A year later, it still hurts
A year ago today I lost someone I respect a lot.
Harry Liggett passed away Jan. 24, 2014.
 |
| Legendary Harry Liggett |
Harry’s nephew, Eric Poston, who
shows signs of continuing the family journalistic legacy while attending Kent State, wrote:
“A year has already passed since I lost my Great
Uncle Harry. Sure will miss taking care of his yard and visiting with him this
coming spring and summer. He was a great guy and a true inspiration to go into
journalism.”
BJ newsroom retiree Tom Moore wrote:
"A great friend. He sat across the desk from me for 20 years."
BJ newsroom retiree Tom Moore wrote:
"A great friend. He sat across the desk from me for 20 years."
BJ
newsroom retiree Harry Liggett was the founder of the BJ Alums blog. He ran it
the way he did his job at the BJ: Ferocious, determined, gruff but a damned
good journalist.
Harry
and the late Pat Engelhart, State Desk editor while Harry and I were his
assistant editors, taught me more about how to be a good newspaper editor than
I had learned in all my previous years. And I was 38 when I came to the BJ, so
I had 16 years of experience already.
Pat
Englehart, who died in Florida in 1995, was the whirlwind commander; Harry came
along and reorganized the debris. Frances B. Murphey, in her bib overalls,
completed the legendary trio.
John
S. Knight was the best newspaper owner I ever worked for, so I was
quadruple-blessed.
The great love of Harry's life was Helen Smolak Liggett, daughter of Czech
immigrants. The last time I visited Harry, he was calling out his name for her, "May! May!" and asking her to come and get him. Shortly after, she did.
Helen passed away June 26, 2010.
I know that nothing stays the same. But my admiration for Harry hasn’t
changed with the passing of a year.
And Harry and Helen are together forever, in Akron’s Holy Cross Cemetery
and wherever good people go after this life.
