Joel H. Harris, 76

Marlborough - Joel H. "Joe" Harris, 76, formerly of Wayland, died Monday, July 23, 2007 after a 20-year struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

He leaves his wife of 49 years, Ellie (Shorey) Harris; his daughter, Jennifer Durant and her husband, Todd; his sons, Joel Harris and his wife, Natalie, and James Harris and his wife, Kerry; his siblings, George Harris III, Judith Reed and Marilyn Brown; his grandchildren, Morgan, Phoebe and Madeline Harris, Hannah Sweeney Harris and Callan Sweeney Harris; and nephews and nieces.

Born in Longmeadow, the son of George and Madeline (Hodsdon) Harris Jr., he moved to Manchester, N.H., in 1944. He was a graduate of Manchester Central High School and Kimball Union Academy in Claremont, N.H. In 1953, he received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from University of New Hampshire, where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. In 1958, he moved to Wayland where he and his wife raised their family in a cherished old home on Bow Road.

Mr. Harris, a U.S. Army veteran, specialized in radar instruction during the Korean War. He was a design engineer for 35 years at GTE Sylvania in Waltham, Westborough, Needham and Billerica, before retiring in 1987 due to the onset of his illness.

He was a devoted family man who enjoyed skiing, fishing and inventing. He will be remembered as a unique and creative individual who made a priority of enjoying the outdoors with his family and friends, particularly in Waterville Valley, N.H., and China Lake, Maine. Since January 1999, he was in residence at the GRECC dementia unit at the Edith Nourse Rogers Veterans Hospital in Bedford, where he received kind and compassionate care, a great source of comfort to his family.

A memorial service will be held in the fall. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of the Fitzgerald & Collins Funeral Home of Marlborough. Instead of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Voluntary Services at ENRMH (Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Hospital), 200 Springs Rd., Bedford, MA 01730 or to the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences/UNH, University of New Hampshire, 9 Edgewood Rd., Durham, NH 03824.