Harry Ojalvo was born into a Sephardi family in Istanbul on September 23, 1920. His father, Vital Ojalvo, was vice-consul of the United States in Erzurum from 1899 and in Trabzon from 1904, and later was the agent for the United States Lines and American Express as a partner in Turkey’s first professional travel agency, NATTA—the National Turkish Travel Agency. In 1937, the Ojalvo family was given Turkish citizenship by Prime Minister İsmet İnönü and the minister of foreign affairs, Tevfik Rüştü Aras.

After serving in the Turkish army during World War II, Harry Ojalvo operated an automo…