KUAM's Founder Harry Engel, Part 1

The Early Years

It is impossible to discuss the founding of KUAM without delving into the life of its creator, Harry M. Engel Jr. His tale is a fascinating and sometimes tragic one, involving adventures around the globe that often intersected with history in the most unusual ways.

Harry was born in New York on August 12th, 1914 to well-to-do parents. His father Harry Sr., a native New Yorker, ran Engel Hess & Co., a purchaser for specialty stores and an artificial flower and feather manufacturer. He also served as Vice President of the Associated Flower and Fancy Feather Manufacturers of America. Harry Sr. loved driving Cadillacs - a passion that would later be adopted by young Harry.

His mother Violet Polstein Engel operated high-fashion dress shops. An immigrant of Finnish and Russian heritage, Violet fully played the part of a New York socialite; her portrait hung at the World's Fair, and she was an expert bridge player.

Harry's sister Marie was a year older. Although they were born to Jewish parents, they were baptized when Harry was 9, fulfilling his mother's wish that he not grow up as "a typical Park Avenue Jew".

Harry's family was impacted by the stock market crash of 1929, but they were better able than most to weather the depression that followed. In his teens, young Harry and family were tended to by no less than four servants - an elderly Hungarian cook named Johanna, Giovanni the Italian butler, and Irish maids Dahlia and Christine.

In the 9th grade, Harry ran away from home and wound up in the National Guard. In civilian life he worked as an automobile repairman. On January 27th, 1941 in Red Bank, New Jersey he enlisted in the Army as a Private assigned to Field Artillery. In the next year and a half, as the nation geared up to enter World War II, Harry was promoted to Sergeant.

On November 28th 1942, Harry was struck with a horrendous tragedy that would have a profound impact on the rest of his life.

While on weekend leave from the Army transport ship USAT Dorchester in Boston, he went to the Cocoanut Grove nightclub on Piedmont Street. The club was packed that night, with about 1,000 patrons, many of them off-duty military personnel.

Just after 10 PM, 16-year-old busboy lit a match to better see what he was doing while screwing in a lightbulb. The match caught artificial palm frond decorations hanging in the ceiling. Moments later, the entire club was ablaze.

Throngs of panicked people attempted to flee the club, but were effectively trapped by the its single set of revolving doors. 492 people died in the next few hours; amongst them famed cowboy movie star Buck Jones and scores of young off-duty soldiers.

The Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire, Nov. 28 1942

The Cocoanut Grove fire shocked the nation, and would eventually lead to sweeping fire code and safety standards reform across the country. To date, it remains the deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history.

Harry barely escaped with his life, and was badly burned over a majority of his body. He spent the remainder of World War II recuperating in Army hospitals. He eventually underwent 45 operations related to the fire, and for the rest of his life wore a glove on his left hand to hide the significant scarring there.

In an equally bizarre twist of fate, it is quite possible that the Cocoanut Grove fire contributed to actually saving Harry's life.

As he began his long recovery, the USAT Dorchester shipped out without him. Five months later, it was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-Boat in the frozen waters of the North Atlantic. Of the 904 people aboard, only 230 survived.

Click here for Part 2 of the story.

Special thanks to Harry M. Engel III, Runa Magowan and Justin Engel