Lee A. Harvin Sr.
Retired Maryland Transit official was also head of Metro
Lee A. Harvin Sr., who began his career as a bus driver and later became superintendent of Metro, the Maryland Transit Administration’s subway rail division, died April 5 of complications after hip surgery at Northwest Hospital. The Windsor Mill resident was 82.
“Anybody you speak to will tell you what a great influence Lee was in their lives,” said Dennis C. Keys, a Northwest Baltimore resident and an MTA colleague. “I got the very best when I went to work for him. Lee was my mentor and he was my tutor. He had been my supervisor on the bus side as well as a good friend.”
William T. Lovelace worked for the transit administration for 44 years, rising from a bus driver to a dispatcher, and eventually becoming secretary of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1300.
“Lee was one of the best, if not the best,” said Mr. Lovelace, an Ellicott City resident. “I’m telling you he was one of the best guys I’ve ever met. If I had any decision to make about my MTA livelihood, I went to Lee. You’d want him to help you make those decisions.”
Lee Abraham Harvin, son of Alonza Harvin, a glass factory worker, and his wife, Marie G. Harvin, a stay-at-home parent, was born in Summerton, South Carolina, and during his teenage years moved to Mount Winans and then lived in Cherry Hill before moving to a home they purchased on Linnard Street in Edmondson Village.
During his high school years at George Washington Carver Vocational High School, Mr. Harvin sold newspapers and was an orderly at what is now University of Maryland Medical Center.
After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Army in 1955 and was trained as a marksman and an M-14 rifle sharpshooter. He served in Korea and Germany before being discharged in 1966.
“Lee is remembered for his colorful stories about his military experiences, most notably that “You don’t know COLD until you’ve been to Korea!” wrote a nephew, Dr. Durant K. Harvin III, in an email profile of his uncle.
The elder Mr. Harvin began his 38-year career with the Baltimore Metropolitan Transit Authority, which later became the Mass Transit Administration and now the Maryland Transit Administration, as a bus driver for the old Baltimore Transit Co. He later became a supervisor in the bus division and with the coming of the Metro subway system, he was named superintendent of the Mass Transit Administration’s Heavy Rail Division, which oversaw operation of the subway system, which opened for service in November 1983.
In 1982, Mr. Harvin left his bus supervisory role and joined the subway operation as supervisor of operations.
“I got into trains because I love this. It’s exciting. It’s new. I can get in on the ground floor,” he told The Sun in a 1983 interview.
After 17 years of working with transit buses, Mr. Harvin welcomed a chance to be a part of the new subway operation, his nephew said in a telephone interview.
“Lee was in charge of all the operators,” Mr. Keys said. “I guess he had 35 or 40 operators, as we operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” Mr. Harvin explained to The Sun: “We can accelerate from zero to 70 miles an hour in 50 seconds.”
The newspaper said: “Mr. Harvin is like a kid with a new toy when he sits behind the computerized controls of his 76,000-pound train. Where his bus averaged about12 miles an hour, he expects his train to average about 40. Where he could idle on the bus for minutes in a traffic jam, smelling fumes and trying to outmaneuver other drivers, his view from Metro’s cockpit is open track.
“From instrument-bedecked cockpits at either end of the train, he can monitor every system aboard it. At the end of the line, he walks to the opposite end of the train to lead the return trip.”
The one fear he had was of an errant child or a commuter stepping onto the rails in front of an onrushing train or coming into contact with the third rail, which supplies 700 volts of electricity needed for subway operation. “You don’t stop 76,000 pounds in a few feet,” he told The Sun.
“Lee was well-liked,” Mr. Lovelace said. “He allowed you to make decisions and he’d not overrule you. It was your decision and he stood behind you. That was one of the many good things he did as a supervisor.”
Mr. Harvin earned the nickname of “Boss-man,” family members said.
“He was a wonderful person and a true friend,” said Mr. Keys, who retired from the MTAin 2013. “If I did something wrong, he wasn’t afraid to approach me and I appreciated that. He was a man who held no grudges. Headmonished meand10 minutes later we were back being good friends again.” Mr. Harvin retired in 2005.
A fastidiously well-dressed man, he “had a proud and confident stroll to go along with it,” his nephew wrote, and was rarely seen without a hat from his haberdashery collection.
In 1970, Mr. Harvin married the former Marie Cook, and through the years their Windsor Mill home was the site of holiday parties, summer cookouts, and family gatherings. He also looked forward to the planning and strategy for the biannual Gipson/Gindon family reunions, which he also attended.
He was a jazz buff and a fan of the blues, and was admired for his vast knowledge of vintage automobiles, which he could identify on sight, and regularly attended the annual auto show with family members.
He and his wife were longtime active communicants of St. Gregory the Great Roman Catholic Church, where they enjoyed traveling with a group to Greece, Alaska and Caribbean islands.
Mr. Harvin, who sang with the men’s choir, had also been president of the church’s men’s club and had been a member of the parish council.
There will be a visitation from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Wylie Funeral Home, 9200 Liberty Road, Randallstown. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, only 10 mourners will be permitted in the funeral home at a time. Services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at the funeral home for the immediate family only. The services will be streamed; for further information, call the funeral home at 410-655-9200.
In addition to his wife of 50 years and his nephew, Mr. Harvin is survived by two sons, Lee A. Harvin Jr. of Philadelphia and Brian Anthony Harvin of Westminster; three daughters, Denita Kelly of Glen Burnie, Niki Anderson of Ashburton and Lea Nicole of Greensboro, North Carolina; two sisters, Willagean H. Johnson of Mount Washington and Odessa Patterson of SandtownWinchester; five grandchildren; two greatgrandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.