Ivanhoe B. Gleason

He was born in Lynchburg, Virginia May 15th, 1921, to David and Bessie Gleason. He was the sole surviving child of the four children in the family.  He remembered his older brother David, Jr. and thought of him often. He grew up on a farm in Elon, outside Lynchburg, and learned about hard work on a Depression era farm. 

He joined the U.S. Army in 1940. After World War II began, he became a paratrooper and served in the European Theater. After the war he attended Bentley College in Boston. During his career he worked for Raytheon and then for the U.S. Department of Defense in contract administration. He retired as a contracting officer in Hartford, CT, from the Federal Civil Service with the Department of Defense in 1986. 

While he was in Boston attending college, he met Catherine Russell, a registered nurse. They were married in 1952, and had a son, David, in 1958. Catherine and he were married for sixty-six years. They lived in Marlboro, MA, Hartford and West Hartford, CT, and retired to Yorktown, VA. While in Yorktown, IB attended the Kirkwood Presbyterian Church for many years. In 2015, he and Catherine moved to Columbia, MD to be closer to family.

He was an avid fisherman through most of his life. Besides his love of fishing, he enjoyed wood working and making things with his hands. He made the family kitchen table that is still in use today, nearly 60 years later. 

He always had a humorous expression, turn of phrase, or a corny joke for every occasion. 

IB was a much beloved father, father-in-law, grandfather and great grandfather.
He leaves behind a wife, a son, a daughter-in-law, Carol, four grandchildren (Jennifer, Heather, Jason, and Jaime), their spouses (John, Colin, and Michelle) and five great grandchildren (Zachary, Ashlyn, Kayla, Ashlee, and Bradley).

The family would like to thank the nursing staff at the Howard County Hospital Infusion Center for the extraordinary and dedicated care they provided to him. They went out of their way to make his time with them as pleasant as possible.  

Finally, the family would also like to thank the Rev. Michael Condrey for traveling all the way from Yorktown, Virginia to officiate his service.

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