Harrison A. Glasgow

Harrison A. Glasgow was born in Chicago and raised in its northern suburbs, graduating from Lake Forest High School. After majoring in history at the University of Illinois, Harry joined the U.S. Army and served three years in intelligence in Turkey and the Army Intelligence Training Center at Fort Devens in Massachusetts. At the conclusion of his enlistment, Harry became a civilian employee of the Intelligence Training Center and served there until 1989, when the base closed and intelligence operations were consolidated in southern Arizona. Given the choice of moving to Arizona or moving to the hotbed of intelligence in Washington, he moved to Virginia because he preferred the East Coast. In Virginia, he served in various intelligence positions with the Army and national three-letter agencies until his retirement in July 2001. He was very proud of his service and contribution to the nation. Back in 1989, when Harry moved to Virginia, he believed that it was only a temporary change of residence and that he would move back to New England upon his retirement. He had been an active conservation volunteer with Mass Audubon, Mount Wachusett, and the Town of Ashburnham. However, once he discovered Huntley Meadows Park in Fairfax County, he forgot all about returning to Massachusetts and became a devoted volunteer for the park. Harry traced his love of the outdoors, and birds specifically, to the summer camps he attended in Ely, Minnesota on the Boundary Waters. He was enchanted by the haunting call of the Common Loon. Harry devoted his retirement years to the conviction that we must protect our natural world. To this end, he associated himself with local government agencies whose missions most closely aligns to this end. In Fairfax County government, these agencies are the Park Authority, the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District, and the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services. He served in volunteer positions with all of these, as well as other groups, in the hope of making a difference in the environmental wellbeing of his community. Harry also served as a Board Director on The Thoreau Society based in Concord, Massachusetts. The Thoreau Society exists to stimulate interest in and foster education about Thoreau’s life, works, legacy and his place in his world and in ours, challenging all to live a deliberate, considered life. Upon moving to Manassas in Prince William County to be with Nancy Vehrs, he joined the Prince William Soil and Water Conservation District as an associate director; the Prince William Conservation Alliance, where he was its representative on the Potomac Watershed Roundtable; and the Solid Waste Citizens Advisory Group. The Prince William Ducks Unlimited honored Harry and Nancy with its 2019 Conservationist of the Year award. The PWCA presented him with its 2019 Wildlife Hero Award. In 2013, the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust named Harry the “Fairfax Conservationist of the Year.” Harry was honored as recipient of the 2016 Sally Ormsby Environmental Stewardship Award for years of dedicated service to Huntley Meadows Park. In 2021, the National Association of County Parks and Recreation Officials selected Harry with the NACPRO Outstanding Contributor Award for devoting his retirement to protecting the natural world, including service on the Fairfax County Park Authority Board and Park Foundation Board. Harry contributed countless volunteer hours to park advocacy, scholarship funding, land acquisition, and environmental education. Until Harry’s health declined, he seldom passed an opportunity to take a walk in a park – his favorites were Huntley Meadows and Manassas Battlefield – with those who wanted to know more about nature and the world around them – birds, trees, insects, plants, soil – and how they all work together. He very much enjoyed his role as “First Dude” of the Virginia Native Plant Society, of which Nancy is the president. Survivors include his loving companion Nancy Vehrs, two daughters, Debbie Burns (David) of North Grafton, Massachusetts and Cindy Ottaviani (John) of North Andover, Massachusetts, as well as grandsons Jake and Nick Ottaviani and Ethan and Liam Burns. Planning for a memorial service is underway. In lieu of flowers, mourners may donate to the conservation organization of their choice.

Harrison A. Glasgow

June 11, 1940 - December 2, 2025