Harold Downey Warram

Harold Warram

Harold Downey Warram, age 94, died on August 11, 2013 in Redlands, CA.

He was born in Betterton, MD, on June 26, 1919, the son of Ernest Nelson Warram and Emma Louise Downey. Most of his early life was spent in Rock Hall, MD. He graduated from Lake Ariel Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist high school in northeastern PA, and attended Washington Missionary College (now Washington Adventist University), Takoma Park, MD.

After college, he followed his father into the business of house painting and wall-papering. He often recalled the pre-high school years in the early 1930s when he would work in the evenings beside his father mixing paint from raw materials.

In the latter years of World War II, he set up his own painting business in Takoma Park, MD, painting exteriors in the spring, summer, and fall, and doing interior painting, wall papering, and driving a Diamond Taxi cab in Washington, DC, during the winter months. His daughter fondly recalls riding around the city at Christmas time looking at all the pretty lights because he knew where the best displays were from driving the cab.

Mr. Warram married Mary Ellen Breech in 1946 and together they had a daughter, Linda, in 1947. In 1959, they separated and subsequently divorced. He then moved to Glendale, California, and started business as a painting contractor there. In 1962, he married Evelyn Rees. They moved to San Bernardino when the new Mrs. Warram—a Registered Nurse—transferred from Glendale Adventist Hospital to Loma Linda University Hospital. They lived in the same home on Gould Street for 50 years before retiring to Linda Valley Villa in February 2012. After Evelyn’s death in 2012, Harold continued living at the Villa until June 2013, when declining health led him to relocate to Pacific Pines Manor in Redlands, where he resided until his death.

In lieu of floral tributes, the family wishes that contributions be sent to the Loma Linda University Trust, in memory of Harold D. Warram.