OBIT: Eugene A. GRISSINGER, 2002, formerly of Huntingdon County, PA

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Eugene A. Grissinger

  Eugene A. "Gene" Grissinger, 36, of Bridgeville, formerly of Mount 
Union and Jefferson Hills, died Monday, March 18, 2002, at Country  
Meadows Nursing Center in Bridgeville, where he had been residing.
  Funeral services were held March 22 at the John F. Slater Funeral 
Home Inc., Brentwood, with Rev. Robert Slack officiating. Interment was 
made in Jefferson Memorial Park.
  Born Nov. 28, 1916, in Kewanee, Ill., he was a son of the late 
Russell and Mae Grissinger. His father was a railroad man.
  He married his high school sweetheart, Mary Belle Culver, in 
Williamson, Va., on Aug. 10, 1940. His wife of almost 53 years, Mary 
Belle passed away on May 3, 1993, in Jefferson Borough near Pittsburgh.
  He is survived by his two daughters, Margo (Larry) Berger of Tempe, 
Ariz., and Linda (Bruce) Mungai of Lancaster; and three grandchildren.
  He is survived by one sister, Lorma Gale Culter of Columbus, Ohio. A 
brother, Earl Grissinger, preceded him in death.
  Mr. Grissinger moved from Kewanee to Mount Union at an early age and 
he graduated from Mount Union High School in 1933.
  He began working for G. C. Murphy Company in November 1933 in 
Midland, Penna., as a stockboy and continued to work his way up the 
ladder. His next job was as an assistant manager in a store in West 
Virginia.
  Mr. Grissinger left Murphy's temporarily in August 1943 to enlist in 
the Army during World War II. He was accepted into officer's candidate 
school and tank destroyer school. He was sent overseas into combat as a 
first lieutenant in April 1944. While in Germany, he was captured by 
Nazi soldiers on Nov. 26, 1944 - just two days before his birthday. He 
and his company were surrounded by German soldiers in a deserted stone 
house in Bourheim, Germany, exactly two days before the beginning of 
the Battle of the Bulge. During a firefight, he was among the American 
soldiers who were captured. They traveled in a crowded box car to a POW 
Camp in Poland.
  During that bitterly cold winter, he and the other prisoners were 
forced to walk 680 miles to another camp in Germany, eating turnips and 
anything else they could scavenge.
  He and two other officers escaped in April 1945 and spent several 
weeks traveling with some Russian soldiers in Pottsdam, Germany. They 
traveled to LaHavre, France, where they secretly hitched a ride on an 
American hospital ship, which landed in Boston, Mass., at the end of 
May 1945. Mr. Grissinger later received a Purple Heart for injuries he 
sustained during captivity.
  After the war, he returned to Murphy's and worked in various 
positions until his retirement on April 23, 1981, as vice president and 
a director of store planning and construction.
  He and his family moved frequently during his 47 years of service to 
Murphy's, eventually settling in Jefferson Borough near Pittsburgh in 
1967.
  The family suggests making memorial contributions to the American 
Heart Association or Hospice Preferred Choice, 2400 Ardmore Blvd.. 
Suite 302.

The Valley Log, Orbisonia, Pa., April 3, 2002