Harry Frank Eitelbach , 85, passed away in San Luis Obispo on Saturday, March 12, 2005, after a serious illness.
Friends are invited to pray the rosary at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 17, at Reis Chapel of San Luis Obispo, on the corner of Dana and Nipomo streets. Following cremation, a memorial Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Friday, March 18, at Mission Church of San Luis Obispo. Inurnment of Harry's ashes will take place at Old Mission Catholic Cemetery of San Luis Obispo. An additional memorial Mass will be held at St. Leo's Catholic Church of Sonoma at a later date.
Harry, born March 10, 1920, in Jamaica, Long Island, N.Y., to Harry and Ethel Eitelbach and raised on Long Island, attended Public School 34 and graduated from Jamaica High School in Queens Village in 1937.
Harry attended Columbia University Medical School for two and a half years, studying pre-med and working his way by playing drums and piano in his own band, "Harry Reed and His Orchestra." The band enjoyed special popularity in Brooklyn, playing at Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs.
When America entered World War II, Harry worked for a British business, Excel Machine Company, in the manufacture of torpedoes. He married his sweetheart, Hazel Pare, in Fall River, Mass., in June 1943, and enlisted in the U.S. Army, arriving on a troopship in Liverpool, England, where he waited two weeks after the D-Day landing in1944 for transport to the Normandy beach. After serving in France and Germany, Harry was transferred to the Pacific Theater, where he served on Okinawa. Following the end of World War II, Harry was a jeweler in Providence, R.I., and sold Metropolitan life insurance. His and Hazel's son, David, was born in 1947. When the Korean War began, Harry was recalled to active duty from the Reserves and was sent with the Post Engineers to Livorno, Italy, to build Camp Darby. He then went to the Army Language School in Monterey, where he learned the Czechoslovak language. He served in military intelligence at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and in Germany and Italy, finishing his military career with a year in Vietnam in 1969. He was a construction engineer with Post Operations for the 82nd Airborne Brigade in Phu Loi, Vietnam. Harry remained a lifelong advocate and lobbyist for benefits for all active-duty and retired military personnel and war veterans.
Following his military retirement, Harry worked as department manager of major appliances for May Company of Baltimore until 1982, when he and Hazel moved from the East Coast to Sonoma after his second retirement to be near their married son. Harry and Hazel celebrated 49 years of marriage before her death in 1992. Harry worked for Adobe Drug and then Sonoma Office Supply of Sonoma. In 2001, Harry relocated to San Luis Obispo to be near his best friend, Nancy Page. He was an active member of Mission Catholic Church of San Luis Obispo, serving on the Social Justice Committee and as hospitality minister, greeting parishioners at the garden door before Sunday Mass. He was well-known and liked as a kindly curmudgeon. His interests included classical music, opera, jewelry making, dentistry, woodworking, and, in the medical field, researching interesting and unusual diseases and illnesses, and being a political activist for the civil-rights causes he favored.
Harry was preceded in death by his son, David, in 1999.
Friends are invited to pray the rosary at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 17, at Reis Chapel of San Luis Obispo, on the corner of Dana and Nipomo streets. Following cremation, a memorial Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Friday, March 18, at Mission Church of San Luis Obispo. Inurnment of Harry's ashes will take place at Old Mission Catholic Cemetery of San Luis Obispo. An additional memorial Mass will be held at St. Leo's Catholic Church of Sonoma at a later date.
Harry, born March 10, 1920, in Jamaica, Long Island, N.Y., to Harry and Ethel Eitelbach and raised on Long Island, attended Public School 34 and graduated from Jamaica High School in Queens Village in 1937.
Harry attended Columbia University Medical School for two and a half years, studying pre-med and working his way by playing drums and piano in his own band, "Harry Reed and His Orchestra." The band enjoyed special popularity in Brooklyn, playing at Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs.
