Born: c. 1896
Died: June 28, 1994
Married: Helen, Marion Bainbridge, Ruth Reynolds
Children:
Harry Nason was a real old-time, big-city newspaperman who'd worked for the New York World before he contracted TB and came to Saranac Lake to cure. After he cured, he became the Enterprise editor.
From what I've heard about him, Nason was one tough old bird. He was a boozer who always had a cigarette in his mouth and a curse on his lips. He knew the business inside and out; he did not suffer fools, gladly or otherwise, and always told it like it was.
Howard Riley was elected mayor of Saranac Lake in 1962, only the third Democrat ever to hold that office and the youngest in memory. His picture was taken right after he assumed office. He was on the steps of the town hall, decked out in a three-piece suit. His jacket was open; he had one hand on his hip. He was staring into the high middle distance, presumably at the glorious future his tenure would herald for the village.
After Riley's power picture hit front page of the Enterprise he got a note from Nason, then retired in Florida. It was a triumph of journalistic conciseness. All it said was, "Riley, it's OK to be important, but quit trying to look important."
From Bob Seidenstein's column, The Inseide Dope, in Adirondack Daily Enterprise, March 9, 2012.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, March 2, 2024
The Enterprise is 130 years old, Part II
By Howard Riley
…This brief piece from Mr. Nason’s story is from the middle of a long, long tale: “I was almost ready to be discharged from Will Rogers when the famed and beloved Bill White asked me to a cocktail party out at Camp Intermission where the only other soused-up guest was Fred Kury, then owner and publisher of the Enterprise.
“Fred and I were introduced and being polite and gentlemanly, he asked me what I was going to do after I left Will Rogers. Fred didn’t really care, he was just making conversation. But I shocked him.
“Smiling, I said, ‘Mr. Kury, why don’t you drop dead?’ He was still pale when I went on, ‘I always wanted to get my hands on a small town newspaper. You kick in and I’ll take over.’ The next day he called me at the hospital and said, ‘I have no thought of dropping dead, Mr. Nason, and I don’t believe it will be necessary. But were you serious about working for the Enterprise?’ “A few days later I went to work as managing editor with Helen, my late wife, as city editor. Both of us had a little newspaper experience.”
Of course they had both worked at that New York City newspaper and had plenty of experience. They worked at the Enterprise from 1949 to 1956...
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, July 1, 1974
Harry Nason dies at 78
SARANAC LAKE - Harry B. Nason, Jr., 78, a former editor of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, died about 2 p.m. Friday in Will Rogers Memorial Hospital.
Mr. Nason came to Saranac Lake as a tuberculosis patient and later was editor of The Enterprise from 1951 to 1955. His second wife, Helen, was city editor atthe same time. After leaving Saranac Lake he became editor of the Honesdale, Pa. Citizen Times, and city editor of the Philadelphia Daily News.
While in Honesdale, Mrs. Nason died and, in 1957, Mr. Nason was married to Mrs. Marion Bainbridge of Philadelphia. Later he married Mrs. Ruth Reynolds who survives him.
Before coming to Saranac Lake, he was a cub reporter on the Philadelphia Inquirer, city editor, at 24, of the Philadelphia Ledger, managing editor of the Illustrated Sun and Evening PubJc, Ledger, and assistant editor of the New York Post. He was born in Philadelphia, Pa., the son of Harry and Anna Hennessey Nason.
Survivors in addition to his widow are: a son, Harry B. Nason, III of Philadelphia, Pa.; two daughters, Mrs. Duff (Virginia) Brown of Fort Myers Beach, Fla., also the editor of a newspaper; and Miss Jane B. Nason of Rosemont, Pa.; and two sisters, Mrs. Evelyn Imre of Kissimee, Fla. and Mrs. John Postles of Kennet Square, Pa.
There were no services. Cremation was in Oakwood Crematory in Troy.
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