Bob Harris

Ancestors

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Anne Harris [send private message]

Biography

My dad was born in Bay City, MI. He grew up on the Bay. Nature was his playground. He had a dog he loved named Rex. He use to tell many adventure stories to my older brother John and me about adventures he and Rex had growing up.

He played 2nd base in baseball, broke track records and was captain of Bay City Saint Mary's football team in high school.

Upon graduation, he immediately enlisted in the navy. After seven months of flight school and gunnery training he left the navy to enlist in the Army Air Corps where he was a tail gunner in a B17 bomber making it to staff sergeant. He was first sent to England and later Italy.

Just a few days before his 20th birthday, July 12, 1944, he married my mom, Jeanne Moore. They had a short time together before he shipped out to England.

After the war he was an accountant for several years before getting into Resistance Welder Corporation. There, he was a crew leader on the assembly floor and a trouble shooter. Often he took a crew of men and went out of state to fix a machine that had been built by RWC that was malfunctioning.

He had to take an early retirement at fifty-five due to heart trouble. He later passed on at age sixty-four after suffering a massive heart attack.

He was patient, had good humor, was quiet, agreeable, insightful, and gave gentle advice. He was really one in a million.

Sources

• Personal from living with my dad and military discharge papers.