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Harold L. (Jack) Bliss

 

February 1, 1895 - October 19, 1985
Reference Number: 10304
Submitter:  Grace Elizabeth Bliss Smith, Daughter (#13311)

 

portrait: 1923, age 28

 
Harold L. "Jack" Bliss was born in Plainwell, Allegan County, MI on February 1, 1895.  He was the son of Herbert L. Bliss (#6730) and Mary Elizabeth Buxton.   Mr. Bliss served as a second lieutenant and general's adjutant with the U.S. Army in Panama during World War I and later attended the Detroit College of Law.  After the war, he became co-owner of the Crowells-Bliss Transportation Co., which operated sand boats, tugs, and barges in the Detroit, Port Huron, and Windsor Canada region.  Crowells-Bliss was also responsible for the construction and paving of Gratiot Avenue from Detroit to Mt. Clemens and the Belle Isle Roadway in Detroit.  

By 1940, Mr. Bliss served as general manager of Nicholson Transit Co. of Detroit and in later years, he was a partner and vice president of McQueen Marine Ltd. of Amherstburg, Ontario and of Construction Materials Corporation of Detroit, Toledo, and Cleveland.

Mr. Bliss married W. Dolly Alexander on December 28, 1940 in Toledo.  They had two children:  Grace Elizabeth Bliss and John Warren Bliss.  Mr. Bliss was previously married and divorced in 1927.  There were no children from the first marriage.

Mr. Bliss lived the first twenty years of his life in Plainwell.  After his military service, he lived in the Detroit area until 1961 when he retired and moved to northern Michigan.  He died in Traverse City in 1985.

 

Above: Jack Bliss, age 8; Below: age 21 in Panama