When America entered World War II, Harry worked for a British business, Excel Machine Company, in the manufacture of torpedoes. He married his sweetheart, Hazel Pare, in Fall River, Mass., in June 1943, and enlisted in the U.S. Army, arriving on a troopship in Liverpool, England, where he waited two weeks after the D-Day landing in1944 for transport to the Normandy beach. After serving in France and Germany, Harry was transferred to the Pacific Theater, where he served on Okinawa. Following the end of World War II, Harry was a jeweler in Providence, R.I., and sold Metropolitan life insurance. His and Hazel's son, David, was born in 1947. When the Korean War began, Harry was recalled to active duty from the Reserves and was sent with the Post Engineers to Livorno, Italy, to build Camp Darby. He then went to the Army Language School in Monterey, where he learned the Czechoslovak language. He served in military intelligence at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and in Germany and Italy, finishing his military career with a year in Vietnam in 1969. He was a construction engineer with Post Operations for the 82nd Airborne Brigade in Phu Loi, Vietnam. Harry remained a lifelong advocate and lobbyist for benefits for all active-duty and retired military personnel and war veterans.
Following his military retirement, Harry worked as department manager of major appliances for May Company of Baltimore until 1982, when he and Hazel moved from the East Coast to Sonoma after his second retirement to be near their married son. Harry and Hazel celebrated 49 years of marriage before her death in 1992. Harry worked for Adobe Drug and then Sonoma Office Supply of Sonoma. In 2001, Harry relocated to San Luis Obispo to be near his best friend, Nancy Page. He was an active member of Mission Catholic Church of San Luis Obispo, serving on the Social Justice Committee and as hospitality minister, greeting parishioners at the garden door before Sunday Mass. He was well-known and liked as a kindly curmudgeon. His interests included classical music, opera, jewelry making, dentistry, woodworking, and, in the medical field, researching interesting and unusual diseases and illnesses, and being a political activist for the civil-rights causes he favored.
Harry was preceded in death by his son, David, in 1999.
Harry Frank Eitelbach , 85, passed away in San Luis Obispo on Saturday, March 12, 2005, after a serious illness.
Friends are invited to pray the rosary at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 17, at Reis Chapel of San Luis Obispo, on the corner of Dana and Nipomo streets. Following cremation, a memorial Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Friday, March 18, at Mission Church of San Luis Obispo. Inurnment of Harry's ashes will take place at Old Mission Catholic Cemetery of San Luis Obispo. An additional memorial Mass will be held at St. Leo's Catholic Church of Sonoma at a later date.
Harry, born March 10, 1920, in Jamaica, Long Island, N.Y., to Harry and Ethel Eitelbach and raised on Long Island, attended Public School 34 and graduated from Jamaica High School in Queens Village in 1937.
Harry attended Columbia University Medical School for two and a half years, studying pre-med and working his way by playing drums and piano in his own band, "Harry Reed and His Orchestra." The band enjoyed special popularity in Brooklyn, playing at Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs.
When America entered World War II, Harry worked for a British business, Excel Machine Company, in the manufacture of torpedoes. He married his sweetheart, Hazel Pare, in Fall River, Mass., in June 1943, and enlisted in the U.S. Army, arriving on a troopship in Liverpool, England, where he waited two weeks after the D-Day landing in1944 for transport to the Normandy beach. After serving in France and Germany, Harry was transferred to the Pacific Theater, where he served on Okinawa. Following the end of World War II, Harry was a jeweler in Providence, R.I., and sold Metropolitan life insurance. His and Hazel's son, David, was born in 1947. When the Korean War began, Harry was recalled to active duty from the Reserves and was sent with the Post Engineers to Livorno, Italy, to build Camp Darby. He then went to the Army Language School in Monterey, where he learned the Czechoslovak language. He served in military intelligence at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and in Germany and Italy, finishing his military career with a year in Vietnam in 1969. He was a construction engineer with Post Operations for the 82nd Airborne Brigade in Phu Loi, Vietnam. Harry remained a lifelong advocate and lobbyist for benefits for all active-duty and retired military personnel and war veterans.
