Sumner was born on September 9, 1906 in Newton, Massachusetts.[1] He was the son of Harry Harwood and Elizabeth Sumner.
He attended Tufts University, graduating in 1928 with a degree in physics and mathematics[2]. It was there that he met his future wife Miriam (Lowe) Coen (1904-1996).
Sumner died on 3 November 1971 and his ashes were scattered at sea[3]. There is a family plot in Jamaica Plain, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States, with a spot laid out for Sumner by his father Harry Harwood, and Find A Grave has latched onto this as Sumner's resting place, but he's not there. He's in the Pacific Ocean.[4]
Sumner was my paternal grandfather. He had inherited the dwindling family fortune from his father, Harry Adams Harwood (1870-1939), and was determined to live the life of a gentleman. He was cerebral (I expect I got my love of science from him via my Dad) but also active. He went to do graduate work at Harvard in mathematics (I still have his notebook on the calculus of variations), was interrupted by the war and joined the Navy, where he was detailed to help upgrade US warships with radar, then a top-secret technology from England. My Dad told me that Sumner had to go to England during the war to learn about radar, and his ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat. The radar work took him to Coronado Island in San Diego, where he remained through the end of the war. He then took the family back to Massachusetts and formed a consulting company called Cambridge Analytical Services, wrote a self-help book in the then-thriving "Win Friends" genre pioneered by Dale Carnegie with the twist that it was "Science" and not "Art" ("The Science of Winning Cooperation From People"), which I will scan to archive.org someday when I have time on my hands, and eventually decided that what he really wanted to do was become a sheep rancher.
So he hauled the family out to California and left them there (I think in Sonoma) while he traveled to Australia and New Zealand to learn about sheep ranching. He eventually bought 500 acres on Dry Creek Road in Healdsburg (eventually purchased by the Gallo brothers for grape production) and he and my Dad built a ranch house there. He and my grandmother, Miriam (Lowe) Coen (1904-1996), weren't on the best of terms, so they divorced about the time I was becoming sentient. Sumner traveled the world, occasionally dropping back to Healdsburg for family holidays, and I have vivid memories of him at family Christmas gatherings. He was thoroughly logical and honest to a fault. He also had a motorcycle and scared the heck out of my parents by taking me for a trip down the (long) ranch driveway to the county road, maybe a mile, and back. I loved it.
The last time I saw him was maybe a couple of months before he died, when he stayed with us for a day or two on Guam. He left us way too young. And his ashes were definitely scattered at sea by my Dad and his brother. It left a lasting mark on Dad.
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Sumner is 25 degrees from Herbert Adair, 23 degrees from Richard Adams, 22 degrees from Mel Blanc, 24 degrees from Dick Bruna, 22 degrees from Bunny DeBarge, 34 degrees from Peter Dinklage, 21 degrees from Sam Edwards, 20 degrees from Ginnifer Goodwin, 25 degrees from Marty Krofft, 17 degrees from Junius Matthews, 17 degrees from Rachel Mellon and 24 degrees from Harold Warstler on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.