Henry P. Sousa, Born on Saint Patrick's Day, in 1939, died March 31, 2020. A victim of the Corona Virus. Hank had serious health care issues and was on Oxygen for the last three years of his life.

Hank was an orphan and  raised by his Polish grandmother, a great cook and a wonderful woman.  Hank spent the first 10 years of his life on the streets of South Boston. He loved the city. At 10, he moved to Wilmington and upon graduating High School, joined the Navy. His intelligence was recognized early on, and he went into an officers training program where he eventually, earned his wings and was the pilot of an F4 Phantom. He broke the record for taking the most passes to land his plane on the decks of the carrier, but he did eventually land it. As a pilot, he served 5 tours of duty on the Big E and the Coral Sea. This was flying missions into North Vietnam. He took shrapnel over Vietnam and was able to get his plane to the South China Sea, before ejecting.Because of damage to the ejection mechanism. Both Hank and his REO were fired through the canopy. It killed his REO and Hank broke his neck. It took Hank 9 months to recover from his injuries. Getting out of the hospital, Hank set out on his next quest and he earned a Masters in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vermont.

Hank is survived by his former wife Elaine Bury, a woman who he has always cared for. He is survived by a daughter, Catherine Rodriguez of New Hampshire and a son, Joseph Sousa of Virginia. Hank had three other children. I never met them and do not know their name.

For the better part of Hanks life, he worked in electrical engineering, as well as designing and writing software, device drivers and machine level programming languages.

On retirement, Hank was visited by a number of health issues which were a result of his injuries in the service. In spite of these problems Hank enjoyed every day and looked forward to the next.

Hank loved to meet people and engage them in conversation. He loved going out to a local restaurant, enjoying a glass of wine and talking with anyone who would engage him. His hat, showing that he served on the Big E, always helped to encourage a conversation.  He never let his wheelchair, get in the way of flirting with the waitresses. On occasions, I found myself and Hank singing to our waitress on the open floor. This was usually very embarrassing to the waitresses, but they always seemed to enjoy the attention. And we found ourselves laughing all the way home.

Hank was a Roman Catholic, who believed in his religion. He was very liberal in his politics, but loved to engage anyone of a different view. He was very generous and kind, yet a very strong business man with an understanding of people. When I found myself dealing with tough business situations, Hank usually had the answer.

Hank will be missed.

A private burial will be held in The Massachuseets National Cemetery in Bourne, MA.