- Date Of Birth: July 30, 1915
- Date Of Death: November 5, 2011
- State: New Jersey
Harold LeRoy Stevens, 96, a lifelong resident of Burlington, NJ, died Saturday, November 5th, at the Samaritan Hospice Inpatient Unit at Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mt. Holly. Harold was born on July 30, 1915 in his family’s home on Foundry Row in Burlington. His father, William M. Stevens, died in a railroad accident when Harold was just under a year old, and his mother Ida M. Stevens, died when he was fourteen years old.
At that time Harold and his older brother William went to live with their grandparents, Joseph and Mary Stevens, at their home in Burlington. Harold attended school in Burlington including the Captain James Lawrence and the Robert Stacy Schools. He played the trombone in the orchestra and marching band and graduated from Wilbur Watts High School, Class of 1932. Harold was very fond of local history and often recalled walking across the Burlington-Bristol Bridge on its opening day ceremony in 1931. As a young man he enjoyed canoeing from Lakanoo Boat Club to Burlington Island and along the Delaware River.
He was an active member of the Burlington Men’s Club and volunteered with the Civil Defense Corps teams during World War II. His other interests included reading, crossword puzzles, tennis and bicycling. When Harold began working at the U.S. Pipe Foundry in Burlington in 1933 he represented the fourth generation of his family to be employed at the foundry where he worked in the machine shop and specialized in heat treatment and metallography. In 1946 he made a career change accepting a position with Prudential Insurance Company to sell insurance in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
He retired from Prudential in 1976 after 30 years of service. Harold and his late wife Anna were married on June 6, 1941 in the Burlington Presbyterian Church on High Street. They had two children, the late Charles Stevens of Cullowhee, NC, who is survived by his wife Christine, Marie Olson who lives in Beverly with her husband Steven. Harold is survived by his four grandchildren: Eric (Kathryn) Stevens, Kevin (Melissa) Stevens, Marianna (Raymond) Logue and Stephanie Olson as well as seven great-grandchildren (with an eighth on the way), and several nieces and nephews.
