John H. Harms

SHREWSBURY John H. Harms, 85, died Saturday, March 21, 2009, at the Barbara J. Egan Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Shrewsbury. John's funeral service will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Robert A. Pumphrey Funeral Home, Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Inc., 7557 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda, Md. Viewing will be from 9 to 10 a.m. Saturday at the funeral home. Interment with military honors in Parklawn Memorial Park, Rockville, Md., will follow the service. A memorial service for John will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 4, 2009, at the Egan Center, 200 Luther Road, Shrewsbury. Chaplain Joy Hovis will officiate. John H. Harms was born March 7, 1924, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, son of the late Heinrich Wilhelm Harms, a Lutheran missionary from Germany, and Friedericke Magdalene (Bruegmann) Harms. The family moved to Philadelphia when he was in grammar school, where he learned to speak English. He attended Northeast High School in Philadelphia, serving as senior class president, editor of the school newspaper, and chief justice of the student tribunal. He was also a hurdler on the track team and participated in the Penn Relays. He graduated in 1942 and was awarded a four-year scholarship to Temple University. John was drafted into the U.S. Army in December 1943 where he trained to be a machine-gunner. He rose to the rank of staff sergeant and his final assignment was as an intelligence NCO. He crossed the Rhine from France into Germany on his 21st birthday. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest and was awarded three bronze service stars. He was honorably discharged in November 1945, returning to Temple on the GI bill. He graduated in 1948 with a degree in journalism. His first job in the news business was as a part-time copy boy and reporter for United Press International. After graduation, he covered the State House in Harrisburg. In 1950, he relocated to Washington, D.C., to accept a position in the public affairs office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. John also worked as a reporter for the Farm News Service before joining Kiplinger Washington Editors in 1961. As editor of their Agriculture newsletter, and later, senior editor of the flagship Washington letter, he covered USDA and other federal agencies, Capitol Hill, the White House, and presidential nominating conventions. During that same period, John did an early morning radio show for farmers over the Mutual Broadcasting System, wrote a column that appeared in farming magazines, and was a popular speaker with research universities and farmers' organizations. He left Kiplinger in 1976 to start a newsletter consultant business. His clients included U.S. News & World Report and John Naisbitt Group (Megatrends). John married Janet Ryland Harlow in 1950. Together they had four children. Mrs. Harms died in 1994, after 44 years of marriage. John was active in the Church of the Holy City in Washington, D.C., for 40 years, serving as a lay leader, Sunday school superintendent, and president of the church board. He got his real estate license and affiliated with Long and Foster and Weichert Realtors before retiring to Shrewsbury in 1997. He kept his hand in the news business by purchasing Good News, a monthly magazine with a positive perspective on life that featured articles by local writers in the York County area, and as editor of AgroWashington. He attended St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in New Freedom and sang tenor in the choir. In 2002, he became a cottager at the Shrewsbury Lutheran Retirement Village and was a member of the Village community until his death. John is survived by daughters, Victoria E. Geho and her husband, Daniel of Stewartstown, and Penelope H. Garver and her husband, David of Alexandria, Va.; son, Henry H. Harms and his wife, Kathryn of Fairfax, Va.; three granddaughters, Hannah, Margaret, and Rachel Harms of Fairfax, Va.; siblings, Dr. Louis T. Harms and his wife, Kathe' of Wallingford, Werner O. Harms of Dallas, Texas, and Dr. William R. Harms and his wife, Katharine of Charleston, S.C.; three nieces; and four nephews. He was preceded in death by a son, John Harlow Harms; and two siblings, Dr. Claude B. Harms and Dorothea L. Evans. Memorial contributions may be made to Auxiliary of Lutheran Social Services, Shrewsbury Chapter, 200 Luther Road, Shrewsbury, PA 17361. Local arrangements are by the J.J. Hartenstein Mortuary, Inc., 24 Second St., New Freedom.