Erie-area vets find friendship at age 94
ERIE, Pa. — Dick Donnelly and Stuart Garnow could have met 75 years ago, when both men were stationed near Pearl Harbor toward the end of World War II.
Donnelly was a Marine who was hospitalized after returning from Iwo Jima, while Garnow was in the Navy, working in a warehouse.
“We were about 10 city blocks from each other at the time,” Donnelly said.
But the two 94-year-old men wouldn’t meet until 2016, when Garnow moved into Parkside North East. Donnelly and his wife had moved into the senior living community a few months earlier.
Now the two veterans are almost inseparable. They sit near each other, as close as covid-19 protocols allow, in Parkside’s lobby and talk about the war, their families and anything else that comes to mind.
“I moved in two doors down from Dick and his wife,” Garnow said as both men sat on a bench outside the North East facility. “We talked about work, then I asked where he fought the war. That’s when we found out we were in the same place.”
Donnelly was one of five brothers from Sharon who enlisted in the Marines after their oldest brother was drafted into the Army. He was just 17 when he became one of the youngest Marines to be promoted to private first class.
Garnow also was 17 when he enlisted in the Navy, even though he had just completed his sophomore year at North East High School – which was in the same building that how houses Parkside.
“We wanted to see what the war was all about,” Garnow said. “Plus, they promised we could graduate when we came back. And I did. … I came back when I was 20 and went with all the other servicemen to Erie Tech.”
Both men worked most of their lives in the Erie area. Donnelly spent 43 years with Hammermill Paper Co., eventually serving as the person who set the salary structure for all management employees.
“I applied there not even knowing that Hammermill made paper,” Donnelly said with a laugh. “I was just looking for a job. They gave me a job in production control.”
Garnow learned how to fix electronic equipment, including early computers, and worked for TRW as a service technician for 37 years.
Though the two friends occasionally talk about their jobs, the conversation often drifts back to their time in the war. Garnow was trained as a metalsmith and learned how to weld underwater.
But an incident on a dock at Pearl Harbor in 1944 changed those plans.
“A bunch of us were milling around and the chief petty officer comes out and asks if we’d like something to do,” Garnow said. “He took us to the dock where all these cardboard boxes were stacked. He told us to sort them all out.
“We got it all done in just four hours,” Garnow added. “They were impressed enough to ask me if I wanted to work in the warehouse with 20 guys under me. I did that until the end of the war.”
Donnelly, who took part in fierce fighting at Iwo Jima, said his friend often downplays his role in the war.
“He sounds almost apologetic about being stuck in the warehouse during the war,” Donnelly said. “I look him right in the eyes and tell him that I would have traded places with him anytime.”
Garnow, who never married, has been a valuable friend to Donnelly, especially since Donnelly’s wife, Eddie, died in March 2019.
Getting together with Garnow helps break up the monotony of the day, said Donnelly’s daughter, Brynn Barnhart.
“I think it has helped keep Dad alert,” Barnhart said. “They’ve become closer since Mom passed away.”
As the men posed for photos, Donnelly playfully grabbed Garnow’s shoulder and pretended to kiss his cheek.
“It’s good to have someone to talk to,” Donnelly said. “I know that if I tell my story wrong, he’s heard it often enough to correct me.”