Navy Badge
  • Name: Harry Jay Lewenstein
  • Location of Birth: Grand Rapids, Minnesota
  • Date of Birth: January 30, 1927
  • Date of Death: February 3, 2010
  • Parents: Sam Lewenstein & Gertrude (Flint) Lewenstein
  • High School and Class: 1944 Greenway High School, Coleraine, Minnesota
  • College: 1949 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota - BS degree in Electrical Engineering
  • Highest Rank: ETM 2 (Electronics Technician's Mate Petty Officer Second Class)
  • Branch: Navy
  • Other Branch:
  • Date Sworn In: December 1, 1944
  • Place Sworn In:
  • Date of Discharge: August 1, 1946
  • Place of Discharge:
  • Military Awards:

  • Military Highlights:
    WW II Draft Registration Cards – 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947
    State: Minnesota
    Name: Harry Jay Lewenstein
    Race: White
    Age: 19
    Birth Date: January 30, 1927
    Birth Place: Grand Rapids, Minnesota, USA
    Residence Place: Marble, Itasca, Minnesota, USA
    Registration Date: August 7, 1946 [after discharge from active duty]
    Employer: Unemployed
    Weight: 150
    Height: 5-11
    Complexion: Dark
    Eye Color: Hazel
    Hair Color: Brown
    Other characteristic: Wears glasses; scar on right knee
    Next of Kin: Sam Lewenstein, father, Marble, Minnesota

    Newspaper article: December 1944 – “Harry Lewenstein, son of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Lewenstein, has enlisted in the Navy and is at Great Lakes taking training. He was classified as S 1/c in the radar division. Harry attended the summer session and the fall quarter at the University of Minnesota specializing in engineering. He graduated from Greenway high school in June of 1944.”

  • Wars Involved:
    World War II

  • MIA / POW:

  • Civilian Life:
    Harry Lewenstein married Marion Marcus in 1955 in California. In 1951, he began work for Lenkurt Electric (later part of General Telephone and Electronics) in San Carlos, California as a technical editor. From 1960 – 1967, he worked as advertising manager at Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto. In 1967, he joined Farinon Electric, a microwave-manufacturing company (later purchased by Harris Corporation). He served as vice-president of marketing and corporate secretary for Farinon before “retiring” in 1978. After only six months of retirement, he worked as a marketing consultant for the next 15 years, mostly for the American Electronics Association where he developed a method for establishing the size of the American electronics industry. He was one of the original shareholders in the Palo Alto Weekly’s parent company, Embarcadero Media, and served on the company’s board of directors for many years. In 1997, during a post-second-retirement bicycle tour in Portugal, he fell and broke his neck. He was a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. He published the story of his life as a disabled person online and in the Palo Alto Weekly. Because he accepted his disability with no bitterness, many people considered him an inspiration.

    Harry died in Palo Alto, California. He is survived by his wife, Marion; daughter, Bailey Merman; son Bruce; and three grandchildren.

  • Tribal Affiliation(s):

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