Walter
Walter Charles Huffell
d. January 5, 2012
Visitation Pelham Funeral Home on Sunday from 2-4 and 6-9pm
Funeral Service at Funeral Home on Monday at 10am
Interment Ferncliff Mausoleum, Hartsdale, NY
Died January 5, 2012
Walter Charles Huffell, 81, beloved husband, father and grandfather, passed away peacefully on Thursday, January 5,2012, at Calvary Hospital. He was a long time
resident of City Island, a member of Morris Yacht and Beach Club, and former Fleet Captain and Recording Secretary of Stuyvesant Yacht Club. Before retiring in 1992 he enjoyed sailing his 30' Ericson, "Ms. Twink", around Eastchester Bay and Long Island Sound.
He was a native of England and as a young boy in London during World War II he experienced the air raids, bombings, backyard bomb shelters and food shortages of a
nation at w,ar. He and his sister Doreen were among the thousands of children who were evacuated to the English countryside to keep them out of harm's way as Adolph
Hitler's V2 rockets set London on fire, while their older brother Jack fought the war as a British commando and ultimately helped liberate one of the Nazi death camps.
Walter's father, John Henry Huffell, was a radio operator aboard a merchant vessel during World War I. The ship was torpedoed and John Henry spent a long period in cold ocean waters before being rescued. The ordeal left his lungs in a weakened condition and he thereafter suffered bouts of pneumonia that required his being hospitalized. He was thus incapacitated when the evacuation of Dunkirk occurred in 1940, and with hundreds of thousands of allied troops being rescued from the beaches by a flotilla of more than 800 ships that included destroyers, merchant marine vessels, fishing boats, life boats and pleasure craft, the hospitals were quickly filled with the
wounded - beds were needed so John Henry was sent home, where he died at the age of 46.
But John Henry was a freemason, and his death entitled his son Walter to a full scholarship at the Royal Masonic School. It was there that Walter got his education and
went on to serve in the British military as a First Lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps from 1948 to 1950. He subsequently migrated to the United States and forged a career in data processing, honing his skills at Crocker Bank in San Francisco, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York, and the New York Clearing House.
Walter had a favorite poem entitled "The Soldier" by Rupert Brooke. It began: "lf I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field that is
forever England ..." He was laid to rest on January 9, 2012 in the Rosewood Mausoleum, Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.
He is survived by his wife Paula, daughter and son-in law, Susan and Robert Laga, granddaughters Michelle and Jennifer Laga, sister Doreen Amer of the U.K., and
numerous nieces and nephews around the globe. He was dearly loved and is greatly missed.
Funeral Service at Funeral Home on Monday at 10am
Interment Ferncliff Mausoleum, Hartsdale, NY
Died January 5, 2012
Walter Charles Huffell, 81, beloved husband, father and grandfather, passed away peacefully on Thursday, January 5,2012, at Calvary Hospital. He was a long time
resident of City Island, a member of Morris Yacht and Beach Club, and former Fleet Captain and Recording Secretary of Stuyvesant Yacht Club. Before retiring in 1992 he enjoyed sailing his 30' Ericson, "Ms. Twink", around Eastchester Bay and Long Island Sound.
He was a native of England and as a young boy in London during World War II he experienced the air raids, bombings, backyard bomb shelters and food shortages of a
nation at w,ar. He and his sister Doreen were among the thousands of children who were evacuated to the English countryside to keep them out of harm's way as Adolph
Hitler's V2 rockets set London on fire, while their older brother Jack fought the war as a British commando and ultimately helped liberate one of the Nazi death camps.
Walter's father, John Henry Huffell, was a radio operator aboard a merchant vessel during World War I. The ship was torpedoed and John Henry spent a long period in cold ocean waters before being rescued. The ordeal left his lungs in a weakened condition and he thereafter suffered bouts of pneumonia that required his being hospitalized. He was thus incapacitated when the evacuation of Dunkirk occurred in 1940, and with hundreds of thousands of allied troops being rescued from the beaches by a flotilla of more than 800 ships that included destroyers, merchant marine vessels, fishing boats, life boats and pleasure craft, the hospitals were quickly filled with the
wounded - beds were needed so John Henry was sent home, where he died at the age of 46.
But John Henry was a freemason, and his death entitled his son Walter to a full scholarship at the Royal Masonic School. It was there that Walter got his education and
went on to serve in the British military as a First Lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps from 1948 to 1950. He subsequently migrated to the United States and forged a career in data processing, honing his skills at Crocker Bank in San Francisco, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York, and the New York Clearing House.
Walter had a favorite poem entitled "The Soldier" by Rupert Brooke. It began: "lf I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field that is
forever England ..." He was laid to rest on January 9, 2012 in the Rosewood Mausoleum, Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.
He is survived by his wife Paula, daughter and son-in law, Susan and Robert Laga, granddaughters Michelle and Jennifer Laga, sister Doreen Amer of the U.K., and
numerous nieces and nephews around the globe. He was dearly loved and is greatly missed.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Walter Charles Huffell, please visit our flower store.
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