Henry W. Gent

Harry W. Gent, Jr. Harry W. Gent, Jr., of 107 Tamarack Drive, Franklin, Pennsylvania, was born December 5, 1921, in Oil City, Pennsylvania; he was the son of Harry W. Gent, Sr., and Anna Burns Gent. He died on January 2, 2011 at Sugar Creek Station He attended public and parochial schools in Franklin, Pennsylvania, and Holy Cross Seminary at Notre Dame, Indiana, and completed his high school education there in 1938. Thereafter he attended the University of Notre Dame for one year and then completed his last three years of college at St. Bonaventure College, at Allegany, New York, at the end of May, 1942. Later on July 8, 1942, he enlisted in the United States Army through the recruiting office at the Post Office in Oil City, Pennsylvania. He then traveled by train through Pittsburgh (where he was sworn into the United States Army) to Camp Hill near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and after a few days there went on with other recruits to what was then Camp Pickett, near Blackstone, Virginia. While serving at the Station Hospital at Camp Pickett, Virginia, he applied for and was accepted at Officer Candidate School at Fort Lee, Virginia. Fort Lee (where his father was stationed in World War I) was located outside the city of Petersburg, Virginia, where his father and mother were married during World War I. In May of 1943 Mr. Gent was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps and sent to Fort Benning, Georgia, for a month's training. He was then ordered to report to Camp Ellis, Illinois, and was assigned as one of four platoon leaders to Company "D" of the 370th Quartermaster Bakery Company there. He remained at Camp Ellis for about five months and then, after going home on leave for a week or two, he left with the company on January l6, l944, from San Francisco, California, for overseas duty in the southwest Pacific area, at Milne Bay, New Guinea. It took the ship twenty-five days to cross the Pacific Ocean and reach Milne Bay. Thereafter in the fall of 1944, Mr. Gent's platoon of 37 men was detached from the company and sent by air transportation (with an overnight stop at Lae, New Guinea) to Noemfoor Island off the northwest coast of New Guinea, which was then part of the Dutch East Indies and is now a part of Indonesia and where the l58th Regimental Combat Team was in training in preparation for action in the Philippine Islands. He remained at Noemfoor Island until May of 1945 when he and his platoon were ordered to the Philippine Islands. After spending a short period of time on the Island of Mindoro in the Philippines, he and his platoon were ordered to Parang on the west coast of the Island of Mindanao, also in the Philippines, and from there by an LSM (Landing Ship Mechanized) to the southern coast of Mindanao at the northerly end of the Gulf of Davao. Prior to this time his platoon had been released from its attachment to the 31st Infantry Division and attached instead to the 24th Infantry Division which Division was then engaged in combat in or near to the City of Davao, the capital of Mindanao. He and his platoon remained on duty there until the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945. In September of 1945 he was transferred back to Company Headquarters, which was then encamped in the small Village of Rosales on the Island of Luzon in the northern Philippines. In October of 1945 Lieutenant Gent went with the Company by boat from San Fernando, a port on the west coast of Luzon, to Wakayama in Japan. He served in Wakayama, Japan, until January of 1946 when he was directed to go to Nagoya, Japan, to board a ship for return to the United States. After a stop at Fort Lawton, Washington, he was ordered to report to Camp Atterbury, Indiana, to be discharged from active duty and to begin his terminal leave in Franklin. He was officially discharged from the service on April 22, 1946, at the end of his terminal leave. For his service overseas, Mr. Gent received the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign medal with two bronze stars and the Philippine Liberation Ribbon with one bronze star. In June of 1946, Mr. Gent, thanks to the G.I. Bill, was accepted as a student at Harvard Law School and graduated from that school on September 18, l948. The G.I. Bill provided for educational expenses of veterans after World War II. He was married to Bette Phillips on September 22, 1948, at St. Patrick Church in Franklin, Pennsylvania, and they had five children, namely, Henry W. Gent, III, Joseph A. Gent, Elizabeth Gent Wallace, Thomas J. Gent and Michael J. Gent. Mr. Gent has ten grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. His wife, Bette, died on November 22, l987. His daughter, Elizabeth Gent Wallace died September 29, 2010. After his graduation from law school, Mr. Gent was then employed by the law firm of Nesbit and Wasson in Franklin, Pennsylvania, to complete the law clerkship which was required in those days. After passing the Pennsylvania bar examination, he was admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the summer of 1949. Shortly thereafter he was employed by the legal office of the United States Department of Agriculture for a year and a half in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He then returned to the law firm of Nesbit and Wasson until November of 1954. At that time he opened his own law practice in the City of Franklin, Venango County, Pennsylvania, and later Attorney Robert Y. Daniels, William J. M. Thompson and Mr. Gent's son, Henry W. Gent, III, joined him in a law partnership under the name of Gent, Daniels, Thompson and Gent. After Attorney Daniels left the firm and Attorney Thompson retired, Michael D. Snyder joined the firm as a partner in l988. As of January 1, 2000, Mr. Gent resigned as a partner of the law firm but continued to practice law in the capacity designated as "Of Counsel" to the law firm until December 31, 2003. Mr. Gent was District Attorney of Venango County for two terms from January, 1962, until January, l970, and during that time was President of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association from the summer of l968 until the summer of l969. Further, Mr. Gent served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Franklin Hospital and was also a member of the Board of Directors of First National Bank of Meadville, later The First National Bank of Pennsylvania. In addition to being a member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Mr. Gent was also a member of the Bar of the following other Courts: The Superior Court of Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Court of Claims in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Mr. Gent is survived by his above named children, the following grandchildren, Erin Gent Kelly, Ryan Gent, Janine Gent Tokar, Joseph Gent, Matthew Gent, Madeline Gent, Christopher Wallace, Harrison Wallace, Henry Allen Gent and Elizabeth Ann Gent, five great-grandchildren, Jane Cassady, Holden Gent,Daniel Tokar, Lilia Tokar, and Jack Kelly, and by his close friend and companion of many years, Shirlee M. Bell. In addition, he is survived by a niece, Sr. Rosanne M. Loneck, and a nephew, Barry Loneck and his wife, Andrea, and their four children, Heather, Gabrielle, Kimberly and Stephanie of Gansevoort, New York. His sister, Mary Gertrude Loneck, predeceased him on March 13, 2006. Family and friends will be received at the Gardinier Funeral Home, Inc., 1315 Chestnut Street, Franklin on Tuesday, January 4, 2011 from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. A Parish Wake Service will be held at the Funeral Home on Tuesday, January 4 at 3:30 p.m. A Funeral Mass will be held at St. Patrick Church on Wednesday, January 5 at 12 noon. with Msgr. Herbein as celebrant. Interment will follow in St. Patrick Cemetery., where full military honors will be accorded by the local V.E.T.S. Honor Guard. The family suggests that memorial contributions be made to St. Patrick School Building Fund - 949 Liberty Street, Franklin PA 16323. Online condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.gardinierfuneralhome.com.