Gurney Genealogy Library Updated 15 July 2026 by Allen Gurney

These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.

Lester Sawyer Gurney III (G03) Notes

Research notes for g03-lester-sawyer-gurney-iii-fact-sheet.md.

Working Notes

Family handwritten notes - birth, marriage, military service, and G2 birth context

A Springfield city-clerk certificate records Lester Sawyer Gurney III as born at Springfield, Massachusetts, on 10 June 1923, son of Lester and Ethel J. Hayes; Wellesley Hills was the family home of his childhood, preserved in family memory and in the address of the household’s later papers. He died 19 December 2011.[1][2]

A Norwich University certificate and a dean’s letter of 7 December 1943 record that he entered Norwich in September 1941 on a diploma from Gamaliel Bradford Senior High School, Wellesley Hills, completed two years of Civil Engineering in the upper third of his class, was promoted to Cadet Sergeant in the Signal Corps at the end of his sophomore year, and left on 27 March 1943 for military service.[1]

The military papers carry the chronology in detail and supersede the family-note commission date. He served as an enlisted man from March 1943, training in very-high-frequency radio repair, was honorably discharged as a corporal at Fort Monmouth on 24 November 1944, and was temporarily appointed Second Lieutenant effective 25 November 1944 after Signal Corps Officer Candidate School. His Certificate of Service and Separation Qualification Record show active service as a first lieutenant from 25 November 1944 to 8 September 1946 with the 536 Signal Heavy Construction Company, Army Forces Western Pacific, as a telephone-and-telegraph outside-plant officer responsible for aerial and underground telephone cable on Luzon, supervising 75 enlisted men, Japanese prisoner-of-war labor, and 75 civilian linemen and cable splicers; before overseas duty he trained line crews at Fort Dix. Decorations included the American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Theater Ribbon, Meritorious Service Unit Plaque, World War II Victory Medal, and Philippine Liberation Ribbon. Dana Gurney’s note of a June or July 1944 commission likely points to the OCS milestone and is kept as secondary family memory; the earlier “Marine” reading is set aside in favor of this Signal Corps record.[1][2]

His Separation Qualification Record names his 1942 civilian job as assistant construction engineer with the New England Power Company, Boston — his father’s firm — laying out transmission lines and underground and submarine cable. After the war he earned top grades in electrical-machinery and circuits courses at Worcester Junior College’s evening division (1948); family evidence places the bulk of his career with McGraw Edison in New Jersey. He is the middle of three generations of power engineers between G4 and G2.[1][2]

Bristol, Rhode Island, and St. Alban’s Lodge

The family lived at Bristol, Rhode Island, on Sowams Road into the early 1950s (a 1951 First Army discharge order gives “Sowams Drive, Bristol”). A December 1955 Bristol clipping names Lester Gurney III as junior deacon of St. Alban’s Lodge No. 6, F. & A.M., at the lodge’s 153rd annual communication — documenting G3 as one of the five generations in the family Masonic line described in G2’s obituary. Related Bristol clippings record the couple as elected presidents of the Co-Mar-Co Society and Edith hosting the Bayberry Garden Club and chairing a Parent-Teacher Association registration drive.[1]

Residence trail

The 1940 federal census places Lester at sixteen in his parents’ household at Wellesley (Wellesley Hills), Norfolk County, Massachusetts — a single son, born in Massachusetts, with the family’s 1935 residence given as the same place (enumeration district 11-279).[3]

His adult life centred on Morris County, New Jersey. Edith died at Chatham in 1963, and a FamilySearch public-records entry traces Lester at Chatham, NJ 07928 from February 1975 to November 1999 and then at Hackettstown, NJ 07840 — the Heath Village area — from February 1997 to October 2006; the record confirms his birth date as 10 June 1923 (household 51109233).[1][4]

Second marriage

A wedding invitation and marriage certificate establish that Lester Sawyer Gurney III married Dorothy Lillian Hoben at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Elizabeth, New Jersey, on 26 June 1965. Dana Gurney’s note gave 6 June 1965 and an uncertain Haben/Haden surname; the printed record settles both. Dorothy’s birth, death, and probate are on her own research file.[1][2]

