Harrison Thompson Beardsley

Of Moraga, CA passed away on Saturday, May 2012 at age 89 of natural causes with family at his side. Born July 22, 1922 in Chicago, Illinois, he attended Wheaton HS where he lettered in football and track. He attended the University of Chicago before enlisting in the US Army air Force in 1942. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, he received 2-weeks flight training in Florida before being sent to the South Pacific. Co-piloting a Mitchell B-25 with a crew of 10 over the mountains of New Guinea, his plane was forced down and ditched in a swamp, in Japanese occupied territory. As the tallest of the crew, the native aborigines chose Lt. Beardsley as “chief of the white men” disregarding the pilot, a Captain but still a shorter man. With razor blades and fishhooks, Lt. Beardsley bribed the local chieftains to lead the Americans out of the jungle, past enemy patrols and over the mountains to the Australian zone. They were MIA for 5 days. After the war, Mr. Beardsley worked as a reporter in Fargo, ND and for the Dayton Journal Herald in Ohio. He moved his family to the SF Bay Area in 1956 to work in public relations for Kaiser Aluminum. He traveled the world for Kaiser and in 1963 was posted to London where he moved his family. Later, he joined Doremus & Co. a financial PR and ad agency representing prominent electronics and biotech companies in Silicon Valley. He started his own firm, Beardsley Communications in the early 80’s. He is the author of a novel, Flying For An Angel. A long-time member of a prominent SF social club, he enjoyed acting, writing and directing in many of the club’s productions. Mr. Beardsley was also the editor of the “La Familia” newsletter of a children’s hospital in Guatemala, which he visited. He is survived by his sisters, Barbara Mate of Newport, OR. and Cynthia Waggoner of Vero Beach. FL and his son, Peter Beardsley of Novato, CA, his daughter, Janet Beardsley and his grandsons, Warner Brown and Will Brown all of Petaluma, CA. In lieu of flowers or charitable donations, it is requested that any donations in his name be given to: Hospital de la Familia Foundation P.O. Box 12981. Berkeley, California 94712-3981. www.hospitaldelafamilia.com/ Tel: 707-252-9069.