Home Front, War Front, Heart Front
Course | Registration opens 8/3/2026 8:00 AM EDT
In this course, tales of a York couple during World War II will be shared. On the home front learn about Esther Barshinger’s work in sewing military apparel before shifting to producing Bazooka rocket igniters in York, PA. She left that job to travel to Colorado, where she married Harold Smith, just before he shipped out for duty on the European war front. Discover Harold’s work as a map maker before and after VE Day, as he prepared for deployment on a Japanese invasion. Esther (Barshinger) Smith returned home, working at York-Shipley, producing fog machines and rust proofing Army tank parts until VJ Day.
Stephen Smith
Stephen Smith retired as a manager of design engineering at York International Corporation. He shares his interest in local history on York Daily Records’ York Blog, where his YorksPast blog began in July 2012, and continues to this day with nearly 1,400 posts. Smith also has shared his knowledge of family and local history via presentations since 2003. His present list of seventy-three talk topics has been presented multiple times.