Harley Harrison Elwell III |
| Posted 2022-12-24 by mhenderson |
| Bradbury Memorial Center - Lake Havasu City, Arizona - On Monday, December 19, 2022, Harley Harrison Elwell, III of Lake Havasu City, passed away at age eighty-six. He was born in Detroit, Michigan. As a teenager, he was an avid long-distance underwater swimmer. At 17, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and moved across the country to Camp Pendleton in northern San Diego County, California. After his discharge from the Marine Corps in January of 1957, he returned to Detroit and began studying at the Electronics Institute of Technology. After graduating in 1960, he traveled with four classmates to Southern California to look for work. That’s where he met Joyce Henkin, the mother of his three children. When he met her, she was the divorced mother of two young boys, Jeffery and Jamie, living in the same apartment complex where he and his classmates lived. In his own words, “I fell in love with her right away.” They were married in March of 1962, and together they had his only biological child, Penny, who was born in October 1963. He worked in Numerical Control for several aerospace companies (Lockheed, Bendix, etc.) for 14 years before starting his own company (Harco Electronics) in September of 1974. He worked as an independent contractor for 38 years. For almost three decades, beginning in the 1980s, he would drive from Lake Havasu to Chatsworth, CA on Sunday and return to Lake Havasu on Thursday evening. In 1980, he and Joyce divorced after 18 years of marriage. He met Dee (DeLois) shortly thereafter and they married in Las Vegas, NV in July 1982. They were married until she passed away in Lake Havasu on Sunday, December 18, 2022. After retirement in 2012, he continued to pursue an education by continually taking classes at Mojave Community College. He also was very active in the Marine Corps League Lake Havasu Detachment #757. He loved spending time on his boat fishing. He is survived by his two sons: Jeffery Elwell, (Edwina) of Clayton, NC; Jamie Elwell, (Connie) of Encinitas, CA; and his daughter Penny Lovas (Thomas) of Pittsburgh, PA. He is also survived by four grandchildren (Alexis Elwell, Michael Lovas (Rachel), Zachary Lovas, Preston Elwell) and six grandchildren (Mila Burish, Addison Lovas, Alaina Burish, Piper Lovas, and twins Elijah and Hailey Lovas). He was preceded in death by his father, Harley Harrison Elwell, Jr., and mother, Mary Elizabeth Hales; his sisters, Elaine, and Jeanne; and his wives DeLois Lynn Matthews (1982-2022); Joyce Henkin (1962-1980); Geraldine Post (1959-1960); and Judy Anne Manasero (1957-1959). A visitation and memorial service will be held on Tuesday, December 27, 2022, beginning at 10 a.m. at Bradbury Memorial Center in Lake Havasu City. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be given to the Marine Corps League Lake Havasu Detachment #757. |
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