Harry Mahoney was born in 1888 in Plattsmouth, Neb. He worked during his schooling as a troubleshooter for a local magneto telephone exchange. He joined Automatic Electric Co. in 1905 and was loaned to Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Co. in Liverpool, England in 1914 to prepare for their manufacture of Strowger equipment, and to assist the British Post office in its engineering requirements for conversion to, and maintenance of, automatic equipment.
During 1915, Mahoney supervised cutovers and organized systematic maintenance methods of many automatic exchanges in Canada. As liaison with Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co., he was assigned to supervise installation of the first dial office in the Bell System in 1919. He analyzed telephone service in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and he authored Principles of Automatic Telephony for use by engineering and maintenance instructors.
In 1930, he was elected first vice president of International Automatic Electric Sales Corp. He assisted in organizing Associated Electric Laboratories and was elected vice president in 1932, president in 1934.
As vice president, general manager and director of Philippine Long Distance Telephone (1945) and liaison officer on General MacArthur’s staff at the end of WWII, he coordinated the restoration of communications facilities destroyed by the evacuating enemy. In 1952, for the Minister of Posts & Telegraphs in Bogota, Columbia, and 1953, for the Minas Grande Oil Company in Caracas, Venezuela, he conducted studies and recommendations for modernization and introduction of microwave to the long-distance network.
He joined York Telephone and Telegraph Company as vice president, general manager and director in 1953, and resigned his position in 1959. He died in 1976.
