Earl Dean Harwood was born on October 10, 1951 to Frank N. and Dorothy M. (Stedman) Harwood, in Flagler, CO.

When the nurse brought him into his mother, she said "you have a red-headed boy." Dorothy said, "no, he has dark hair" so the nurse washed the oil out of his hair and sure enough, he had red hair.

He was welcomed home by his three siblings, Coreena, Carl, and Sharon.  Earl was a little mischievous as he grew and would sneak a bit of sugar from the sugar bowl when no one was watching.  Mom caught him one day and spoke loudly to him, he shook the sugar all over the table.

He attended all twelve years of school at Flagler Public School.  He played football in high school and was in the band.  Earl joined 4H club and raised steers to show and one year had sheep also.  He enjoyed the animals in the farm and would ride the milk cow, Princess, out of the barn most times.

When Earl was ten, he, Carl, and Sharon went to a movie in Limon with a couple young people from Arriba.  On the way back, the other guy asked his sister if she wanted to drive.  She said "No" and Earl said "I will," so he did.  We were on the old highway from Genoa.  He hadn't driven very far when a car popped over the hill at a high rate of speed and hit us head-on.  Several were hurt and all were taken to the Flagler Hospital.  Earl had a broken femur in the right leg and a broken ankle on the left side.  He was taken to Children's Hospital in Denver where they put him in traction for three weeks before putting him in a body cast from the arm pits to the toes on the right side and cast on the left.  He got pretty efficient at working the yoyo while in there.  It was quite an experience for the whole family.

In the wintertime, the family would gather around the piano and Frank would teach each one some about playing an instrument, banjo, guitar, or piano.

After high school, he worked for the Kit Carson County Sheriff Dept under George Hubbard for 1 year.

Earl got pretty good on the guitar and helped play for some dances and some other gatherings, and playing and singing for some events with others.  He played with the Country Cuzins band for several years.

Earl ran the pool hall in Flagler for about 4 years. He also did some custom swathing and baling as well.  He worked at the Anton Co-op under Chet for several years and lived behind the Anton Store.  He decided to try raising goats so he got some pygmy goats.  He enjoyed watching them so of course took a few pictures.  When he was in a crowd and the ladies would pull out the pictures of their kids, Earl would pull out his pictures to show them his kids (kid goats.)  He always got a laugh out of that.

Earl was good dancer as well as musician.  He tried not to miss too many dances.

Earl joined the Elks organization in 1983.  The Elks are an American organization only.  He was an officer for nine years, volunteer bartender for several years and worked the booth at the fair for a number of years where they served the spiral potatoes.  He was the go-to guy if something needed fixed.  He was Elk of the Year in 2007.  He was a member for 42 years.

Earl bought his home up at Akron in 1990.  There, he raised and sold many calves for a lot of years.  One year, he had a Quonset full of rabbits he raised and sold for meat.  On his farm, he had many cats, he would throw them a chuck of cheese sometimes just to watch them fight to see who got the most.

He worked at the landfill south of Akron for many a year.  On Sundays, he would go to the golf course and night clubs to collect pop and beer cans and sold the aluminum by the pound.

Earl enjoyed working the Food Bank every month.

Earl used to be able to pop off one joke after another.  If there were blondes around, you could be sure there would be blonde jokes.  He was a busy guy but loved what he did.  If he got bored, he'd change a wall or a closet in the house.  Find a building somewhere to tear down for the wood.  When Earl got sick last November, he had good neighbors who took care of his goats and fed the cats.  He really appreciated their help.  When he got sick in January he knew he had to make some big changes and some big decisions.  The kidneys were the biggest problem.  He knew he couldn't take care of the goats anymore, so they needed to be sold.  Again, good neighbors helped.  Then in May, he found out the mass of the kidney was football-size.  He saw a couple doctors, but the prognosis wasn't encouraging.  He knew dialysis was going to be a part of his future.  When he entered the hospital on June 19 in Greeley, they started dialysis.  They didn't think he could survive kidney surgery at that time, so a decision needed to me made after a few days and he chose not to have dialysis.

We spent time talking about God, and he stated he had spent some sleepless nights talking to him.  He rededicated his life to our Lord and wondered why he hadn't talked about that before.  Until his heart was ready and open to Jesus, he couldn't hear him.

Earl passed away very peacefully on July 5, 2025.  He is preceded in death by his parents Frank and Dorothy Harwood, a nephew Christopher Reiter and a niece Twila Wright.

He leaves behind to miss him his siblings, Coreena Ulrich, Carl (Debbie) Harwood, and Sharon (Fred) Reiter.  Neice Darlene (Jim) Coffman, Lester (Brooke) Harwood, Andy Harwood, Darwin (Amber) Harwood, Yvette Harwood, Carlene Harwood, Dwayne Reiter, Stepdaughter Annetta (Skip) Rieber and a host of other nieces, nephews and cousins.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, August 2, 2025 at the Bethel Union Church at 11:00 a.m.  A graveside will follow at 2:00 p.m. at the Flagler Cemetery.