Professor E. James Harner “Jim” passed away on Feb. 9, 2021. Jim was born
June 16, 1945, in Winchester, Va., the son of Helen Cather and Eugene James Harner “Gene.” He graduated from Martinsburg High School and attended West Virginia University on a WVU Board of Governors Scholarship. He was a member of Phi Kappa Psi at WVU and had the highest GPA in his fraternity for several years. He earned a Ph.D. at Cornell University in Operations Research. He returned to Morgantown as an assistant professor, eventually becoming chairman of the statistics department, a position he held for many years until his recent retirement.
In his over 40 year career as a statistics professor and software consultant, he published hundreds of articles and presented a myriad of invited papers, quite literally all over the world; from India, to China, to Australia, to New Zealand and Europe. He was a traveler and an adventurer. He was always quick to help any student, colleague, organization or homeowners association that asked. All of us who knew him were lucky to have had him in our lives, especially those of us who got to love him.
He married his first wife, Anna Petrie, in 1965 in Morgantown. In 1983, he married Molly Pickett, his wife of almost 40 years. He is survived by Molly; his Brady-bunch children and stepchildren: Soren Harner (Sylvia), of Belmont, Calif.; his daughter, Reneka Sakashita (Dai), of Kerrville, Texas, and Uraga, Japan; and his stepchildren, Francy Hammond, of Alameda, Calif., and Hans Kioschos, M.D., of Gillett, Wyo. His son, Alex Harner, and stepson, J. Michael Kioschos, M.D., predeceased him. He is survived by grandchildren, Sophia and Anna Harner, of Belmont, Calif., and Lloyd Harner, of Astoria, N.Y. He is also survived by his sister, Barbara Harner Suhay (Jim), of Birmingham, Mich.
Jim will be forever loved and missed. The family will hold a celebration of his life in the summer when it is safe to gather.
Caring services will be provided by Dering-Henson Funeral Home, Morgantown.
Condolences:
www.dering-henson.com
