Harold Addington
Herald-Journal
Herald American
Press Club President: 1972

When you entered Harold Addington?s ?office,? you recognized immediately that it was a place for serious thinking and writing. All available surfaces contained stacks of newspapers from across the United States and from other countries, reference books, and periodicals dealing with national and international issues. Often, many of these were opened to various pages, or marked for future reference, or tagged to be checked for additional clarification.

That was Harold Addington?s ?workshop!? For 30 years, he wrote editorials in logical, clear-thinking easy-to-understand language, which stated the Herald-Journal and the Sunday Herald American position on various local, national and sometimes international topics. Usually, those editorials also set forth the newspapers? suggested resolutions or a method of reaching an agreement on the issues discussed.

?You have to offer suggestions to build something up, not just tear it down? was the philosophy of this scholarly professional who explained, when asked, that his views were mostly shaped by his Mid-Western upbringing.

?A good editorial writer is a good reporter who does as much research on an opinion as time permits,? Harold once said. The publications and other materials in his office helped him to do much of his research there. But often, he talked with government leaders and elected officials, business executives or heads of organizations involved to obtain further clarification.

Harold was a regular on the campaign trails of state and national candidates. He went to South Vietnam in 1964 to get a first-hand view and report home on what was happening in that conflict. Harold always strove to understand the subject thoroughly before meeting with Alexander F. (Casey) Jones, executive editor of the newspapers, and other executives to discuss ideas for editorials.

Harold, joined the Herald-Journal and Herald American in 1952 as an editorial writer. A year later, he was named chief editorial writer, the position he held until he retired in 1982. He came to the newspapers from Syracuse University, where he taught journalism courses, including editorial writing. He also advised and supervised the work of journalism graduate students for several years.

He began his 46-year news career setting type (by hand) in the ?back shop? of a weekly newspaper in his native Kansas. He later worked on the student newspaper at the University of Kansas, where he earned a journalism degree and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the highest scholastic honorary. He served as executive secretary, and later, president of the New York State Society of Newspaper Editors. He was president of the Syracuse Press Club in 1972.

During World War II, Harold served as an intelligence officer in the Signal Corps, working on decoding enemy messages. He remained in the Army Reserves after the war and retired as a lieutenant colonel. Harold was devoted to his family ? his wife Ruth, who died in 1994, and his daughter Patti and son John.

Harold died in 1999.--Joseph A.