WILLIAM "Hank" LUTHER, Jr.

LUTHER, Jr., William “Hank”, 96, of Plainfield Pike, passed away on Friday, August 16, 2019 at the Coventry Skilled Nursing Respiratory & Rehabilitation Center.  He was the husband of the late Barbara L. (Salisbury) Luther.

Born in Foster, he was a son of the late William H. Luther, Sr. and Minnie C. (Brayton) Luther.

Hank was born at his parent’s house on Howard Hill Road and has lived in Foster his entire life.  He attended the Howard Hill and Moosup Valley one room school houses through the eighth grade.  He worked in the woods with his father and Uncles until he entered the service in 1943. He was deployed to Africa before being sent to Salerno, Italy where he earned his Silver Star.  Henry returned home from the war In January of 1946, met Barbara at church and they married 7 months later.  He went back to work working in the woods and in the lumber business until he took the job as Custodian of Capt. Isaac Paine School in 1961. Not wanting to give up the wood business, Henry and his brother George ran a small sawmill on Moosup Valley Road nights and weekends.  He retired from the school system but continued to saw up until last year. He loved to travel all over the New England states and Canada and even made it to Alaska in 1980.

He is survived by his children, William H. Luther of TN, Leslie D. Luther of Coventry, Russell B. Luther of Foster and Elizabeth J. Smith and her husband Brad Smith of Foster and 4 grandchildren, Clayton, Timothy and Michaela Smith and Lyndsey Zusi.  He was the brother of the late George H. Luther and Elsie M. Paine.

Inurnment with Military Honors in the Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery will be held on Saturday, October 5, 2019 at 11:00 am.  Relatives and friends are invited to gather at 10:45 am in front of the administration buildings and then we will proceed to the chapel at 11:00 am.

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