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Harvey Darling

February 6, 1924 - February 21, 2015
Ovid, MI

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Visitation

Wednesday, February 25, 2015
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM EST
Osgood Funeral Homes
Houghton Chapel
232 E. Oak
Ovid, MI 48866
(989) 834-2233
Driving Directions

Visitation

Wednesday, February 25, 2015
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM EST
Osgood Funeral Homes
Houghton Chapel
232 E. Oak
Ovid, MI 48866
(989) 834-2233
Driving Directions

Service

Thursday, February 26, 2015
11:00 AM EST
United Church of Ovid
131 West Front Street
Ovid, MI 48866

Life Story / Obituary


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Harvey had just celebrated his 91st birthday, and lived out his whole life here in mid Michigan. He was born on February 6, 1924 to Vern and Gladys (Thompson) Darling on West Juddville Road, near Carland. As the eldest of their three sons, he and his brothers Oliver and Ivan were no strangers to the hard work of running a farm, especially during the lean times of the Depression. Without central heating or plumbing, there was always wood to chop and water to draw, chores to be done.

What a life he had, witnessing so many of the transformations that marked the 20th Century! As a kid growing up, he learned to trap for furs in the winter to earn extra income and to hunt. By the spring, when he'd outgrown his shoes, he walked to his one room schoolhouse in bare feet, like many of his classmates.

In the late 1930's, as electrical lines were expanding into rural America, Harvey's father trained to become an electrician, one of the first in the area to install electrical services to many of the farms in Clinton and Shiawassee County. In 1937, Vern established an appliance store and electrical business in Ovid, and brought in his sons to learn the trade.

Harvey graduated from Ovid High School in 1942, and by the end of that year was drafted to serve in World War II. He served for almost three years as head electrician with Company A of the 233rd Army Engineer Combat Battalion in the Pacific Theatre. His company was tasked with building roads and bridges and supplying the Marines and infantry units with equipment as they sought to recapture Japanese held Guam, Leyte in the Philippines and Okinawa, Japan. The stakes were high, and everyone learned what teamwork meant. Aerial strafing of the beaches and land mines were a constant reminder. Fortunately, he escaped major injury. Like so many men of his generation, Harvey returned quietly committed to the idea of giving a life of service to his family and his hometown.

Harvey met his wife, Doris, the summer before he was shipped out. And they maintained a faithful correspondence throughout his time overseas. Friendship became romance and they were married in June of 1947. Even then they loved to travel, and spent the next three weeks on the road, seeing America all the way to California and back, and returning with just five dollars in their pockets. They settled down on Main Street in Ovid and raised their three children, Ronald, Pamela and Rosemary.

When Vern retired in 1952, Harvey and his brother, Oliver, carried on Darling's Inc., the hardware, electrical, plumbing and heating business, establishing stores in both Ovid and Elsie. Harvey retired at age 72, when the Ovid store closed in 1996. It was a busy life, with the long hours a business demands, and yet he remained very active in the community, serving as village councilman and president throughout the 1960's. During that time he successfully secured the federal financing necessary for Ovid to build its first waste water treatment facility. He was also a long standing member of the local Masonic Lodge, the VFW and the American Legion.

Along with Doris, he was also active in his church, the United Church of Ovid, and was a volunteer fireman for thirty years. And in just this last year of his life, in spite of his struggle with cancer, he was elected a trustee to Ovid's City Charter Commission. In that role, he helped secure the petition signatures necessary and review charter language for Ovid to achieve the status and benefits of a city.

It wasn't all work, though. Harvey and Doris both loved the natural beauty of America and especially their native Michigan. There were family camping vacations and cross country road trips. Later, they made excursions to Europe and the Caribbean, to Alaska and Hawaii. After their retirement, they looked forward to their winters with friends in Arizona and summers hosting family at their cabin at the Hiawatha Club in the Upper Peninsula.

Harvey loved the camaraderie of being part a team, too, and played softball as a young man, then bowling and golf leagues. Like his father and his brothers, he was always an avid sportsman, enjoying fishing and hunting, and more than anything else, the wildness and quiet serenity of the great outdoors. He said many times, it was there that he felt closest to God.

Harvey was always there to help and cheer on his family. He was a patient and optimistic man. A fair and honest man. Someone with a ready handshake and a steady moral compass. And he welcomed each new addition, from his children's spouses to his grandchildren and great grandchildren with open arms. He gave his last measure of devotion to Doris, his beloved wife of 63 years, who faded away to Alzheimer's. It was a life well lived and we, as his family, are all so proud of him.

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