Harry L. Jennings

Harry L. Jennings, “Dirty Harry”, 74, passed on Wednesday, May 25, 2022. He was born to Joseph and Ethel Jennings on April 17, 1948 in Columbus, Ohio. Harry was a member of Saint Dominic Church. He attended St. Cyprian and Bishop Hartley High School and graduated in 1966. Harry attended Central State University and The Ohio State University. Harry devoted 30 years of faithful service to the Ohio Department of Development. He worked in several roles and authored two published brochures on fair housing and laws for greater opportunities for residents. Harry gave direction and worked with Model Cities, Development Block Grant Program, The State Small Cities Community Block Grant Program (fair housing) of The Housing Opportunity Center of Metropolitan Columbus. He worked with the administrations of 9 counties in southern Ohio. For several years, Harry was on the staff at Diehl-Whittaker Funeral Services and a good friend of Richard Diehl. He volunteered his time and talents while serving as PTA President at Oakland Park Traditional Elementary school when daughter Camille attended. He served with the Columbus Jaycees and was given Outstanding Leader status on several projects. He was a huge sports fan and along with supporting his high school and college teams. He loved the Cleveland Browns and had official Dawg Pound gear for himself and furry son Jefferson. Harry kept check on the NBA games and players and enjoyed playing softball and joined a weekend traveling softball team with Bob Smith and Ralph Wood. Harry also enjoyed watching baseball and golf(Tiger Woods), traveling, cruising, reminiscing, and enjoying cards (Bid Whist and Poker) with his friends. He valued visiting his cousins and being a part of family reunions. He treasured so many friendships as well as his Ironwood Community. His lasting pleasures was cooking and enjoying good food with family and friends. Harry is best known for his specialties which were greens, ribs, chittlins’ and his “notorious brownies”, peach cobbler and apple pies. Not only did he enjoy food he cooked, he believed in supporting local Columbus restaurants as well as businesses. There are people that would see him and Jefferson at Wolfe Park and in the Ironwood Community. It was sweet seeing them together and Jefferson was a lot of company to Harry. Jefferson will be well taken care of by his family. He was preceded in death by his parents Joseph A.(Mary) Jennings and Ethel Jennings. Cherishing his memory are daughters Camille Elizabeth Jennings (Daniel) O'Rourke, Alexis Patrick Jennings (Carl) Howze; and furry son Jefferson King Obama Jennings loving and faithful dog. Also survived by Agnes Patrick Jennings former spouse and mother of his daughters; brothers Joseph A. Jennings III, David Jennings, Stanley (Valerie) Gunther; sister Anita Jennings (George) Keller; grandsons Christian Laurence Alexander Howze, Devin Ezell, Carl E. Howze III; niece Eliza Keller, nephew Mitchell Keller; and very special cousin Dorothy Mitchell Lambert; Jennings, Mitchell, Calloway and Anderson cousins and a host of family and friends. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his memory to Central State University made payable to the office of Institutional Advancement P.O. Box 1004 Wilberforce, Ohio 45384. Online Donations: https://csubelievers.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donate.event&eventID=500 *In the box where it says Employer Name-Please put In Memory of Harry L. Jennings and/or Bishop Hartley High School made payable to the school with his name in the memo and send to Bishop Hartley attention Heather Rush; 1285 Zettler Rd Columbus, Ohio 43227. Online Donations: https://apps.bishop-hartley.org/donate-now It is requested that you wear accents of red in honor of HLJ.