Harry P. Sykes, 85, WWII vet, entrepreneur

Harry P. Sykes, 85, of Warrington, a retired company vice president and World War II veteran who was awarded two Purple Hearts and a Silver Star, died of heart failure Sept. 3 at his home.

Mr. Sykes grew up in Germantown and graduated from Northeast Catholic High School. He wanted to fly Navy planes but was color-blind, so he ended up in the Army, his family said. He served in the Pacific with the Sixth Ranger Battalion, and fought on Kwajalein and Manus Islands and in the invasion of Leyte in the Philippines.

Mr. Sykes earned his first Purple Heart and the Silver Star when he volunteered to move casualties to safety during a combat operation. According to an Army citation, he rescued one wounded man and returned to rescue a second even after being knifed in the face and a shoulder by a Japanese soldier.

Mr. Sykes earned his second Purple Heart in October 1944. While on patrol, his squad came under heavy fire. The men on either side of him were killed, and he was severely wounded in the left leg. He waited eight hours to be rescued, then endured a typhoon at sea, a bout of malaria, and stays in several hospitals before arriving at a military hospital in Virginia. There surgeons operated 20 times to save his leg.

After a 33-month recovery, he was discharged with the rank of sergeant. His left leg was now four inches shorter than his right and he wore a special shoe. The disability didn't stop him from attending a church dance in Logan, where he met his future wife, Dolores McFadden.

In recent years, Mr. Sykes used a cane and occasionally a wheelchair. He always had a lot of pain but never complained, his son James said. He had tremendous courage and kept his sense of humor, his son said.

Mr. Sykes earned a bachelor's degree from La Salle University on the GI Bill. For more than 30 years he was a sales agent for Franklin Container, a corrugated-box company. He supplied flattened boxes to the DuPont Co. to pad tractor trailers and rail cars carrying chemicals, and decided there was a need for a better product to protect loads, his son said.

In 1980, he became partner in Walnut Industries in Bensalem. There he helped develop Ty-Gard, a patented industrial-strength cargo restraint and load-securement system. Besides chemical and hazardous-materials firms, Ty-Gard customers included beverage companies, Anheuser-Busch, and Coca-Cola. He retired in 1998.

In addition to his wife of 57 years and son, Mr. Sykes is survived by daughters Kathleen Moran and Nancy Xavios; sons John and Kevin; a sister; and 10 grandchildren.

Friends may call from 6 to 8 p.m. today and 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. tomorrow, with a Funeral Mass at 11:30, at St. Robert Bellarmine Church, 856 Euclid Ave., Warrington. Burial will be in St. John Neumann Cemetery, Chalfont.