Bob Harrs

Robert (Bob) Harrs, beloved husband of Mary for more than 62 years; loving father of 6; and doting Papa of 9; left us on Thursday, December 26, 2019 after a fierce fight with lung cancer and pneumonia.

After graduating from Hofstra University and spending 2 years in the US Army, Bob commenced on a 40+-year career in banking, focusing primarily on private trust investment management. His stops included Citibank, National Bank of North America, Manufacturers Hanover and Chase Manhattan Bank. In 1955, as a young bachelor he moved into a brownstone apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where, across the hall, lived Mary Brady, a young woman working at St Vincent’s Hospital. 2 years later they were married and for the next 6 decades, he pursued his true passion in life – being the rock of an amazing family of 6 and the patriarch of a clan of 20 children, grandchildren and children-in-law who all loved him dearly. Friends new and old all spoke of how immediately warm and welcome he made them feel. We all looked to him for advice about things big and small and he served as a role model for all of us.

Bob enjoyed talking politics and history (especially military), was an avid Jeopardy! fan, and of course, loved to bemoan the state of the NY Giants. More than that, though, he was a deeply religious man who served for decades in several roles in the Catholic Parish of Our Lady of Hope. The role that meant the most to him was as a Eucharistic Minister in the church and especially to patients at St. Francis Hospital.

His parting gift to us, his family, was how his last few months gave us the chance to rally around him, show him how much we loved him and how his example as a kind and giving man had inspired us. Christmas will now always be even more special as we renew that love and celebrate this wonderful Husband, Dad and Papa.

We will miss him terribly but we know that he lives among us always.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Bob Harrs, please visit our floral store.