Harold Avent received a A.B. degree at Southwestern College-Memphis (now Rhodes) where he was president of both his Senior Class as well as the Lynx Club, a cheerleader for all four years and a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity.  He was inducted into the honorary society of Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK) on April 23, 1929. 

In 1932 Harold received his M.D. degree from the University of Tennessee Medical School. He interned at Gallinger Hospital in Washington, D.C. and both the Ruptured and Crippled Hospital and the 5th Avenue Hospital in New York City and was a resident surgeon at John Gaston Hospital in Memphis specializing in general surgery as well as a member of the staff of Baptist Hospital.

He joined the Army Medical Corp June 25, 1942 as a Captain and was assigned to the Third Auxiliary Surgical Group at San Antonio, Texas. On December 8, 1942, he sailed for England on the Queen Mary. 

NOTE: In December 1942, Queen Mary carried 16,082 American soldiers from New York to Great Britain, a standing record for the most passengers ever transported on one vessel. During this trip, while 700 miles (1,100 km) from Scotland during a gale, she was suddenly hit broadside by a rogue wave that may have reached a height of 28 meters (92 ft). 


He served as chief surgeon of the 44th Evacuation Hospital during the European Campaign and had also served in Northern Africa, Sicily and Italy before being transferred to the 44th in March of 1944 where he was made Chief of Surgery.  The 44th Evac Hospital, located in Malmedy, was almost captured during the Battle of  the Bulge in December of 1944.  The 44th Evacuation Hospital was attributed with “doing a magnificent job” in attempting to save emaciated slave laborers freed at the Nordhausen, Germany, V-Bomb Plant. 

He was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service while in Europe from June 19, 1944 through September 22, 1944. His citation was for “the rapid organization and setting up of his hospital which enabled it to render immediate and efficient medical service to large numbers of servicemen and for his outstanding professional judgement and skill”. 

He was discharged in October 1945 as a Lieutenant Colonel. He was described by one of his fellow officers as "...the type that suffered quietly; he never complained.  He returned to his surgical practice in Memphis where he died two and a half years later at the age of thirty-nine.

He was a member of the Military Order of World Wars and the University Club and was active in the Idlewild Presbyterian Church."

NOTE: In an interview on 03/26/95 by Robert Avent of Josephine Miller— the first cousin of Dr. Avent—she described Harold as “cocky and spoiled” though everyone seemed to like him. His self-confidence probably came from the fact that at a very young age he knew he wanted to be a physician and was therefore very focused and self-assured throughout his life.