Harry Leeds HeidlerMaster plumberHarry Leeds Heidler, a...

Harry Leeds Heidler

Master plumber

Harry Leeds Heidler, a master plumber who led a band in the 1930s, died Saturday of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage at Anne Arundel Medical Center. He was 88 and lived in Annapolis.

A native of Annapolis, he founded the plumbing company Heidler and Branzell with a friend in 1947. Twenty years later, he founded Heidler Inc. with his sons and was active in the business until his death.

He was a founding member and former president of the Annapolis and Anne Arundel Master Plumbers Association, and served on the county plumbing board. He also was a member of the Associated Builders and Contractors and the board of directors of Augusta Building and Loan.

Mr. Heidler attended local public schools, then served in the Maryland National Guard during the 1920s. During the 1930s, he was the leader and drummer of "Harry's Hi Hatters." While performing at a club called Walley's on Main Street in Annapolis, he met his wife, Beatrice Mae Wells, who died in 1982.

During World War II, he worked on boats at the Annapolis Boat Yard, and later worked at the experimental station in North Severn.

He was a lifetime member of Elks Lodge No. 622, and enjoyed boating and fishing and reading about politics and world events.

He was a lifelong member of St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Annapolis, where services were to be held at 10 a.m. today.

A daughter, Carol Ann Heidler, died in 1945.

He is survived by two sons, Steven Dennis Heidler of Arnold and Harry Michael Heidler of Annapolis; two daughters, Janet Wells Henderson of Severna Park and Judith Ellen Speaks of Annapolis; a sister, Mable Elsie Mayer of Easton; and eight grandchildren.

Memorial donations may be made to the Hospice of Anne Arundel Medical Center, Franklin and Cathedral streets, Annapolis 21401.

Martin H. Hauser

Sales vice president

Martin H. Hauser, who worked more than 35 years for lumber treatment companies and had been a semiprofessional softball,

baseball and basketball player, died of cancer Wednesday at his home in Catonsville. He was 80.

Before serving in the Army during World War II, Mr. Hauser was an assistant manager of a lumber-treatment plant in the Joslyn Co.'s Pole Line Equipment Division. He became general manager of the plant shortly after he returned from military service and held that position until the plant closed in 1965.

He then joined F. Bowie Smith & Son, also a lumber treatment company, as a salesman. He eventually became vice president of sales and a part owner. He retired in 1980.

Mr. Hauser, a 1933 graduate of Polytechnic Institute, played sports with the Easterwood Boys Club under the tutelage of Easterwood Park's athletic director, David "Dutch" Baer. He helped organize and attended the club's annual reunions.

Keeping his love for sports throughout the 1930s, the West Baltimore native played shortstop in several Baltimore-area semiprofessional baseball and softball leagues. In the mid-1930s, traveled with the Trenton Democratic Club to a world softball tournament in Chicago. He also was a guard on teams in the Baltimore Basketball League.

After his marriage to the former Helen Heffner in 1940, Mr. Hauser curtailed his play in organized sports but continued to play softball and baseball informally for much of his life.

He was inducted into the Maryland Softball Hall of Fame in 1985 and was a longtime member of the Oldtimers Baseball Association of Maryland.

During World War II, Mr. Hauser served in an Army medical unit in England and was discharged as a sergeant in 1945. He was a longtime member of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7472 in Ellicott City.

A memorial service is to be offered at 1 p.m. Saturday at Bethany United Church of Christ in Woodlawn.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Hauser is survived by a daughter, Martina Ross of Eldersburg; two grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

William Barnes Hall

Building company owner

William Barnes Hall, a former Baltimore builder, died Aug. 8 of cancer. He was 89 and lived in Naples, Fla.

In 1937, Mr. Hall established William Barnes Hall Inc., a construction company that he operated until his retirement in 1973. The company specialized in building single-family homes, but included a division that built small apartment complexes and did remodeling work.

He also had worked as a sanitary engineer for the Maryland Health Department, the Roland Park Co., a Baltimore land development and sales firm, the engineering division of the Iowa State Highway Commission and the Cabot Carbon Co. in Pampa, Texas.

Mr. Hall was a graduate of the Polytechnic Institute and received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the Johns Hopkins University.

He enjoyed boating in the Chesapeake Bay and at Ocean City.

Mr. Hall was a Boy Scout commissioner in the Parkville area, an elder in Aisquith Presbyterian Church and past president of the Kiwanis Club of Parkville. He also had been a board member of the Parkville branch of Equitable Trust Co.