Eloquent eulogy

Copy of nephew’s remarks

at Harry Liggett’s funeral

At my request, the late BJ Alums founder/BJ newsroom retiree Harry Liggett's grand-nephew, Kent State journalism student Eric Poston, emailed me the eloquent eulogy delivered by Harry's nephew, Nick Kowal, at Harry's funeral Jan. 29. It was one of several remembrances of Harry that family members discussed on the St. Paul Church pulpit. Nick's mom was Pauline Kowal, sister of Harry's late wife, Helen Smolak Liggett. This eulogy revealed things that even I didn't know about Harry, despite being joined at the hip with him at the BJ for 26 years.

Harry D.C. Liggett was a good man. He was honest, truthful, loving, caring, compassionate, trusting, knowledgeable and generous. I guess it’s all those traits and characteristics that made him the best possible journalist he could be. He was a great husband, father, grandfather and uncle to many people such as me. 

Harry, Helen, great-nephew Eric

Uncle Harry, as we all knew him, would officially become part of our extended Smolak family when he married my mom’s sister, Helen, on September 7, 1957. What little did he know was that only 16 days later I would be born and I would eventually come into his life. 

Harry and Helen lived in the little town of Dennison, Ohio after they were married. They rented an apartment above a beauty salon where my mom and Aunt Helen would both get their hair done. Harry worked at the local newspaper as a reporter and photographer, but for all we knew he might have also been printing and delivering it too.

On our family visits to Dennison and Uhrichsville from Akron, Ohio, which I might add were nearly every weekend as long as our grandmother “Baba” was alive, we would always visit all the aunts and uncles. It would be a daylong adventure that we would always look forward to, especially for my two brothers and me. 

There were times while we were visiting Aunt Helen and Uncle Harry where he would get called out to report on breaking news in the local community. It’s those moments that convinced us that Uncle Harry was a very important person! Looking back now, we all realized that he actually was the first celebrity that we knew. 

Harry and Helen would eventually move to Akron in the mid-60s when Harry landed a job at the Akron Beacon Journal. They purchased a house in Firestone Park, which was only one mile away from our house. We knew it was exactly one mile because we couldn’t wait to measure it on our banana bikes that were fitted with speedometers and odometers. My mom was so happy because one of her sisters was so nearby. We were also very happy because now we had a place to visit.

I always remember the Akron Beacon Journal column that Harry wrote, which was named “On the Farm.” How ironic that Helen and Harry move from a little railroad town to the big city and Harry gets to write his very own column about the rural farming community. 

I remember our family driving by the Giant Tiger Department Store in west Akron one Sunday where there were many protesters out front. They were protesting the store being open, which was illegal back then. We drove by because my mom commented that Uncle Harry was doing a story on the protests. How ironic that Harry would be working on a Sunday to report on a story about people working on a Sunday.

Before Tom and Bob came into Helen and Harry’s life, the Kowal family would visit often, or should I say we would overwhelm their house. The family visit would always start out with everyone in the living room, which at that time we called the “front room.” 

Uncle Harry and my Dad would end up in the dining room and us boys would end up playing in the basement, which we truly enjoyed. Uncle Harry would be the person who opened the door to the basement and let us downstairs. 

He was a very smart man. Now that I look back, my brothers and I knew the layouts of all our relative’s basements quite well. Aunt Helen and Uncle Harry always had refreshments and goodies for us kids. We will never forget that. Visits between the Kowals and the Liggetts were very frequent, either at their hour or at our house.

One common theme with Uncle Harry was that he always wanted to know how us kids were doing in school and he always stressed for us to get a good education. A few years ago I had the opportunity to go to an Ohio State football game with a friend of mine that has a daughter attending the university. She took us on an extensive hour of the massive campus. As we walked around, I imagined what it might have been like for a smalltown boy named Harry Liggett to be walking some of these same paths back in the early 50s while working on his journalism degree.

As time moved on, the two biggest pride and joys of Harry’s life would happen in pairs, but spaced over quite a few years. First with his two sons Tom and Bob and then with his two granddaughters Erin and Anna. He was so proud of his children and grandchildren, which was quite evident by the major amounts of time that he spent with them and his personal involvement in all of their activities. He also couldn’t ask for a better daughter-in-law, Tom’s wife Sue.

Harry was always involved in something. He was not the kind of person that would just sit back and do nothing. Harry Liggett was a no non-sense kind of guy, who always wanted to do the right thing. He was a union rep for his co-workers at the Beacon Journal. He was deeply involved with the Boy Scouts of America when Tom and Bob were in the troops. He was on the St. Paul’s Church Council and helped to get many things accomplished at the church and school, long before his two sons and grandkids attended and graduated from the school.

He started and maintained the St. Paul’s Church blog and also started and maintained the Smolak Family genealogy website, which was one of my favorites. The pictures and articles that Harry posted were very information and the majority of the photos were priceless. 

Aunt Helen and Uncle Harry even opened their home throughout the years for a few of my cousins and some of his relative to live during various school years, so they could attend the University of Akron. This is how much getting an education meant to them. I might add that Harry was determined to make sure Tom and Bob both graduated from Archbishop Hoban High School and also obtained their four-year degrees from the University of Akron. Go Zips and Fear the Roo. Last I heard Bob may still be an A K Rowdy.

Uncle Harry has greatly influenced my nephew Eric Poston, who is currently attending the University of Akron for a communication degree. Eric also writes articles for his local newspaper, The Suburbanite, and also takes his own pictures. Sound familiar? 

Harry will be sadly missed, but greatly remembered. I will especially remember my Uncle Harry for the day that he stopped over to drop off all the admission’s paperwork for me to attend the University of Akron. I had been out of high school for a few years and was saving money for going to school, but I just hadn’t done anything to move in that direction. Uncle Harry provided the extra push and perseverance that I needed to get started. I eventually received a four-year degree in electronic technology and was able to land a great job. 

I thank my Uncle Harry for that.