KENNEBUNKPORT – Harald Woolverton Ingholt, 90, of Kennebunkport, passed away on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2021, at home.

He is survived by his wife, Susan Hamilton Ingholt of Kennebunkport; daughter, Nancy Evans (Steve) of Ashland, Neb. and son, Paul Ingholt (Dana) of Vienna, Va.; his elder sister, Mary Elizabeth Underdown.

Harald was a decorated U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, served two tours of duty in Vietnam, and retired in 1982 with the rank of colonel. Following his Air Force retirement, he led international sales for Loral/Goodyear Aerospace, in Phoenix, Ariz., retiring completely in 1994. He moved to Kennebunkport in 2018.

Harald was born on Jan. 10, 1931 to Harald and Janet Woolverton Ingholt in Mount Vernon, N.Y. Soon after, the family moved to Beirut, Lebanon, where his father taught at the American University of Beirut and led archeological digs in the surrounding area, what is now Syria. As a result, Harald’s first language was French and he had to learn English and the American culture when his family moved to the U.S., where his father eventually became a professor at Yale University. Harald graduated from Hopkins Day School and from Yale University, Pierson College, in 1952. He contemplated a career in the foreign service or law school, but knowing that his draft number was coming up, he enlisted in the Air Force, graduating from officer candidate school in 1954.

The young Captain Ingholt married Marilyn Smith in 1958 and moved to Hawaii for his next assignment, where Nancy was born. The maid of honor at their wedding was Ms. Susan Hamilton, a close friend and roommate of Marilyn’s at Skidmore and in New York City. The Air Force kept the young family moving, to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, where Paul was born a year later, followed by a year to complete his master’s degree at San Francisco State University.

While Harald served his tours in Vietnam, Marilyn and the kids lived in Hamden, Conn., close to the rest of the family. The family grew to include a dog and cat and even horses when they bought a broken down farm in Bedford, Pa. For the next few years, Harald worked at the Pentagon during the week and then drove up to spend the weekends clearing brush, putting up fences and stoking the coal stoves to warm the old farmhouse. He planted hundreds of pines to grow into Christmas trees and planted a series of black walnuts along the creek.

His final Air Force assignments were serving as the Director of the Intelligence School at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence for the Supreme Headquarters for Allied Forces Europe in Mons, Belgium, and Deputy Director for Estimates at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

After retirement, Harry and Marilyn moved to Phoenix, becoming members of the local United Methodist Church, teaching Sunday school, singing in the choir, and doing other community work; for a time, Harry volunteered for a family crisis hotline that involved driving women suffering abuse to local shelters.

After his retirement from Loral, Harry travelled around the west selling Indian jewelry on behalf of local native American artisans and they both travelled the globe – cruising up the Amazon, visiting Greece, Tahiti, and driving across the U.S.

Harald became Marilyn’s full-time caregiver as her Alzheimer’s became more acute, until she passed in December 2016. The following summer, Harry travelled back east to attend his 60th college reunion and began a correspondence with Susan Hamilton MacCachran, also now widowed, living in Kennebunkport. That correspondence blossomed into a long-distance romance, when they informed their astonished families that they were getting married in Kennebunkport in February 2018. Harry moved one final time from the dry, sunny southwest to coastal Maine.

Harry Ingholt was a warm and gentle man, generous to a fault, incapable of thinking ill of anyone. He delighted in sharing stories of his travels and frequently burst into songs ranging from classic Broadway hits like “Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” to more colorful ditties from military life. He was a dedicated church goer, teaching Sunday school and leading Bible studies. Even through the last difficult months of his life, he retained his joy of life, singing to his caregivers and serenading Sue.

A celebration of Harry’s life will be held in the summer of 2021.

To share a memory or leave a message of condolence, please visit Harald‘s Book of Memories Page at http://www.bibberfuneral.com

Arrangements are in care of Bibber Memorial Chapel, 67 Summer St., Kennebunk, ME 04043.

The family would be grateful for donations in Harry’s memory to the Good Shephard Food Bank of Maine (https://www.gsfb.org/) or the Kennebunk Animal Welfare Society (http://www.animalwelfaresociety.org/).