Ernest Roy Harris (1930 - 2005) Memorials Page

The story as it was told to me many years later, I don't actually remember as I had just come home from that life changing event known as birth, was that on the second day after my moving in with my scant worldly possessions, the Harris family moved in next door. This was in July of 1958. My parents had been in their home at 421 Drexel Ave since they married in 1954. The Harris family consisted of Roy, his wife Dee, and their sons Steve and Dave. My brother was by then 1 1/2 years old and I'm sure overjoyed by my arrival. Roy had recently been discharged from the Air Force where he had been living with his family either on or near a base in Cheyenne, WY. His enlistment in the Air Force covered the Korean War during which I think he was stationed in Alaska. For Roy, this was a return home. His father was the first custodian at Jackson Elementary School and the family lived in the old Brodbeck house that sat at the top of the hill next to the school overlooking Cuyahoga Falls Ave.  Roy and his younger brother Ken spent their childhood there, graduated from North, became teachers, and raised their own families within a "stone's throw" of the old house. Roy was my next door neighbor from the day that he moved in until his death. To others, he was a son, brother, father, grandfather, and a teacher at Goodyear Middle School. Roy gave me my first "job" when he would let us go with him to clean carpets for the business that he and his brother had. I still have the bedroom furniture that he gave me when he and his wife bought new stuff. By most measures, I am considered a grown man now. As time progresses and the anchors to my childhood days begin to disappear, my life seems a little less secure and less tethered to what was familiar. Roy being my next door neighbor was one of those tethers. For those that knew him, I believe that they would all agree that no one could outrun a "herd of turtles" better than Roy. This page is dedicated to him and the many other neighbors from North Hill. Feel free to contact me about adding any others that were your neighbor, uncle, brother, father, mother, etc . . . info@northhillakron.org. Thank you neighbor.

Teachers

Class of 1932

Class of 1933

Class of 1934

Class of 1935

Class of 1937

Class of 1938

Class of 1939

Class of 1941

Class of 1942

Class of 1947

Class of 1949

Class of 1953

Class of 1957

Class of 1961

Class of 1962

Class of 1966

Class of 1967

Class of 1968

Class of 1974

Class of 1976

Class of 1977

Class of 1978

Class of 1981

Class of 2003