Past Waterloo Rotary club president (1984-85) Lewis B. Harned passed away on April 15, at the age of 101. He was born on August 17, 1924, in Madison. He graduated from high school in 1942 and tried to enlist in the US military, but recruiters classified him as 4 F because of his nearsightedness. His patriotism found another route to the war through the civilian volunteer corps that supplied ambulance drivers to British and Allied forces. He sailed for Egypt in 1943 and joined the British Eighth Army. He served across North Africa and the Middle East before moving with the Eighth Army into the Italian campaign. At the battle of Monte Cassino, his unit operated from a forward aid station that came under heavy German artillery fire. The British awarded him three campaign medals for his service including the Italy star.
Back home, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1947 and earned his medical degree in 1951. The Korean War draft reached him as a newly credentialed doctor. Commissioned as an Army warrant officer, he transferred to the Air Force and served as a surgeon at the Air Force hospital in Ogden Utah from 1953 to 1955. He completed his orthopedic residency at Northwestern University in 1958 and joined Surgical and Orthopedic Associates on W. 4th St. in Waterloo. He and his wife Sally and their five children resided in that big white house on the northeast corner of Baltimore and Mitchell Street. He served as team physician for the Panthers and West high from 1960 to 1984. He was inducted into the UNI Hall of Fame, receiving their Panther letterman award in 1978 – 79. He was an active
member of our club and served as president.
An opportunity to move into the former residence of his wife’s family on Lake Mendota in Madison took the family back to Madison. He continued to practice orthopedic medicine in a hospital in Madison (now affiliated with Unity point) and accepted a Lieut. Col.’s commission in in the Wisconsin Army National Guard. In May 1988 he took command of the Madison-based 13th evacuation Hospital. Desert Shield activated the 350-member unit in November 1990. They deployed to Saudi Arabia on January 10 of 1991 and set up a 408 bed field hospital near the Iraqi border There he became the oldest commanding officer deployed to Desert Storm. He was awarded several bronze Stars for his leadership and was promoted to Brigadier General, before retiring from the military in 1992.
Lew remained active in Rotary as a member of the downtown Madison club. He served as President of that club’s 8.5 million dollar Foundation, often preparing breakfast for its board of directors. He also started the club’s Single Malt Scotch fellowship group in 2007 to sample single malt Scotch whiskies. It was renamed the Scotch Whisky/Lew Harned Society in 2009 to honor him.
As he approached his 100th birthday, Lew started planting flags on the burial sites of veterans who were buried in cemeteries in southern Wisconsin that were no longer being cared for. It was his wish that someone would continue that tradition after his death.
Our club was fortunate to have had several of the last members of the greatest generation: Hovey Brom passing last year and Lew Harned this year.