John R. Harshman

HARSHMAN, John R. age 95, of Kettering passed away peacefully on January 6, 2021.

John, a WWII Veteran, is survived by his daughter Pam Henderson; 3 sons, John (Vicki) Harshman, Doug Harshman, Jeff Harshman (Carrie). Grandchildren include: Mark (Vickie), Angela (Ronnie), Chad (Nancy), Jason, Heather (Shawn), Amanda N. (Dennis), Justin (Jackie) and Amanda P. In addition, 18 great-grandchildren, 6 great-great grandchildren, many other family and friends as well as his beloved 4 legged companion, Rocky. He is preceded in death by his wife and best friend of 61 years, Eva, daughter Cheryl Fitzsimmons, grandsons John & Kevin Butts and daughter in law Fran Harshman.

John was born in Versailles, Ohio on April 18th, 1925. At the young age of just 17, John enlisted in the Army and in 1943, John began working at NCR where he was part of an unbelievable task force, the Dayton Code Breakers. He didn’t know it at the time, but John was put to work in the highly secretive United States Naval Computing Machine Laboratory. John’s job was to assemble a series of code-breaking machines known as Bombes designed to crack the code of Germany’s secret messages during WWII. This work shortened the war by 2 whole years.

Following 38 years of service at NCR, John worked for Triangle Precision Industries in Kettering before his retirement. John had quite the zest for life and his family & friends were his world. He was very proud of his unique contribution to military history and was committed to sharing his story with others.

John’s family would like to especially thank Hospice of Dayton as well as the many doctors, nurses and aides for the outstanding level of care and compassion that was extended to this very special man.

A private family funeral service will be held at 1pm on Tuesday, January 12, 2021 at the Routsong Funeral Home. For those unable to attend, a livestream will be available to view on Routsong’s YouTube channel. Burial in Mt. Zion Cemetery, Beavercreek. In lieu of flowers please make donations to Hospice of Dayton, 324 Wilmington Ave. Dayton, OH 45420.