John Richard Harney

Jack was born on May 28, 1924 in Lynn, MA, graduating high school as valedictorian and class president. He won a National Scholarship to Harvard and graduated in 1948 A.B. cum laude, interrupted by his service in WWII. He earned an M.A. from Boston University in 1949. While a teaching fellow there pursuing a PhD, he was recruited by the Armed Forces Security Agency which later became NSA, from which he retired in 1980 as an Assistant Director. He graduated from the National War College in the Class of 1966. While in the Army, he graduated from the Army Specialized Training Program at the University of Nebraska in 1943. In WWII Jack served in France, Germany and Austria as a Combat Infantry rifleman, and toward the war's end as an Army Counter Intelligence agent. Awarded the Combat Infantry Badge and the Bronze Star, he also won spurs as a horse cavalry trooper at Ft. Riley, Kansas. At NSA he earned the Exceptional Civilian Service Award and the Director of Central Intelligence's National Medal of Achievement. After retiring from government Jack worked at home and abroad helping industry understand and respond to specialized U.S. national security requirements. Jack was a passionate student of the earth and of its history and cultures, an inveterate writer of letters to the editor, liked golf and loved his family most of all. He leaves behind his beloved wife of 63 years, Betty Louise (MacDonald) Harney; a son, John R. Jr. (Carolyn); two daughters, Mary Ellen Wolf (Bill) and Kathleen Fatula (Rick); five grandsons; two stepgranddaughters; four great-grandchildren; and six stepgreat-grandchildren.