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Re: Harry M. Byrne, date of death August 25, 2007 Harry Moody Byrne, 86, of Wynnewood, died of cancer on August 25, 2007 at his family’s summer home in Longport, New Jersey. He was born in 1921. A native of Phoenixville, PA, Mr. Byrne was one of 10 children born to Thomas and Regina Byrne. He attended Waldron Academy and graduated from Saint Joseph’s Preparatory School in 1940 and from The School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University in 1947. A stellar athlete, Mr. Byrne was the starting fullback for St. Joe Prep’s undefeated 1939 City Championship team, a member of the school’s famed “Four Bs” backfield. His college education was interrupted by WWII. In 1942, Mr. Byrne enlisted in the Navy, training as a naval aviator. Piloting a Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber, Mr. Byrne participated in the invasions of the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, flying pre-invasion anti-submarine hunter-killer patrols and providing ground support to marine forces during the invasions. He made more than 100 carrier take-offs and landings under combat conditions, many at night. He witnessed the sinking, by kamikaze, of the carrier USS Ommaney Bay in the Surigao Straits, and also the near miss of a kamikaze on his own ship, USS Tulagi, during the invasion of Okinawa. For his action during the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Mr. Byrne was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with Gold Star. Following his service in the Pacific, Mr. Byrne was a flight instructor in night flying tactics at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas. He continued to fly for the Navy Reserve while a student at Georgetown, and also after he returned to Phoenixville, flying twin-engine Grumman Trackers on anti-submarine patrols in the Atlantic until 1959. After his graduation from Georgetown, Mr. Byrne began a long career in the textile industry. He first worked in production at the family business in Phoenixville, the Thomas F. Byrne Knitting Mill, manufacturers of women’s and children’s underwear and hosiery. The mill was founded by his grandfather, an immigrant from Ireland. Thereafter, he worked in sales and management for the Johnston Mills Company, a consortium of knitting mills based in Charlotte NC, eventually rising to become president of that company. After Johnston Mills was acquired, he continued with the successor entity, L.P.Muller Company, until his retirement in 1986. Upon his retirement, Mr. Byrne obtained his real estate license and began a third career, selling residential real estate for Prudential Fox Roach, in Gladwyne. Mr. Byrne married Joan Tinney, whom he met in Ventnor, NJ while still in high school, in 1947. A long time resident of the Overbrook section of Philadelphia, Mr. Byrne was active in Our Lady of Lourdes parish, and in the local civic association, The Overbrook Farms Club, where he served on many committees and as an officer and as president. In the 1960’s, he also served as a board member of the Philadelphia Federal Savings and Loan Company. He was an active member of the St. Joseph’s Prep Alumni Association from 1940 until his death, and notwithstanding his illness, recently attended the Prep’s Alumni Father-Son Communion Breakfast with his son and four of his grandsons, all Prep grads or students. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, and by his five children, Joan Fiorile (James) of Woodbury, NJ; Harry Byrne (Maureen) of Merion Station, PA; Jean Mahoney (Harry) of Wayne, PA; Barbara Byrne of Neuilly-Sur-Seine, France; and Susan Byrne, of Wayne, PA. He is also survived by two of his siblings, Robert P. Byrne (Piqui) of Fajardo, Puerto Rico and by Mary Gallagher (Charles R.) of Lubbock, Texas. He is also survived by 11 grandchildren, and more than 40 nieces and nephews. In 1907, Mr. Byrne’s grandfather, Thomas E. Byrne, erected St. Ann’s Memorial Church, the first Catholic Church on the south side of Phoenixville, in honor of that gentleman’s mother, Ann Lynch Byrne, who died during his childbirth in 1853, in Co. Tyrone, in famine-wracked Ireland. Mr. Byrne’s grandparents and parents are interred in the crypt of the church, which also contains memorials to two of his cousins killed in action during WW II. A funeral mass is scheduled to be held in that same church, St. Ann’s Memorial Church, 502 S. Main Street, Phoenixville, PA 19460, on Saturday, September 1, 2007, at 11 a.m. Friends may call at the church afer 9:30 a.m. Interment Calvary Cemetery In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to St. Joseph’s Preparatory School, 1733 Girard Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19130.

Tributes

Harry M. Byrne

April 18, 1921 - August 25, 2007