Harris Manwarren
(March 30, 1938-Aug. 10, 2021)
An Appreciation
by Harry Winter
Harris Manwarren was firm that he wanted no obituary. So, respecting his wishes, this is not an obituary but an appreciation.
When Harris and his wife Geraldine moved from Norwich on March 30, 2018, to be closer to their daughter in North Carolina, I put on the Hillcrest website home page a description of their work promoting Hillcrest:www.hillcrestenv.org. From the very early days of Hillcrest, to its latest renewal, Harris was very familiar with Hillcrest. Hillcrest’s current page has some photos of Harris at Hillcrest and also shows his work with Don Windsor, as Don wrote about Chenango County.
He also knew every plot of ginseng in Chenango County. He was a very successful trapper, especially for fox, and also mink, muskrat and beaver. His fishing exploits were many. He successfully hunted deer. I remember him telling me disgustedly that he had been kicked off a section of Steam Sawmill Hill by my late uncle Jay Van Wagner. Even though Jay did not own the section, he felt it was his hunting domain.
Harris served in the US military, Army Intelligence. My parents were among those interviewed by the Army when Harris qualified for the intelligence unit. My mother remembered that the interviewers were very impressed by what they were told by people in Norwich about Harris.
He worked at the Upper Bank in Norwich but did not find it interesting. So he trained as a butcher, and was very much appreciated in several of the Great American grocery stores in Chenango County.
Harris was raised on Prospect Street with his sister Teresa (NHS 53), who predeceased him. His Dad was the manager of Honiecker’s Dairy Processing plant west of Sherburne. He loved to fish in the pond behind the plant. During our last two years of high school, Harris would meet me each morning on Pleasant Street, we would walk down Miller Street and shout for Bob Shoales, continuing on to the old high school on West Main Street. We all belong to the 1955 NHS graduation class.
He is survived by Geraldine, who can be reached at her daughter’s Trenna’s home: 1133 Presson Farms Lane, Monroe, NC 28110; (980)313-8673. Trenna is NHS 82. Trenna has three children: Harris Jr., 20, Alaina, 18, and Wade, 14. Harris was also cousin to our classmate Eva Lynn Ryan Stone.
He died of respiratory failure. He tried to adjust to NC, but failed, writing on Sept. 11, 2019: “I miss Norwich and all my friends. I’ld go back in a flash, but it’s not going to happen.” He was cremated in NC and his ashes buried in the cemetery plot of Geraldine’s family (Light) in West Hill Cemetery, Sherburne.
He will be missed not only in Chenango County, but by all he served in the US military.