Third marriage

After Dorothy Lillian Hoben died on 25 December 1994, Lester Sawyer Gurney III married a third time, to Elizabeth Stettler Walker, on 25 November 1995 at Chatham, Morris County, New Jersey. The New Jersey marriage index records the bride under her maiden surname as “Elizabeth L Stettler,” certificate no. 0046950.[5] A FamilySearch public-records entry ties the identity together under the aliases “Elizabeth S Gurney,” “Elizabeth Walker Gurney,” and “Elizabeth S Walker,” and corroborates her use of the Gurney surname after the marriage; its residence trail places her at Chatham (07928) through 13 November 2000 and at Hackettstown (07840) — the Heath Village area — from late 1996 to 2005.[6]

Elizabeth (8 June 1918 – 11 June 2013) was a lifelong Morris County resident — of Chatham until 1995 — the daughter of Charlie and Elsie Stettler. Educated at Wheaton College and the New Jersey State Teachers College at Trenton, she taught elementary school and music in the Chatham and Livingston public schools and was an accomplished pianist, organist, violinist, and chorister. She came to the marriage a widow: her first husband, Alan Banham Walker of Cambridge, England, had died in 1980 after 34 years of marriage, and her children Martha Walker Jones and Charles Derek Walker were of that first marriage (no children with G3). Her obituary records that she married Lester Gurney III in 1995 before leaving Chatham for the Heath Village retirement community in Washington Township, and that “after 16 happy years, Mr. Gurney died in 2011.”[7]

Her birth date is given two ways: the obituary states 8 June 1918, while the FamilySearch public-records index gives 18 June 1918. The obituary (family-supplied) is the preferred reading; the index transposition is the likelier error, but the ten-day variance is unresolved without a primary birth or death record.[7][6]

Occupational and institutional context

McGraw Edison. The firm of G3’s long New Jersey career was formed on 2 January 1957 by the merger of McGraw Electric (founded 1900 in Sioux City by Max McGraw) with Thomas A. Edison, Inc. (the Edison company rooted in West Orange, New Jersey), Charles Edison serving as the merged company’s first board chairman. McGraw-Edison made a broad range of electrical goods; the side relevant to a “power engineer” was its Power Systems business — the Line Material / Kyle line of distribution transformers, circuit reclosers, sectionalizers, and switchgear (Kyle had merged into Line Material in 1947, which became part of McGraw Electric in 1949). That power-equipment heritage was sold to Cooper Power Systems in 1985. G3’s New Jersey residence in Morris County fits an engineer in the company’s New Jersey power-equipment orbit rather than its consumer-appliance (Toastmaster) side.[8]

Norwich University. G3 entered Norwich (Northfield, Vermont) as a civil-engineering cadet in 1941. Founded in 1819 by Captain Alden Partridge, a former superintendent of West Point, Norwich is the oldest private military college in the United States, is recognized by the Department of Defense as the “Birthplace of ROTC,” and was the first private college in the nation to teach civil engineering — an apt formation for the third of three generations of Gurney power engineers. G3 left partway through his junior year, in March 1943, for the Army.[9]

New England Power Company (pre-war). G3’s 1942 civilian job as assistant construction engineer for the New England Power Company, Boston, was not only “his father’s firm” but a post on the same Deerfield-River hydroelectric enterprise G4 had spent his career building; details of that enterprise are on G4’s companion. The continuity of transmission-line and submarine-cable layout work between father and son is documented in G3’s Separation Qualification Record.[1]

536th Signal Heavy Construction Company (negative result). A targeted search for a unit history of the 536th Signal Heavy Construction Company on Luzon (Army Forces Western Pacific, 1945–46) returned no unit-specific published history — only general accounts of the Luzon campaign and the rebuilding of the Philippine communications network. The unit-level record will need the National Personnel Records Center morning reports / unit files rather than a published source.[10]

Research actions

  • Locate G3 full military personnel file (NPRC) for the 536th Signal Heavy Construction Company service and Luzon assignment dates. (Unknown online.)
  • Confirm or set aside the family-note Robins Field / Air Service Command detail, which the certificates do not corroborate. (Unknown online.)
  • Locate McGraw Edison retirement or employment paperwork for the New Jersey career. (Unknown online.)
  • Locate G3 death record, 19 December 2011, and place of death. (Unknown online.)

