Harry J. Gaynor

Background

Harry J. Gaynor was born on January 15, 1921, in Newark, New Jersey, United States.

Career

Harry Gaynor flew 37 missions on the B-24 bombers as a bomber gunner for the United States Army Air Force during World War II before being wounded and imprisoned in Romania. He later escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp. Gaynor worked at various electronics companies. He eventually became vice president of marketing for E.W.C. Inc., a Kenilworth company, New Jersey in the 1970s. When the company began manufacturing smoke detectors, Gaynor read a book looking for marketing ideas for a new fire alarm, a fire-safety report about burn victims, and learned that not enough was being done to help these people. He saw a child's face grinned up at him, her eyes sparkling. Then Harry turned the page and gasped - Patty's face was a burned, shapeless mass. The girl also appeared on the following page, this time after 28 cosmetic operations. Doctors had shaped a crude nose and mouth from her seared flesh. Gaynor put down the report and wept.

After 28 years in the electronics business, Gaynor quit the job in May 1974. On the day he quit, Harry founded, with his own money, an advocacy group for burn victims and began to organize a mobile crisis network. Inspired, in 1974 he founded the National Burn-Victim Foundation, which raises money for hospital burn-victim units and helps establish new treatment facilities. Gaynor began the foundation in his living room and in two years, he had drained his family's savings. His wife said: "How are we going to live?" Harry answered: "God will find a way." Gaynor was even elected as a mayor of South Plainfield, New Jersey. Harry Gaynor is also a co-author of the book including A World without Tears: The Case of Charles Rothenberg (1989), author of Child Abuse? Think Again (1994) and The Root of Child Abuse: Anger (1999). Harry J. Gaynor died of esophageal cancer on February 26, 2003, in Morristown, New Jersey.

Achievements

• Harry Gaynor was an expert in child abuse by burning. Through his experiences with the National Burn-Victim Foundation, he was involved in more than 1000 such cases. As founder and president of the National Burn Victim Foundation, Gaynor dedicated dozens of years to problems associated with child abuse and neglect by burning, and he wasn't eager to jeopardize the foundation's reputation. The group also educated more than 1 million children in New Jersey in burn awareness.
  
  Gaynor was the recipient of many awards for his charitable work, including being named National Activist of the Year for Volunteering by the National Center for Voluntary Action in 1976 and Citizen of the Year by B'nai B'rith that same year. In 1978, President Carter sent an Air Force transport plane to Newark International Airport to airlift Harry Gaynor, medical personnel and supplies to Waverly, Tennessee, where a propane explosion had injured hundreds. Harry authored and contributed to several books including A World without Tears: The Case of Charles Rothenberg (1989), author of Child Abuse? Think Again (1994) and The Root of Child Abuse: Anger (1999).

Works

More photos

• book

  • A World Without Tears: The Case of Charles Rothenberg

    (On March 4, 1983, Charles Rothenberg deliberately set fir...)

    1989

Views

In 1974 Harry Gaynor established with his own money the National Burn Victim Foundation, first in his house. He immersed himself in the world of burn treatment and discovered a need. Although many hospitals treated physical pain, no one helped injured people make the emotional adjustment back to living. Psychologically, recovering from a burn is traumatic. Often, it's worse than the burn. Several doctors and Fire Departments praised his work, others thought he was crazy. Experts certainly did not believe his disaster-response system would work. Instead of an expensive burn care center, Gaynor pushed for a mobile system of specialists that could bring aid to the victim, not vice versa. In November 1976, the American Chicle Company's plant in Long Island City, Queens, erupted in flames. Overwhelmed, New York City's Emergency Medical Services called its New Jersey counterpart, which, in turn, called Gaynor. Twenty-seven of the 28 victims were transferred to hospitals in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Later, Harry organized follow-up care. His advocacy group, the National Burn Victim Foundation, proved itself, and Gaynor became a respected voice in burn care. "They thought I was bananas," Harry said. "Everyone would nod and smile, but they never thought I could get it off the ground. I could sense that."

Harry Gaynor persuaded hundreds of volunteers and dozens of New Jersey corporations to donate time and money toward the disaster-response system. The companies lent him more than 40 aircraft, both planes, and helicopters for use in a disaster. In 1976, Harry Gaynor was honored the National Activist of the Year for Volunteering by the National Center for Voluntary Action, and Citizen of the Year by B'nai B'rith, which made him, in effect, the top volunteer in the nation and the first New Jersey resident ever to be so honored. Volunteerism is, in fact, Harry's passion. Gaynor and four of his volunteers once attended a meeting at which Federal officials urged them to hire professionals because volunteers were "unreliable" and he recalled: "If this is what you're proposing, then I don't want your dollars." The foundation continues to refuse Government funds, surviving instead, on more than $150,000 in corporate and private contributions. Gaynor didn't have a vacation since he started the foundation and missed some important family moments. Gaynor underwent liver surgery in 1983, but, typically, he was back in the office just four days later. "Sure, I've paid a price," he said. "But if I trade off the price for what we've accomplished, then it was worth it. I wouldn't have done anything different."

His book A World Without Tears: The Case of Charles Rothenberg was controversial even before its publication, but Harry Gaynor believed the book would help in the fight against child abuse: "It is our hope that this book will have an impact on the national problem of child abuse. By analyzing Charles Rothenberg's background, and the circumstances leading up to his heinous act against his son, we have provided a vehicle for professionals as well as the general public to gain an understanding of how such an act of violence on a child can happen." In 1983 Rothenberg set fire to the bed where his 5-year-old son, David, slept. He served seven years of a 13-year prison term. Controversy about the project arose when some thought Rothenberg would profit from the sale of the book. But all royalties from the book, as Gaynor said, would benefit the National Burn Victim Foundation's child abuse programs. Neither Rothenberg nor the authors would make money on it.

The foundation remains the nation's only advocate for burn victims, a watchdog of the medical, psychological, ethical, and legal issues that affect the 300,000 people seriously burned each year in the country, 600 of them in New Jersey. In addition to operating the disaster-response system and manning a hotline, foundation workers collect data on burns, investigate cases of child abuse and neglect by burning, conduct workshops for professionals, and teach burn awareness to school children. The group has educated more than 1 million children in New Jersey in burn awareness. The foundation also helps find physical therapy, legal assistance, and jobs for new victims. Volunteers also prepare classmates for the return of a maimed child. Harry Gaynor was a frequent participant of many other charity events and supporter of other organizations.

Quotations: "If you can't see the person inside, what's the sense of living? That's our bottom line."

"All you have to do is tell me it's impossible, and I'll make it work. I just stick to it and believe."

Membership

• 

  Harry Gaynor was a founder and president of the National Burn-Victim Foundation.

  National Burn-Victim Foundation , United States

  1974 - 2003

• 

  March of Dimes , United States

Personality

Harry Gaynor was described as a tall, strong, sturdy athletic man. Gaynor was the most giving and generous man with a tireless spirit, a "male Mother Teresa."

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  tennis

Connections

Harry Gaynor was married to Sandra R. (Reed) Gaynor. He had three children: Harry, Elizabeth, and Andrew.

Wife:

Sandra R. (Reed) Gaynor

Son:

Harry Gaynor

Daughter:

Elizabeth G. (Gaynor) Hellman

Son:

Andrew C. Gaynor

Grandson:

Kevin Patrick

granddaughter :

Katherine Grace Hellman

colleague:

Jack Wilson

colleague:

John A. Flood Jr.

colleague:

Andrew Savicky