Harvey Louis Rittenhouse

STERLING – Dr. Harvey Louis Rittenhouse was born in Takoma, Washington on December 8, 1918 and passed to his rest at his home on Kendall Hill Road, Sterling, Massachusetts on February 11, 2012. He was the third of five children born to Sidney and Lilly Rittenhouse.

His father was a Seventh-day Adventist minister and they moved frequently from church to church. He lived in Washington, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and New York. He attended Atlantic Union College in So. Lancaster, Massachusetts and graduated from Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California in 1943.

World War II was in progress and he was immediately taken into the Army where he served as a Captain in the Medical Corps. He was deployed to the European Theater where he waded ashore on Omaha Beach in Normandy about a month after D-day. He was assigned to a small tent hospital called a Clearing Station positioned a short distance behind the front lines. His Unit was assigned to General Patton’s 3rd Army where as it advanced across France and into Germany.
He took care of casualties in the Battle of the Bulge, was in Austria at the completion of the war and received the bronze star medal for his service in France.

He returned to the United States and took residencies in both Internal Medicine and in Surgery. He married a young musician, Virginia-Gene Shankel, who died on August 30, 2011, and they took a mission appointment in Jamaica where he worked at the Andrews Memorial Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica and Virginia taught piano and violin at the Adventist College in Mandeville.
They returned to the United States and settled in Sterling, Massachusetts, where she was on the music faculty of Atlantic Union College and he worked at the New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham, Massachusetts.

Virginia-Gene started the New England Youth Ensemble which was a group of talented teen-age musicians which started playing sacred and classical music in nearby churches and service organizations. This group eventually performed in Europe and Russia under the auspices of Friendship Ambassadors and performed at a State dinner in Warsaw, Poland put on by President Ford for the Communist president of Poland.

In 1977 while traveling in their motor home en route to Walla Walla, Washington, on a concert tour, they were involved in a tragic accident in which Harvey suffered extensive burns, broken bones, and spinal cord injuries which left him with a paralyzed right arm. He was comatose for a month and this effectively ended his medical career. He subsequently devoted his life to assisting his wife as her New England Youth Ensemble performed around the world in 45 different countries including Europe, Russia, China, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Central America and throughout the United States and Canada.

His wife predeceased him in August, 2011. They had been inseparable during their 61 years of marriage. He is survived by his younger brother Bob, a sister-in-law Peggy and 7 nieces and nephews—Kathryn Prall, William Fagal, Bruce Anderson, Janet Duncan, Barbara Matthews, Connie Drexler and Jerry Rittenhouse.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend calling hours from on Thursday, February 16, starting at 5 p.m. followed by a funeral home service at 6:30 p.m. in the Miles-Sterling Funeral and Tribute Center, 100 Worcester Road (Rte. 12), Sterling. A private committal service will be held at a later date at Eastwood Cemetery, Lancaster. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the New England Youth Ensemble, 96 Kendall Hill Road, Sterling, MA 01564.

To share a memory or leave an on-line condolences visit: www.milesfuneralhome.com