Robert N. Harrington attended the University of Washington in 1942, where he studied chemistry and participated in the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps program. He joined the United States Marine Corps before May 1943, and trained at Camp Waldron in Farragut, Idaho, and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Around November 1944, he was deployed overseas as a pharmacist's mate, and he participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima, where he was wounded. He was then stationed in Hawaii, where he worked for a dental lab. Ella and George R. Bliss, Harrington's aunt and uncle, lived in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and had two children: Sheldon and Jessie.
From the guide to the Robert N. Harrington letters, Harrington, Robert N. letters, 1942-1946, 1943-1945, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
