Harry R. Sherman

Harry R. Sherman passed away on Monday June 13 th 2016. He was born on June 1 st 1921 in South Haven, Michigan to Harry L. and Christine Sherman. He had two siblings, brother Charles and sister Shirley. As a child he helped his father run his dairy business, delivering milk in the mornings to local residents. At 17 his family moved to Vineland, New Jersey where they worked a small farm raising vegetables and chickens. Harry would truck the chickens to market in Philadelphia. After high school he joined the New Jersey National Guard where he was in an artillery division. After the war broke out he was sent to Oregon State to study engineering for the Army and also manned a shore battery there. He was deployed to the Pacific Theater and was assigned to the Signal Core. His unit was sent to the Japanese Island of Okinawa. While he was on Okinawa he had a happenstance reunion with his brother after Charles’ plane was shot down near the island. While in the service he learned to play the guitar which he continued after he returned to Michigan. He moved briefly to Chicago where he worked at the Argo National Laboratory. After returning to South Haven he met and married Audrey J. Altenburg. They moved to Lansing where he enrolled at Michigan State to study psychology. After he graduated from college they stayed in Lansing and later opened a small hobby shop and started a family. His first son Marc was born in 1950. And in 1954 his second son Robert was born. In 1955 the Sherman family moved to Colorado after a vacation in which they fell in love with the climate and also because of Harry’s fascination with the narrow gauge railroad. After arriving in Colorado he worked for the Penn Mutual Insurance Company until he found a job working as a salesman with a hobby supply distributor. Among his many hobbies were an intense interest in history, especially military, maritime, aviation and the history of the American railroad. He loved photography and even developed his own black and white photographs. He was an avid model builder; drawing the plans for and scratch building scale models of ships, railroad cars and locomotives, as well as railroad related architecture. Some of his drawings were published in magazines. As a member of the Denver Society of Model Railroaders his models were part of the model railroad layout located for many years in the basement of Denver’s Union Station. He was also a member of the Colorado Railroad Museum and the Rocky Mountain Shipwrights of Colorado. His other main interest was music. His love of jazz and playing the guitar and singing continued throughout his adult life. After he retired from Douglas Model Distributors in 1986, he took up the banjo. He played with the popular local jazz group Your Father’s Mustache Band performing in local pubs, as well as Jazz festivals around the country. He passed away twelve days after his 95 th birthday and one day after his 68 th wedding anniversary. He is survived by his wife Audrey and sons Marc and Robert. Burial services are to be held at Fort Logan National Cemetery June 30 th at 1:45 p.m. with a reception at Mickey’s Steakhouse between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m.