Cullum No. Born on 3 March , of second generation French immigrant parents in northwestern Ohio, Harry Charles Besancon obtained a Congressional appointment to the U. The Academic Department never challenged his abilities, and for four years he freely gave of his talents coaching less-gifted fellow members of "B" Company, the Old Survivors. From Australia to New Guinea, through the Solomons and Gilberts, from first lieutenant to lieutenant colonel, Harry fought on to victory and the occupation of Japan.
Harry continued his military service by commanding Engineer Aviation Groups in postwar France and Germany. Finally, he was Chief of Staff of the Army Weapons Command at Rock Island, Illinois, retiring in in the grade of colonel after 28 years of distinguished service. In retirement, he successfully embraced a number of other careers. Licensed as a registered professional engineer in Illinois and South Carolina, he worked as a consulting engineer in Vietnam during the volatile final years of that war.
He then built, in partnership with his wife, a highly successful business and provided an important service in the locally well-known North Charleston Christian Book Store. Additionally, throughout his post-Army years, he generously donated his engineering expertise, craftsmanship and labor to countless construction projects for charitable organizations, ranging from a school building in Charleston for the Ferndale Baptist Church to retreat centers in Pennsylvania and Colorado for the Officers' Christian Fellowship, an organization for which he was a founding member.
