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Harold Gross Thousand Oaks, CA QCWA # 23239 Chapter 167 |
Harold was born in Youngstown, Ohio to parents who immigrated with their families at the very beginning of the Twentieth Century during a time when there were pogroms in the Russian Pale of Settlement. He was the youngest of three boys who all grew up working in their father's "Mom and Pop" grocery store after school and during school holidays throughout the Depression Years and World War II. All of the boys received religious and secular education, played in the school band, and grew up to be engineers.
Harold opted to enter the Army Air Corps at the age of seventeen prior to finishing high school; however, the Army recognized his abilities when he easily got a high school equivalency certificate. After basic training, he was educated in photography and then worked as an instructor at Lowry Field in Denver. Being so far away from Ohio separated Harold from Corinne, who he had been dating since the age of 14; and it was difficult for them to be apart. He flew to Los Angeles where Corinne was moving with her parents, and they were married while he was on a week-end pass. He was later chastised for flying out so far when he had such a short pass and uncertain return transportation. From Denver, the couple were transferred to Castle Field in Merced, California and later settled in Southern California.
After discharge there was a period of little work available in California, and for the first year, Harold worked as a day laborer or at whatever he could find. His experience in the military paid off when he was able to find work as an engineer in the field of photographic development. Over the years, he designed and constructed large projects for Sawyers (Viewmaster); at Eglin AFB, Patrick AFB, and McCoy AFB in Florida, as well as working on other projects contracted by the government; for cinema and stage related industries; and for banks over the course of his career. Although the GI Bill would have allowed Harold to complete a college degree, he felt that he had a responsibility to his new family to earn a living, so he did not take advantage of the opportunity; this was a decision that always bothered him in later years. To make up for it, he was a lifelong learner. In spite of the lack of a college degree, he worked many years as an electrical and chemical engineer and completed a California State exam to be certified as a manufacturing engineer. In addition, he advanced, was the managing engineer on multiple projects, and the last thirty years of his career was vice-president for manufacturing for the companies for which he worked.
Harold and Corinne had two children, Joellyn and Mark, and were married for 67 years (counting the four years they knew each other previous to that, they were together for 71 years!). Mark lives in Florida, and his three children also reside there. Joellyn lives in Las Vegas close to Summerlin area, and her children are in the San Francisco Bay area and Vancouver, British Columbia. Both Mark and Joellyn feel they had the best parents in the world! Corinne passed away in September 2014 after a short illness, which was devastating for Harold.
One of Harold's hobbies was amateur radio, and he was a lifetime member of the American Radio Relay League. He especially enjoyed connecting via Morse code, but he also engaged in voice contacts for many years. He learned hand book binding and constructed a bindery for himself in the garage where he taught bookbinding to others as well as bound books. It was sad for him when he could no longer do this due to the tremors from Parkinson's. He also enjoyed watching movies and reading non-fiction books.
Burial Services scheduled at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 1900 Veterans Memorial Drive, Boulder City, Nevada 89005 on Tuesday, August 22, 2017 at 10:40am.