Posted on 01/30/2019
Harry E. Belflower Jr. (October 6, 1924 – January 14, 2019)
Harry Esra Belflower, Jr., CDR USN (Ret.), age 94, passed away 1/14/2019 quietly as a result of prostate cancer. Harry was born October 6, 1924 to Harry and Irene Belflower in Jacksonville, Florida. He attended public schools in Jacksonville and was graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in June 1942. He attended Georgia Military College for one year and entered the Merchant Marine as a Cadet/Midshipman (Engineering) in October 1943. Having previously qualified competitively for admission to the United States Naval Academy, he received his appointment while serving aboard a Liberty ship in the South Pacific in May 1944, returned to the United States, was admitted to the Naval Academy in June of that year and was graduated in June 1948. He was a member of the Second Company. Upon graduation, Harry married Betty Collins of Philadelphia in the Naval Academy Chapel and together they went to Pensacola, Florida where Harry began his career in naval aviation. After being designated a naval aviator at Corpus Christi, Texas, he was assigned to Air Transport Squadron Twenty-Two (VR-22) in Norfolk, Virginia where he later qualified as a Transport Plane Commander. Following duty at the Naval Air Station, Washington, DC as an instrument training instructor and VIP Plane Commander, they moved to San Diego where he became a Plane Commander in Patrol Squadron Forty-Six (VP-46). He was a graduate of the Aviation Safety Officer's School at the University of Southern California in 1956. He served on the staff of Fleet Air Wing Fourteen for two years. He qualified as a graduate test pilot and served as a project test pilot at the Naval Air Test Center at Patuxent River, Maryland. He was involved in the development of the P-3 Orion ASW airplane and the four engine jet seaplane the P6M Martin Seamaster. His next duty assignment was as assistant operations officer on the newly commissioned nuclear aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVAN-65) and participated in the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962. Duty in San Francisco at the Naval Station at Treasure Island was with the staff Western Sea Frontier. Harry served as Executive Officer, USS Okanogan (APA-220) 1965-1966 during the Vietnam War and then three years as staff officer (operations) with the CINCPAC staff in Hawaii. CDR Belflower retired from the navy in 1974 after serving with the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, White Oak, Silver Spring, Maryland. During his naval career he had qualified in land and sea airplanes, single and multi engine, propeller, turbo-prop and turbo-jet propelled airplanes in over sixty different types of aircraft and logged over 6,000 hours. After retirement, he spent three years as the Senior NJROTC Instructor at H.D. Woodson Senior High School in Washington, DC. He then accepted a position as Assistant Director of the Continuing Engineering Education Program, School of Engineering and Applied Science, The George Washington University, Washington, DC. He retired from GWU in 1991as Director, Off-Campus Programs. Harry had many hobbies and interests and pursued a lifelong hobby of model railroading and model airplanes. He painted in water colors and oils and later became an accomplished builder of model wooden ships of the 17th and 18th centuries. His many ship models are on display at his daughter's home on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Harry enjoyed reading and writing and authored a book of poems and wrote many short stories. He was a cross country bicyclist and rode the many trails and paths in Maryland. He built his own small sail boat and later built a Pitts Special sport aerobatic biplane. He and his wife once owned a family size cruising sailboat, a motor home and an antique Cessna airplane and enjoyed them all. He rode his various motorcycles up until his 83rd year and only quit because of the heavy increase in traffic on the area roads. He was the family genealogist and had researched and documented a genealogy of more than 11,000 names on his and his wife's ancestors back to the 1500s. Harry enjoyed assisting others who were researching their family genealogy. He received his Master's Degree (MAOM) in Aerospace Operations Management from the University of Southern California in 1969. He previously completed the short course in Aviation Safety at USC and was a qualified aviation accident investigator. He is remembered by those close to him as a person of integrity, generosity and love for his fellow man. His patriotism and determined optimism were apparent in everything that he accomplished Harry was preceded in death by his sister Laura Nell Masters and his granddaughter Jaclyn Marie Belflower and his parents Harry, Sr. and Irene. He is survived by his loving wife of 70 years, Betty; his brother Joseph (Sarah) of Maitland, FL and his son Robert Alan (Gail) and daughter Linda Susan (Thom) Strok and four loving grandsons; Charles Wesley Shiles and Christopher, Eric and Steven Belflower and great-granddaughter's Kyla, Teegan, Emily, and Taylor Belflower and several nephews and a niece. The funeral service will be conducted at the U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland with inurnment in the columbarium at the Naval Academy on 1/30/2019 at 11 am. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to "Partner's in Hope", St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee in memory of his late granddaughter Jaclyn Belflower. Go Navy, Beat Army!
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