Archives West Finding Aid

Harry Earl Sever was born on a Whitman County farm halfway between Colfax and Penawawa in 1897. He was the oldest of eight children, followed by six brothers and a sister. Sever graduated from the eighth grade in 1910 and his family moved to Albion, where he enrolled in Edwards College. His teachers at Edwards were Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Davis and their daughter, Lucile Davis Dana. Sever entered Washington State College in 1914 but dropped out in 1915 to begin farming. Two years later, in 1917, he married a girl from a near-by farm, Clara B. Moore. Things did not go well for the farm financially, and in 1926 he declared bankruptcy and moved to Pullman. From this time until 1942, Sever worked at various jobs from real estate broker to construction worker. He was a janitorial custodian for a museum in Colfax in 1932, and worked on the building of the Rock Island Dam near Wenatchee in 1939. He was a small-time land speculator, but he had no steady employment until hired by W.S.C. as an assistant athletic groundskeeper in 1942. Sever kept this job for twenty years and retired in 1962.

Sever operated a mobile home park called "Sever Sity" on the land presently (2004) occupied by Nendels Inn. The Severs sold the site to the motel developers in 1965.

Sever was a member of the Pullman Toastmasters, Chamber of Commerce, and Pullman Senior Citizens. He was outspoken in his political opinions and frequently contributed letters to regional newspapers. Writing was his hobby, and the culmination of his writing efforts was a novel entitled Dam-mania which he had published by Vantage Press in 1955.

The Severs had three sons and a daughter. The oldest son, Harry E. Sever, Jr. was killed in combat in 1943 in Italy. Richard, Glen and Velma still live in the Northwest. Some papers of Velma Sever and memoirs of his mother Myrtle are included in this collection.

Harry Sever died on November 9, 1976, after a brief illness.