Obituary of Harold Paul Hennessy

Mr. Harold P. Hennessy, 97, of Canajoharie, NY, passed away peacefully on April 5 at the Abraham House in Rome, NY, under hospice care.

Born in Brooklyn, NY in 1928, he was the son of the late Harold I. Hennessy and Alice Prescott Hennessy.  He graduated from Bayonne Technical High School in Bayonne, NJ, and later studied at New Jersey State Teachers College in Jersey City, NJ.

Harold married Marie Sullivan in 1951 in Bayonne, N.J. They moved from New Jersey to Herkimer, NY, with their first two children, and finally to Canajoharie in 1959, where they resided with their five children, except for a period during 1969 and 1970 when they lived in Rumson, NJ.

Harold was employed by Beech-Nut Life Savers Inc. and its subsequent corporate entities beginning in 1959. He held positions in Industrial Relations and Human Resources, working at the Canajoharie plant as well as the corporate executive offices in New York City.

He retired in 1986 as Director-Employee Services.

Harold was previously employed as an Industrial Engineer at the International Nickel Company and later at General Motors Corp., both in NJ, as well as the Remington Rand UNIVAC division of Sperry Rand in Utica, NY.

In addition to being a loving and devoted husband and father, Harold’s primary interests involved aviation. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1946 and received flight training while stationed at Naval Air Station Pensacola, FL, from 1948 to 1949. He later served as a pilot in the New Jersey Wing of the Civil Air Patrol.

After obtaining his private pilot’s license, he piloted power planes and gliders, and was an active member of the Iroquois Soaring Club in Hamilton, NY, for over 20 years. He also built and flew remote control aircraft. Harold’s fascination with flying led him to experience flights in aircraft, including a hot air balloon, the Goodyear blimp, and a Hughes 269C helicopter, in which he received an instructional flight.

He also enjoyed boating with the family during summer weekends on Great Sacandaga Lake, teaching his children to pilot the boat and water ski.

Harold was an active member of the Fort Rensselaer Club in Canajoharie for many years, where he served a term as club president.

As a boy, Harold and his sister spent many memorable summers with his grandparents on their chicken and mink farm in Bow, NH, eventually staying on to attend school there for several years in a one-room schoolhouse in Bow. He shared many stories of that city boy adapting to country life: skiing across the fields to the schoolhouse, helping his grandfather fell trees for the wood stove, bringing his grandmother a chicken for Sunday dinner, and learning to shoot rats in the chicken coop.

Likely as a result of that self-reliant farm life where he helped his grandparents and uncle with many jobs, Harold became a man of many talents - a genuine repair and re-use guy. He could reupholster furniture, build a treehouse, bake pies and deep fry doughnuts, install cast iron home radiators, jack up a barn, repair appliances and televisions, wallpaper an entire house, tile a bathroom, paint a three-story home, repeatedly repair and repaint the wooden hull of his boat, as well as countless other projects.

He also had an affection for music, playing trombone in his high school marching band and later teaching himself to play the guitar, banjo, and mandolin. In the early years of his marriage, Harold also cultivated his skills as an amateur photographer, taking black and white portraits of Marie and their children with a twin lens reflex camera and developing the prints in a home darkroom. Subsequently, he enjoyed documenting birthdays and family vacation trips with an 8mm movie camera.

He will be fondly remembered as a generous, hard-working man of principle, integrity, honesty, ingenuity, loyalty, positivity, and adventure, with a keen sense of humor and a hearty laugh to match.

Harold was predeceased in 2009 by Marie, his wife of 58 years, and his sister Doris Flynn. Harold is survived by his five children: Deborah Windover (Mark) of Williamstown, MA; Paul Hennessy (Junko) of Orlando, FL; Brian Hennessy (Sally) of Leland, NC; Kevin Hennessy (Nancy) of Oriskany, NY; and Joanne Hennessy of Cohoes, NY, and companion Michelle.

He is also survived by his seven grandchildren: Eric Windover (Jodi), Molly Windover (Colin Stewart), Emily Windover (Chris Kauffman), Eli Windover (Cathie Pelchat), Kenneth Hennessy (Stephanie), and Michael Hennessy (Laurie) and David Hennessy (Andrea). Harold’s 12 great-grandchildren include Ruby, Phoebe, and Mia Kauffman; Liam and Nora Stewart; Evan and Nolan Windover; Leeah Hennessy; Carter and Chloe Hennessy, and Paisley and Logan Hennessy. Harold is also survived by his nieces, Patti Fertal and Carol Flynn and several cousins.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Abraham House, 1203 Kemble St., Utica, NY 13501, which is funded through grants and contributions.

The family will receive friends and relatives from 2:00-3:30  on Saturday, April 12^th, 2025, at Houghtaling and Hanley Funeral Home, 20 Otsego St., Canajoharie, NY. The family will be sharing memories and stories of Mr. Hennessy’s life starting at 3:30.  A Mass of Christian burial will take place at Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church in Ft. Plain at a later date with burial at St. Peter’s and Paul’s Catholic Cemetery in Canajoharie.