Following his military retirement, Harry worked as department manager of major appliances for May Company of Baltimore until 1982, when he and Hazel moved from the East Coast to Sonoma after his second retirement to be near their married son. Harry and Hazel celebrated 49 years of marriage before her death in 1992. Harry worked for Adobe Drug and then Sonoma Office Supply of Sonoma. In 2001, Harry relocated to San Luis Obispo to be near his best friend, Nancy Page. He was an active member of Mission Catholic Church of San Luis Obispo, serving on the Social Justice Committee and as hospitality minister, greeting parishioners at the garden door before Sunday Mass. He was well-known and liked as a kindly curmudgeon. His interests included classical music, opera, jewelry making, dentistry, woodworking, and, in the medical field, researching interesting and unusual diseases and illnesses, and being a political activist for the civil-rights causes he favored.
Harry was preceded in death by his son, David, in 1999.
Friends are invited to pray the rosary at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 17, at Reis Chapel of San Luis Obispo, on the corner of Dana and Nipomo streets. Following cremation, a memorial Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Friday, March 18, at Mission Church of San Luis Obispo. Inurnment of Harry's ashes will take place at Old Mission Catholic Cemetery of San Luis Obispo. An additional memorial Mass will be held at St. Leo's Catholic Church of Sonoma at a later date.
Harry, born March 10, 1920, in Jamaica, Long Island, N.Y., to Harry and Ethel Eitelbach and raised on Long Island, attended Public School 34 and graduated from Jamaica High School in Queens Village in 1937.
Harry attended Columbia University Medical School for two and a half years, studying pre-med and working his way by playing drums and piano in his own band, "Harry Reed and His Orchestra." The band enjoyed special popularity in Brooklyn, playing at Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs.
When America entered World War II, Harry worked for a British business, Excel Machine Company, in the manufacture of torpedoes. He married his sweetheart, Hazel Pare, in Fall River, Mass., in June 1943, and enlisted in the U.S. Army, arriving on a troopship in Liverpool, England, where he waited two weeks after the D-Day landing in1944 for transport to the Normandy beach. After serving in France and Germany, Harry was transferred to the Pacific Theater, where he served on Okinawa. Following the end of World War II, Harry was a jeweler in Providence, R.I., and sold Metropolitan life insurance. His and Hazel's son, David, was born in 1947. When the Korean War began, Harry was recalled to active duty from the Reserves and was sent with the Post Engineers to Livorno, Italy, to build Camp Darby. He then went to the Army Language School in Monterey, where he learned the Czechoslovak language. He served in military intelligence at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and in Germany and Italy, finishing his military career with a year in Vietnam in 1969. He was a construction engineer with Post Operations for the 82nd Airborne Brigade in Phu Loi, Vietnam. Harry remained a lifelong advocate and lobbyist for benefits for all active-duty and retired military personnel and war veterans.
Following his military retirement, Harry worked as department manager of major appliances for May Company of Baltimore until 1982, when he and Hazel moved from the East Coast to Sonoma after his second retirement to be near their married son. Harry and Hazel celebrated 49 years of marriage before her death in 1992. Harry worked for Adobe Drug and then Sonoma Office Supply of Sonoma. In 2001, Harry relocated to San Luis Obispo to be near his best friend, Nancy Page. He was an active member of Mission Catholic Church of San Luis Obispo, serving on the Social Justice Committee and as hospitality minister, greeting parishioners at the garden door before Sunday Mass. He was well-known and liked as a kindly curmudgeon. His interests included classical music, opera, jewelry making, dentistry, woodworking, and, in the medical field, researching interesting and unusual diseases and illnesses, and being a political activist for the civil-rights causes he favored.
Harry was preceded in death by his son, David, in 1999.
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SFC (Sergeant First Class) US Army
World War II Vietnam
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