Claude Davis Garver Jr.'s early summer jobs with the Virginia Department of Highways and Transportation included removing dead animals from the roadways and cleaning up behind moving motor graders with a pitchfork.

Mr. Garver, who retired in 2003 as the Virginia Department of Transportation's deputy commissioner for administration, died of cancer Tuesday in a Henrico County hospital. He was 66.

A memorial service for the Professional Engineer will be Saturday at 11 a.m. at Seventh Street Christian Church, 4101 Grove Ave., where he had been deacons chairman. A graveside service will be private.

"If you took everything good about VDOT and put it in one wrapper, it would be Claude Garver," said Philip Shucet, former state transportation commissioner. "He was very much the soul of the institution. If every government employee were a Claude Garver, nobody would be upset with government."

Mr. Garver kept a huge list of colleagues' birthdays and sent cards, said his wife of 14 years, Nancy Holt Garver. "If anybody in the department died, he was going to their funeral if he had to travel across the state to be there."

The Henrico resident and Earlysville native began full-time employment as an engineer trainee with the highway department, a VDOT precursor, in 1963, after earning a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Virginia Tech.

In 1964, he left to begin a five-year stint with the Air Force as a pilot with the Strategic Air Command's 46th Air Refueling Squadron. He made frequent trips to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.

Returning to the highway department, he served across the state in residencies including Chesterfield County and Northern Virginia and in district posts. He was director of construction and assistant commissioner of operations before assuming his final post.

"Claude was just as concerned about the employees driving the snow plows at 2 a.m. as he was with someone much higher in command. He had a lot of interest in mentoring many people in the department," said Connie Sorrell, VDOT chief of system operations.

In addition to his wife, survivors include two daughters, Susan Varnier of Mountain Home, Idaho, and Julie Kelvin of Mechanicsville; two stepsons, Lewis W. Wright III of Midlothian and Roger T. Wright of Richmond; a stepdaughter, Laura W. Carnal of Hot Springs, N.C.; a sister, Thelma Sullivan of Earlysville; and four grandchildren and five stepgrandchildren.