Captain ROBERT RAY HARRIS 1905-1974

HARRIS, CHAMBERLAIN

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 5/11/2005 at 20:18:47

Funeral services were conducted at 11:00 a.m. Monday, March 25 at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Postville, for Captain Robert Ray Harris who died March 21 [1974] at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland after a long illness. The Rev. Norman Ullestad officiated. Burial was in the Postville cemetery.

Captain Harris was born in Postville, Iowa, July 18, 1905 and received a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Iowa and his Masters Degree in Sanitary Engineering from Harvard.

During the next 15 years, he worked for the Kentucky Health Department and then joined the Army during World War II. He served in the Office of Inter-American Affairs in Nicaragua and Costa Rica and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for outstanding service. He received a citation from the City of San Jose, Costa Rica.

He was commissioned in the Public Health Service in 1948 and was responsible for setting up and running the Pacific northwest Drainage Basin Office in Portland, Oregon. Part of his job at that time was to establish cooperation between Canada and northwestern states in handling water pollution problems.

Captain Harris was transferred to Washington in 1955 and served as Chief of Water Supply Section and then as Chief of the Construction Grants Program of the Division of Water Supply and Pollution Control.

He later was assigned to the Agency for International Development and served two years in India. In 1964 Captain Harris received the Public Health Service's meritorious Service medal. He was a diplomat in the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and was a member of numerous professional societies. He retired in 1969 with the rank of Captain.

He is survived by his wife, Amy, one daughter, Ramona and son-in-law, Harlan Chamberlain, and three granddaughters of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Also, surviving is a brother, Roger of Postville and numerous other relatives.

-undated newspaper clipping
_______________________
Obituary.
Harris, Robert R. (Capt. U.S.P.H.S. Ret.)
On Thursday, March 21, 1974, Robert R. Harris of Bethesda, Md., beloved husband of Amy M. Harris; father of Ramona Chamberlain; father-in-law of Harlan Chamberlain; brother of Roger Harris, Postville, Iowa. Mr. Harris is also survived by three granddaughters. Funeral services will be held at The Christ Lutheran Church, Old Georgetown Rd. at Glenbrook, Bethesda, on Friday evening, March 22, at 7 p.m. The family requests that memorial contributions be made to St. Paul's Lutheran Church (Nursing Home Fund), Postville, Iowa 52162. Arrangements by THE TYSON WHEELER FUNERAL HOME.
-source: The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., March 22, 1974

- both obits were transcribed by Sharyl Ferrall