Eugene Henry Harms, a businessman, sailor, and scout leader, died Nov. 30 at the Kobacker House in Columbus. He was 93.
The longtime Perrysburg resident was born August 14, 1930, to Harold Henry and Bernice Rehl Harms in Bowling Green. He was the last of 10 children.
He served in the Air Force and then the Army during the Korean War. He was stationed in the Philippines and at the Nevada Proving Grounds during some of the Operation Desert Rock nuclear tests.
After his discharge, he completed his studies at Bowling Green State University, where he met his future wife, Eleanor Fuerst.
After graduation, Mr. Harms was accepted into the Harvard Business School’s MBA program and graduated in the spring of 1957. In 1959, Mr. Harms joined the family business as general manager with Henry Manufacturing, which would later become Henry Filters, Inc., in Bowling Green.
The couple was married on June 8, 1957, in Toledo at Rosary Cathedral.
“It was a love for the ages,” their daughter, Sarah Harms, said. “He loved holding her hand. They always were madly in love with each other. They were a fabulous role model for what a marriage could be,” she said.
Niece Nettie Rose remembers how Mr. Harms adored his wife. “He never just said my wife, Ellie. He always used a descriptor,” Ms. Rose said. “My beautiful bride. My lovely bride. My brilliant and talented bride. He adored her, and it was always evident,” she said. He made everyone around him feel loved, Ms. Rose said. “He was always enthusiastic,” she said. “And no matter when he saw you, he focused solely on you. You always felt like you were the focus of his attention. He was always happy, always positive, and always knew everyone,” Ms. Rose said.
Mr. Harms had a nickname based on being the last of 10 kids. “As nieces and nephews, he was Uncle Hoot,” she said. “That’s how I grew up knowing him. He wasn’t Uncle Gene until I was an adult.”
“He was the caboose, the last of 10 kids,” Ms. Rose.
Mr. Harms introduced his family to sailing, and he sailed and raced at the Perrysburg Boat Club, where he served on the board and as a commodore. He also loved sailing his boat on the Gulf of Mexico. His children and grandchildren have all enjoyed sailing and racing from this early introduction. An experienced sailor, his daughter, Sarah Harms, remembers a funny story from when she was in high school. They were sailing up the Maumee River from Perrysburg to the Toledo Yacht Club for a regatta.
“The Cherry Street bridge had been up to let boat traffic through, and the bridge started coming back down in place, and dad said, ‘We can make it,” Ms. Harms said. “I said no, we can’t. Under the bridge, the air is just a swirl, and they got caught under the bridge, but the mast was between the spars of the bridge,” she said. “If it had landed under an exact spar, it would have pushed the mast through the button of the boat, and we would have been full of water.” An unhappy bridge operator had to raise the bridge again to allow them to proceed, she said.
The children would trade off being skipper and crew, Ms. Harms said.
Son Mike Harms said the children took after their father and preferred to be a leader.
“None of us were very good at crewing,” Mr. Harms said. “We had difficulty taking orders from somebody else.”
Daughter Mary Lempke enjoyed sailing with her father. “He was an excellent crew,” Mrs. Lempke said. “He could read the wind and adjust the sail.” The pair came in fifth place in the Rebel Nationals at Perrysburg Boat Club, she said.
Mr. Harms was very involved with Boy Scouts at St. Rose Catholic Church in Perrysburg. While never a Boy Scout himself, he embraced it, his son said. “It was something he really enjoyed and was dedicated to,” Mr. Harms said.
Mr. Harms and his team grew Henry Filters into a global company with a second office in Wolverhampton, England. In 1998, the company was sold to a German corporation, and he retired. His business experience started early. As a child, his father started Harms Ice Cream in Bowling Green. “Dad built an ice box for his bike and would peddle ice cream to the factory workers at their lunchtime,” Mrs. Lempke said.
Following the sale of his company, he set up the Northwest Ohio Scholarship fund, Mr. Harms said. “It gave families who didn’t have enough money to send their kids to private high school, it gave them a chance to send their son or daughter to a private high school,” Mr. Harms said. “Once the first child got to go, however, many siblings there were got to go as well to whatever school they wanted to go to.”
The couple moved to Columbus eight years ago to be closer to their children, Ms. Harms said.
He restored a 1931 Modal A with a rumble seat that he would take in Perrysburg parades, and when he moved to Columbus, he would take people for rides on Friday evenings at the retirement community. “He loved to give people rides in it,” Ms. Rose said. “People really enjoyed it.”
He was preceded in death by his wife, Eleanor; his father and mother; and his nine siblings.
He is survived by his four children, Mike Harms, Sarah Harms, Mary Lempke, and Philip Harms, 7 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren.
The family suggests donations to the Northwest Ohio Scholarship Fund.
A memorial service will be scheduled in July of 2024 in Perrysburg.
