Harry W. Buchanan III

Harry W. Buchanan III MILFORD, Pa. - After a courageous battle against cancer, at the age of 85, Harry Winters Buchanan III passed away Friday, Aug. 28, 2009. in Bethlehem, Pa., surrounded by his family. Mr. Buchanan was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Nov. 9, 1923, to Harry W. Buchanan II and Eugenie M. Buchanan (nee O'Brien). After serving with the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II, he graduated from the Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute with a degree in chemical engineering. Later, as a Sloan Fellow, he earned a masters in management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Buchanan began his professional career in New York at Metal and Thermit Corporation, where he rose to the position of executive vice president. In 1966, he left to become president and Chairman of the Board of the Virginia Chemicals Corporation in Portsmouth, Va. There he expanded the firm's scope of products and markets, developing an array of specialty industrial chemicals, and establishing new operations in Japan, England, and continental Europe. In early 1980s he engineered the sale of Virginia Chemicals to the Celanese Corporation, and eventually retired from Hoescht-Celanese as a vice president. Mr. Buchanan had served as a director of the Virginia Manufacturers Association, the Chemical Manufacturers Association, the United Virginia Bank Corporation and Crompton & Knowles. He also served on the boards of advisors to the University of Richmond and the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia. In New York City, he was a member of the Union League Club, the Sky Club and the Chemist Club, where he was the chairman of the House Committee. He was also a member of the Commonwealth Club in Richmond, Va., and the Augusta National Golf Club. Mr. Buchanan was among the fifth generation of his family to live on the property at Cliff Park in Milford, Pa. For more than 50 years, he managed and improved the facilities of Cliff Park Inn and Golf Course, a business which had been started by his grandmother in 1913. Working through the Conservation Fund, Mr. Buchanan arranged for Cliff Park to be acquired by the National Park Service in 2003 as part of the Tocks Island National Recreation Area, with the understanding that the land and the golf course will remain undeveloped and open to the public. Mr. Buchanan was married for 58 years to the former Barbara Combes of Larchmont, N.Y. He leaves behind his loving and devoted wife, their six children: sons, Harry Winters IV, M.D. of Allentown, Pa., Bruce Stewart and his wife Laura of New York City and Brien Combes and his wife Carol-Ann of Milford; daughters, Cathleen Joan and her husband Anthony Barri, M.D. of Old Lyme, Conn., Virginia Gail of Middletown, N.J., and Mary Ann and her husband Pete of Purcellville, Va.; and 16 grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his sister, Gene Ann Buchanan Titus; his cousin, Theodore Stewart Buchanan; his grandson, Luke Lawson Buchanan; and his friend and colleague, Walter William MacGregor. A viewing will be held Friday, Sept. 4, at Cliff Park from 6 to 8 p.m. and the funeral will be held at St. Patrick's Church on Saturday, Sept. 5, at noon. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be sent to the St. Luke's Hospice House, 2455 Black River Road, Bethlehem, PA 18015, (610) 997-7120.