Sources Consulted

  • Gurney family handwritten oral-history and research notes, revised findings memorandum v3 prepared 4 May 2026 from eight photographed notebook pages. Source ID: gurney-family-handwritten-notes-1963.
  • Gurney family papers from Lester Sawyer Gurney III (G3), passed to Lester Hayes Gurney (G2), in possession of Allen Gurney (G1); certificates, clippings, military papers, Masonic correspondence, and related family documents scanned 3 June 2026. Source ID: gurney-family-papers-g3-to-g2-certificates-clippings.
  • New Jersey, U.S., Marriage Index, 1901-2016 (Ancestry.com), bride index entry for the 1995 Gurney–Stettler marriage. Source ID: nj-marriage-index-1901-2016.
  • “United States, Public Records, 1970-2009” (FamilySearch), entries for Elizabeth Walker Gurney, 2000 (ark KPQN-KN9), and Lester L Gurney, 2006 (ark KPQN-KNR). Source ID: us-public-records-1970-2009.
  • “United States, Census, 1940” (FamilySearch), Lester Gurney in the household of Lester and Ethel Gurney, Wellesley, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. Source ID: us-census-1940.
  • Elizabeth Stettler Walker Gurney obituary, The Madison Eagle, 20 June 2013. Source ID: elizabeth-stettler-walker-gurney-obituary.

  1. Gurney family papers from Lester Sawyer Gurney III (G3), passed to Lester Hayes Gurney (G2), in possession of Allen Gurney (G1); especially the Springfield birth certification, Norwich University certificate and dean’s letter, Fort Monmouth temporary appointment, Certificate of Service and Separation Qualification Record (536 Signal Heavy Construction Company), Worcester Junior College grade reports, marriage certificates, and the December 1955 St. Alban’s Lodge and Bristol social clippings. Source ID: gurney-family-papers-g3-to-g2-certificates-clippings. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. Gurney family handwritten oral-history and research notes, revised findings memorandum v3 prepared 4 May 2026 from eight photographed notebook pages, especially Appendix A, Pages 4-5 and the G3 revised person-by-person findings. Source ID: gurney-family-handwritten-notes-1963. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. “United States, Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K4NN-ZHR), entry for Lester Gurney (age 16, son) in the household of Lester and Ethel Gurney, Wellesley Town, Norfolk County, Massachusetts; enumeration district 11-279. Source ID: us-census-1940. ↩︎

  4. “United States, Public Records, 1970-2009,” database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KPQN-KNR), entry for Lester L Gurney, 2006, recording residences at Chatham, NJ 07928 (Feb 1975-Nov 1999) and Hackettstown, NJ 07840 (Feb 1997-Oct 2006); birth date 10 Jun 1923; household 51109233. Source ID: us-public-records-1970-2009. ↩︎

  5. New Jersey, U.S., Marriage Index, 1901-2016 (database, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016), bride index entry for Lester Gurney III and Elizabeth L. Stettler, married 25 November 1995 at Chatham, Morris County, New Jersey; certificate no. 0046950; New Jersey State Archives, Trenton, Marriage Indexes (Index Type: Bride; 1995; Surname Range: M-Z). Source ID: nj-marriage-index-1901-2016. ↩︎

  6. “United States, Public Records, 1970-2009,” database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KPQN-KN9), entry for Elizabeth Walker Gurney, 2000. Source ID: us-public-records-1970-2009. ↩︎ ↩︎

  7. “Elizabeth Stettler Walker Gurney, formerly of Chatham,” The Madison Eagle (New Jersey Hills Media Group), 20 June 2013 (https://www.newjerseyhills.com/chatham_courier/obituaries/elizabeth-stettler-walker-gurney-formerly-of-chatham/article_0dae63b8-dea1-11e2-bf91-001a4bcf887a.html). Source ID: elizabeth-stettler-walker-gurney-obituary. ↩︎ ↩︎

  8. “McGraw-Edison,” Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGraw-Edison); “Cooper power series product history,” Eaton (eaton.com). 1957 McGraw Electric / Thomas A. Edison merger; Line Material / Kyle recloser-and-transformer heritage; 1985 sale of the power-systems business to Cooper. Source ID: mcgraw-edison-history. ↩︎

  9. “Norwich University,” Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwich_University); “University History,” Norwich University Catalog (catalog.norwich.edu/about/history). Founded 1819 by Alden Partridge; oldest private military college; DoD-recognized “Birthplace of ROTC”; first private U.S. college to teach civil engineering. Source ID: norwich-university-history. ↩︎

  10. Negative result, online search June 2026: no published unit history located for the 536th Signal Heavy Construction Company, Army Forces Western Pacific, Luzon 1945–46; general Luzon-campaign and Philippine-communications accounts only (e.g., U.S. Army Center of Military History, history.army.mil). Unit-level detail will require NPRC morning reports / unit files. ↩︎