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HARRY N. JACKAWAY

Harry Jackaway:
Was Senior Judge

Harry N. Jackaway of West Hartford, a superior Court judge  for more than 15 years and a trial lawyer in New Britain [CT] for a quarter-century who valued fairness and a sense of humor, died Saturday.  He was 75.
   Nominated by Gov. William A. O'Neil, Jackaway joined the Superior Court bench in 1984.  He became a senior judge after reaching the mandatory retirement age for Superior Court judges, 72.
   Presiding over a 1992 case involving a Hartford woman killed in a fire at the Hartford Region YWCA, Jackaway threw out a jury award of $40,000. believing iyt too low.  Sating the award "shocks the conscience of the court," he raised the amount to $240,000.
   Jackaway sat through his share of tragic and di8fficyult cases in his years on the bench, and as a result appreciated the opportunity for a lighter moment.  During the sentencing of a man in Hartford Superior Court for an assault with a golf club, the defendant pleaded for the return of his 9-iron.
   Jackaway sided with the prosecutor who object strenuously against the return of the club, but

offered some advice to the defendant: "Choke down a little on your 8-iron and open the face a little, and you'll chip just as well."
   Prior to his appointment to the bench, he was an attorney in Berlin [CT] for 25 years before becoming a partner in Eisenberg, Anderson and Jackaway in New Britain.  He was also corporation counsel for the town of Berlin for a number of years.   A U.S. Army veteran of Word War II, he was a 19-yer-old recruit when he and fellow paratroopers were sent into action during the Battle of the Bulge in winter 1944.  He took great comfort in the fact that his commanding officer was "right there alongside us on this bitter day."  Years later, he found the address of the division's commanding officer, Maj. Gen. James Gavin, and wrote to remind  him of that day and what his leadership had meant.  Gavin wrote back.
   After The Courant ran a story in 1994, 50 years after that memorable battle in Europe, on the action and its veterans, Jackaway thanked Gavin again in a letter to9 the editor for his kindness and bravery.
   Born in New Britain, he retired as a major in the U.S. Army Reserve.

[Hartford Courant, Hartford, CT, Tue, Jan 2, 1979. Page 66]

Draft record  for Harry N. Jackaway ca 1943 in Connecticut.

Harry enlisted in the Army at Hartford, CT on 18 August 1943.  The records indicate the had completed one year of college.

That educational level may have been what propelled him into OCS. 

On 2 November, 1st Lt. Jackaway was transferred from 82nd Airborne Division Hq to Hq 1st, 508th PIR.