Irvin H. Harlamert, 1952
B.A., Denison University
J.D., Ohio State Law School
Attorney-at-Law and Judge, retired
Dayton, Ohio
Citation awarded June, 2012
Service to Country: When the Korean War broke out in 1950, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve. Upon graduation from Ohio State Law School in 1955 with a J.D., he became a commissioned Naval Officer, volunteering to fly in dive bombers as the target officer from the decks of the aircraft carriers Saratoga and Randolph. He served in Cuba, the Caribbean, the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Near East. In his final year, he was a member of the faculty of the Naval Intelligence School in Washington where one of his students was Ensign Richard Lugar ’54, who confirms that he taught Lugar everything Lugar knows.
Service to Profession: He is still a practicing lawyer after 56 years. The Ohio Supreme Court selected him to serve as one of 10 members of the Ohio Board of Bar Examiners for the three day Bar Examination deciding which of 6,000 candidates to admit license. In his fifth year, he served as chairman.
Service to Public: He was elected four times to serve as a Trial Judge over a period of 24 years.
Service to Church: A lifetime member of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, he served as a Deacon, a ruling Elder, a high school Sunday school teacher and for 30 years as the church attorney.
Service to Denison: In 1985, he taught a January term course on The Entrepreneur at Denison. Since then he has initiated and funded a summer intern program for Denison students aspiring to be entrepreneurs. Two of his three children graduated from Denison.
Teaching Avocation: He has served in a teaching capacity at the US Naval Intelligence School, University of Dayton, Sinclair College, Denison University, a Sunday school teacher and he has offered an adult education course on Comparative Religion at numerous churches in Dayton, Ohio and Naples, Florida.
Service to Self: During the 1990s he sailed his yacht around the world to satisfy the curiosity trait which he acquired at Denison. He is now authoring a book Around the World in 80 Months.
