Harry K Wells

Harry K. Wells, former chairman of the board and CEO of McCormick & Co. and a World War II veteran, died Saturday of respiratory failure at the Blakehurst Retirement Community in Towson. He was 94. The son of Clifton Kennedy Wells, a homebuilder, and Ruth Jones, Harry Kennedy Wells was born in Baltimore and raised in Homeland. A Polytechnic Institute graduate, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1943 in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. He enlisted in the Navy in 1943, and served as an engineer aboard a ship and later was promoted to head a troop transport in the Pacific. He was discharged with the rank of lieutenant in 1946. Elected a director of McCormick & Co. in 1965, he was promoted to vice president and general manager of the Schilling Division the next year. In 1968, Mr. Wells was named a vice president at McCormick, and the next year, president of the company. He added the title of CEO in 1970. He served as chairman of the board and CEO of the Hunt Valley company from 1977 to 1988, when he retired. His wife of 62 years, the former Lois Luttrell, died in 2008. He is survived by two sons, David Kennedy Wells of Timonium and Robert Grayson Wells of Melbourne, Fla.; a daughter, Katherine Wells Witbeck of Lancaster, Pa.; and seven grandchildren.