EAST LIVERMORE – Henry Delano Taylor, 98, a resident of East Livermore, passed away Thursday, August 12, 2021, at his home, surrounded by his loving family. He was born January 28, 1923, in Springfield, Massachusetts, the son of Clifton H. Taylor and Gladys A. (Green) Taylor. He attended Emmanuel Congregational Church in Springfield when he was young and said he was good at memorizing the names of the books of the Bible. As a youth he worked in tobacco fields for 25 cents a day and delivered newspapers on his bicycle, even in 20 degree below zero weather. Henry was a graduate of Springfield Central High School. Henry was drafted into the United States Army in 1943 at the age of twenty. He was assigned to basic training as a part of the 97th Infantry Division, Headquarters Company, Field Artillery Battalion and received the rank of Private First Class. He completed nine months with a unit at Texas A&M University before being assigned to the 12th Armored Division (known as the Hellcats) at Camp Barkley. He was then sent overseas in October 1944 to Eastern France near Nancy, where his Division was engaged in the Battle of Herrlisheim. There he was involved with the maintenance of military vehicles, ensuring that they were operational for use by the ground forces involved in heavy combat. He was an avid photographer during the war and captured many enduring, priceless historical records of what he witnessed, some of which have been published in Hellcat bulletins. In April 1945 he received notification that he was accepted into Officer Candidate School in Fontainebleau, France, where he completed his service in the Army. An interview on his war time experience can be viewed at the 12th Armored Division Memorial Museum, online oral histories. In 1951 he received a mechanical engineering degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he astonished his professors by devising a novel approach to solving a complex engineering problem much faster. He married his wife of 69 years, Elizabeth Larson, at Beacon Hill in Boston in 1950 and together they raised five very blessed and thankful children. After graduation, Henry became an engineer at General Electric at Lynn, Massachusetts. His career would take him and his family to Schenectady New York where he worked on fuel rod controls for the NERVA nuclear rocket engine and later to Pontiac Michigan where he worked for Vickers designing hydraulic fin stabilizers used on military ships and luxury yachts and was awarded with several patents. Henry was an avid private airplane pilot, achieving an instrument rating and taking his family on many cross country trips, often eventful, in his Cessna 172 and 182 airplanes. Upon retirement, he and his wife Elizabeth moved from Michigan to Maine, where he designed and had built an innovative and beautiful house, which he heated solely by a wood stove, on a 30-acre parcel of wooded land on the Androscoggin River on the site of an old ferry landing. Henry was blessed with nearly forty years of healthy retirement, where he was vigorously active in many pursuits. He loved riding his 1958 Massey Ferguson tractor, using it to cultivate several acres of field and gardens, to plow a nearly half-mile road to the house in the severe Maine winters, and to run a wood splitter he built to prepare firewood. He loved surveying the property and researching old deeds, discovering that one of his French ancestors lived on part of his land before the Civil War. He also loved to research the history of Livermore Falls area and its ferries and caught an error in one of the history books on the location of an old ferry and made the local newspaper. He was also an avid researcher into genealogy and created charts and several volumes of historical material showing for example his ancestors who came to America on the Mayflower. He particularly enjoyed developing theories on gaps in the genealogical records and took many trips to historical societies along the East Coast. He was an active member of the 12th Armored Division Association and lived to be one of its oldest surviving members and attended nearly every reunion over the past thirty years. Henry could fix anything. Growing up in the Great Depression, he learned the importance of making things last and doing things economically. He bought old cars for his kids when they were young and fixed them up. The first new car he ever bought, a 1967 Impala convertible, is now a collector’s item in spite of accidents incurred by each of his five children. On his massive 19th century metal lathe in his garage, he could fabricate almost any part. He was an ardent motorcycle enthusiast and maintained his 1941 Indian, which he bought for $25 after the war, and which he continued to ride well into his 80’s. But more cherished by his children than any of these achievements and hobbies of this brilliant, independent, energetic and sometimes stubborn man was his wonderful sense of humor and his love for his family. He was a man deeply loved by his entire family and he will be deeply missed. Ultimately, he placed his faith and eternal hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is survived by three daughters, Susan Wiley and husband Michael of Manchester, Michigan, Sally Taylor and husband Brian Kamine of Rolling Hills, California, and Catherine Taylor of East Livermore; two sons, Clifton Taylor and wife Jaye of Hemet, California, and John Taylor and wife Bernadette of Amman, Jordan; 6 grandchildren, Erin and Anne Wiley, Benjamin and Sara Kamine, Brandi Sullivan and Angela Meyers; 4 great-grandchildren, Joshua and Shane Bruley and Taylor and Savannah Meyers. He was predeceased by his wife, Elizabeth L. Taylor and his granddaughter, Shannon Taylor. Messages of condolence may be sent to: http://www.finleyfuneralhome.com. Funeral services will be held at 3 PM on Saturday, August 28, 2020, at Trinity United Methodist Church, 612 Farmington Falls Road, Farmington, Maine. Arrangements by FINLEY FUNERAL HOME, 15 Church Street, Livermore Falls, Maine. Interment will be held at a later date at Maine Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 163 Mount Vernon Road, Augusta, Maine.

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