Mr. Beckwith died from emphysema Monday at Indian River Memorial Hospital in Vero Beach, Fla. He was 76.

He graduated from Shady Side Academy in 1949 and Yale University in 1953, after which he served in the Army for two years.

He and his brother, G. Nicholas Beckwith III, took over Beckwith Machinery Co. from his father. By the time they sold it in 2005, it had been in the family for 98 years.

Outside of Beckwith Machinery, Mr. Beckwith was a director of the Union National Bank, which later became Integra Bank and on the board of the Greater Pittsburgh YMCA. He was also on the board of directors of Homewood Cemetery and Pittsburgh Eye and Ear Hospital.

In Florida he donated a sculpture park at the Vero Beach Museum of Art.

In addition to his daughter, of Shadyside and Ligonier, and brother of Fox Chapel, he is survived by his wife, Alice, of Vero Beach; a daughter, Kathryn Gaier of Vero Beach; a son, James Scott Beckwith IV, of Lee, Mass.; and seven granddaughters.

A memorial service will be held at the Community Church of Vero Beach in Vero Beach, Fla., on Tuesday at 2 p.m. Another service will be held at St. Michael's of the Valley Episcopal Church in Rector at a date still to be set.