Harrison Williams Gill, Jr., 89, died on March 19, 2017, at his home in North Chattanooga.
He is survived by his son, Harrison Gill III of Connecticut, and his wife, Patsy, his son, Allen Gill (U.S. Army, retired), and his wife, Yon, his sisters, Barbara Gill Porta Hutchinson and Elinor (Nellie) Gill Vandergriff, seven grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by Edna, his wife of 53 years, who died Nov. 8, 2011, his sisters, Geraldine Gill Price and Marian Gill Keeton, and brother, Malcolm Roland Gill.
Harrison (Harry) was born May 24, 1927, in Sarasota, Fl. The family moved to New York City in 1928, and then to Ridgefield, Ct. in 1932.
In the fall of 1933, Mr. Gill entered first grade in a one-room Connecticut schoolhouse where grades one through six were taught; his older sisters, Barbara and Jerry, were in grades three and six at the same school.
In 1938 the family moved to Chattanooga, where his father, Colonel Harrison W. Gill, Sr., opened an architectural firm.
In 1941 Mr. Gill became a Boy Scout in Troop 34, St. Elmo. He also joined the Senior Sea Scout program and was one of only five scouts in the Cherokee Area Council to earn both Eagle Scout Badge as well as the Sea Scouts’ Quarter Master Badge.
Graduating from Chattanooga High School in May of 1945, Harrison enlisted in the United States Naval Aviation V-5 Program and was sent to Georgia Tech, where he completed two years of study before transfer to the Naval Preflight School at Ottumwa, Iowa, where his USNR rating was changed to Flying Midshipman, USN. After graduating Preflight School, he went to Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, where he completed primary flight training.
Mr. Gill was very proud of his grandson, Lieutenant Ian Gill, who also serves in the US Navy. Ian attended the US Naval Academy and is currently a Naval Aviator stationed in San Diego.
After leaving the Navy in December 1947, Harrison returned to Chattanooga where he was employed by Schmidt Engineering Company as an engineering draftsman. In 1947, he returned to Ga. Tech, where he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity, and graduated in 1951 with his Civil Engineering degree.
In June, 1951 Mr. Gill worked for the DuPont Company as a Junior Engineer at the Savanna River Plant—known as “the H-Bomb Plant”—south of Augusta, Ga. He left DuPont in 1953, returning to Chattanooga to join his father’s firm of Harrison Gill & Associates, Architects. In 1958, he received his State Engineering Licenses in both Tennessee and Georgia.
In June of 1958 Mr. Gill married Edna Westcott Jacoway at Chattanooga’s First Christian Church. They spent a week in New York City before sailing to South Hampton, England, to begin an eight-week European honeymoon before returning to Chattanooga.
In 1970, Harrison received his Tennessee Architectural License and, later, his Georgia License. When his father, Col. Harrison Gill Sr., died in 1971, he became President of Harrison Gill & Associates, leading the firm until his retirement in 1994.
Harrison was a devoted Chattanooga citizen and active member of many community and professional organizations: member, deacon and elder of the First Christian Church for 54 years; the Privateer Yacht club, where he was a devoted sailor for 59 years, serving as Commodore; life member of the United States Power & Sailing Squadron; member and president of the Sons of the American Revolution, John Sever Chapter; life member of the American Institute of Architects, member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the National Society of Professional Engineers, the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce, the Board of the Boy Scouts of America, the Chattanooga Civitan Club for over 50 years, the Board of the Chattanooga Boys Choir for 16 years, the Chattanooga Stamp Club, where he served as President for three years, the Half Century Club of Chattanooga, and a charter member of the Tennessee Aquarium.
The family will receive friends at Chattanooga Funeral Home - North Chapel on Thursday, March 23, from 6-8 p.m. and Friday, March 24, from 1-2:30 p.m. at First Christian Church, 650 McCallie Ave., followed by funeral services at 2:30 p.m. There will be a private burial at Forest Hills Cemetery. The Chattanooga Civitan Club will serve as honorary pallbearers.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Endowment Fund at the First Christian Church of Chattanooga.
Arrangements are by the North Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home, Crematory and Florist, 5401 Highway 153, Hixson, Tn.
Please share your thoughts and memories at www.chattanooganorthchapel.com.