Harry Hodges Semmes Jr. ’43

Harry Hodges Semmes Jr. ’43 died July 3, 2014, at Buckingham’s Choice, a retirement community in Adamstown, Maryland, to which he and his wife had moved in 2001. At Dartmouth Harry was a member of Beta Theta Pi and Casque & Gauntlet. At the end of the first term of his junior year, after Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the U.S. Cavalry. Following officer candidate school he was sent to the Pacific theater as commander of an Amphibian Cavalry Tank Unit in the Marshall and Mariana islands. Harry was wounded in Saipan. He received the Distinguished Service Cross, two Bronze Stars, a Purple Heart and a Naval Presidential Unit Citation. He ended his military service in 1945 and in 1949 married Lutie. Most of Harry’s business career was spent in real estate. His firm, Semmes and Co., concentrated on selling land to developers. Harry was a passionate horseman and an active member of the Potomac Hunt, where he was master from 1973 to 1979. On his horse Suncastle he entered many of the Seven Corners point-to-point races with success. In 1966 he was awarded the Martini and Rossi trophies for Horse of the Year and Rider of the Year. In 1976 he founded the Maryland Association for Wildlife Conservation. Ever loyal to Dartmouth, Harry was an Alumni Fund volunteer and a class agent. Harry is survived by Lutie and children Luette ’79, Guy, Harry and Thomas and their families, including seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.