Russell A. Harvey, 105, of Philadelphia, a decorated World War II veteran once honored as the oldest man in the city, died Friday, Jan. 8, of pneumonia at Chestnut Hill Hospital.
Mr. Harvey always lived in his hometown and was celebrated for his selflessness, patriotism, and longevity. He quit high school to help provide for his family in the 1930s. He sought out fellow military veterans to support after World War II and represented them proudly at public events.
And at 103 and counting, he was feted by Mayor Jim Kenney at the 2019 Mayor’s Centenarian Celebration for 100-year-olds.
“He always talked of how hard it was for him growing up, how it instilled a toughness in him,” said Mr. Harvey’s grandson, Terence Dixon. “But he was a gentle, soft-spoken guy. He always tried to do the right thing. He always said, ‘I do the best I can.'”
Mr. Harvey was born in October 1915. He grew up in Germantown and dropped out of school after ninth grade to work odd jobs after his father died. Starting at 16, he laid railroad tracks, sold blocks of ice on the street, and worked construction jobs.
He went on to tend bar, and work for more than 10 years as a toll collector at the Willow Grove exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. In a tribute, his family said: “From these jobs he developed an impeccable work ethic that would carry him the rest of his life.”
Mr. Harvey met his future wife, Vivian, in their Germantown neighborhood, and they married in September 1943. They spent the next 74 years together until her death in 2017, and he liked to note that she was honored by the Urban League and was the first Black woman to work at Bell Telephone. After his service in the Army, the pair lived in East Mount Airy.
Mr. Harvey was recognized with the Army Good Conduct Medal and several theater and victory ribbons for his service from 1943-46. He liked to wear his Army hat to the many veterans events he attended, and he supported groups such as Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans.
Celebrity came to Mr. Harvey on May 29, 2019, when he was recognized by the mayor’s office, according to Social Security records, as the oldest man in Philadelphia. In an interview published in the Chestnut Hill Local after that event, Mr. Harvey recalled dodging horses and wagons on city streets as a kid, and whiling away Saturday afternoons at the Colonial movie theater on Germantown Avenue.
Mr. Harvey loved baseball and played as a youth in an all-Black city league. He was a fix-it man who wouldn’t throw anything away until he was convinced he could not repair it. He cut his lawn and cleared the snow until recently. He liked to linger at the Reading Terminal Market, and often joked with the merchants that he was there when their fathers first opened the shops 70 years ago.
He dressed well as a rule, and a Philadelphia Magazine article described him at the 2019 Mayor’s Centenarian Celebration. “He wore a long black suit, striped black tie, and a pocket square, and looked more like an octogenarian than a centenarian,” the story said.
He credited tap water (“Schuylkill punch,” he called it) as a key to his long life, and his advice for married couples was to “pull together.”
“He just kept going,” his grandson said. “When I asked him to slow down or not do something, he would look at me and say, ‘I got this.'”
In addition to his grandson, Mr. Harvey is survived by his daughter, Constance Johnson; son Albert Dixon; two grandchildren; and other relatives. His four siblings died earlier.
A private service was held Monday, Jan. 18.
Donations in his name may be made to the Disabled American Veterans, 5000 Wissahickon Ave., Phila., Pa. 19144.
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