Harry Conrad Poston, Jr.

Harry Conrad Poston, Jr. passed from this earthly life and entered Heaven at the age of 74 on March 13, 2024. He was born in Roanoke, Virginia on August 2, 1949, the son of Nell Coleman Ragland, of Richmond, Virginia, and the late Harry C. Poston, Sr., formerly of Eden, North Carolina. Harry will be missed by the love of his life and wife of more than 50 years, Nancy, and his three children: son Brian of Stow, Ohio, and twin daughters Ann Barnett (JaNette) of Shaker Heights, Ohio, and Amy Dieterle (Chris) of Delaware, Ohio. He will also be greatly missed by his grandchildren–who know him as “Grandpa,” “Pa,” or “Pop-pop”–whom he adored with great pride. His six grandchildren: Caleb Barnett [27] (Amy) of South Euclid, Ohio; Kaleb Poston [23] of Streetsboro, Ohio; Bailey Poston [19] of Bowling Green, Ohio and Stow, Ohio; Peyton Poston [16] of Stow, Ohio; Emory Barnett [11] of Shaker Heights, Ohio; and, Drew Dieterle [4] of Delaware, Ohio. He is also survived by his sister, Lynn Poston of Henrico, Virginia, and her family. Harry (affectionately known as “Conrad” as a child) was raised in the small, textile mill town of Fieldale, Virginia, near the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was there that he started his faith journey, by first joining Fieldale United Methodist Church and then becoming active in its youth programs. In 1967, Harry graduated from Fieldale-Collinsville High School. After graduation, he left Henry County, Virginia for Flint, Michigan to attend General Motors Institute (now Kettering Institute), a co-op engineering college that brought him to Hudson, Ohio every eight weeks to work at TEREX, General Motors’ earth moving equipment division. He would go on to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering in 1973. In the summer of 1972, Harry’s “Little Brother,” in his Theta Xi college fraternity, invited Harry on a blind date with a woman whom he was working with that summer; her name was Nancy Conners. He agreed, and Harry and Nancy met at the Cuyahoga County Fair; their connection was instant. That weekend, Harry even met Nancy’s parents and grandma. Then, after Harry returned from a five-day business trip, he proposed–just nine days after they first met. They married one year later, on June 16, 1973—just one week after Nancy graduated from Mount Union College with a Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Education. Fifty years later, Nancy and Harry celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary (June 16, 2024) on a seven-day Disney cruise to Alaska—with all their children and grandchildren by their side. Harry has always been a natural-born leader, even at an early age. As a high school and college student, Harry served in many leadership positions, including: Class President (‘67) of Fieldale-Collinsville High School; leadership offices (including President) in the Kappa Sigma Chapter of Theta Xi Fraternity–a place that became his home away from home during college; coaching positions in various youth sports leagues; leadership roles in the YMCA Indian Guides and Indian Maidens; lay leadership positions and Deacon in the church; Advisor in Hudson Job Search; involvement with the Boy Scouts of America at both a troop and district level; and, leadership positions in Hudson’s Masonic Lodge—recently transferring his membership to Hiram Lodge 18, where he was just presented with a 45-year pin. Professionally, Harry also found himself in leadership roles, regardless of the organization or associated job title; he worked for more than 40 years before retiring in 2012 at the age of 62-1/2 years old. Over the years, he held titles of Regional Parts Manager, Supervisor, Parts Sales Manager, Plant Manager, Operations Manager, Materials Manager, and Vice President of Operations for various companies, including TEREX GM, Swagelok, Nutro, VRC, Detroit Diesel, and Daimler Trucks North America. Throughout the decades of his work, his greatest joy came when he was able to hire the best individuals for the job, and then get out of their way so they could get the job done. While his faith journey started for Harry as a young boy, he decided to strengthen it more fully almost five decades later when he became involved with Walk to Emmaus. He then served in various leadership roles and humbly led a Walk Weekend of his own–an experience that left him with such a strong faith renewal upon his own life that he shared it with all whom he encountered afterward. Around this same time, after all three children had graduated college, Harry and Nancy drew up a bucket list of destinations to visit. They quickly started checking places off the list–and became Disney fanatics through cruising adventures and trips to the parks. It’s no surprise to anyone that Goofy quickly became Harry’s very favorite Disney character. Within this same time, Harry was first diagnosed with Chronic Lymphoblastic Leukemia (CLL) in 2006, but he did not face his first treatment until 2014. But given the news, Harry and Nancy took that bucket list and compressed their 10-year-plan into a 5-year-plan to take advantage of this window of opportunity (and grace). Soon, they sailed and traveled across the globe, from Alaska to Hawaii, to the Caribbean, to the Panama Canal. From the Baltic Sea to the United Kingdom, to Norway, and to Iceland. They also escaped the Ohio weather for four to eight weeks at a time each year by staying in their Disney Vacation Club property at Saratoga Springs in Orlando. Then, a second cancer emerged as Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and with it, brought complications and treatment programs. Thankfully, it was in remission by 2019; however, Harry and Nancy knew they needed to be closer to the leading medical facility: The James Center of The Ohio State University Medical Institute in Columbus, Ohio. They moved shortly thereafter to Delaware, Ohio. By 2021, metastatic squamous cell carcinoma (head and neck cancer) required radical surgery. Then, by mid-2023, other areas of his body were being affected by this carcinoma, and scans were showing a prostate cancer diagnosis as well. By the fall of 2023, doctors had no other treatment options for Harry, and he was placed into home Hospice care with Capital City Hospice–told he had only two to six months to live. Through Harry’s strong faith and will to live, he made life possible for weeks past that six-month diagnosis, taking his final breath in the early morning hours of Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Throughout his 17 years of fighting cancer, Harry always reflected a positive attitude and never let a moment go by without sharing his faith with others. As he would say, “…either way I win,” for with life, he had the love of his life and the love of his children and grandchildren, but with death came the triumph of finally winning the cancer battle and the opportunity to sit with Jesus in Heaven, free of the disease. In lieu of flowers and other remembrances, donations may be made to either: The Local Mission Work of Powell United Methodist Church, 825 Olentangy Street, Powell, Ohio, 43065 (OR) The General Fund of Northampton United Methodist Church, 852 W. Bath Road, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44223. Family visitation will be on Monday, March 18, 2024, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Rutherford Funeral Home at Powell, located at 450 West Olentangy Street, Powell, OH 43065. On Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 12 noon, a Celebration of Life worship service will be held at Northampton United Methodist Church, located at 852 West Bath Road, Cuyahoga Falls 44223, Ohio. Family visitation will be held one hour before the service, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. A light lunch will be provided immediately following the service in the church’s fellowship hall. A private burial of Harry’s cremated remains will occur at a late date. He will be buried at Markillie Cemetery in Hudson, Ohio, next to his mother- and father-in-law, whom he affectionally called, “Mom” and “Dad.” Arrangements have been entrusted to Rutherford Funeral Home at Powell. I

Harry Conrad Poston, Jr.

August 2, 1949 - March 13, 2024