Longtime Carthage resident and former sportswriter and city editor for the Carthage Press Jack Raymond Harshaw died Monday, Sept. 28, 2008, at his home following a long illness. He was 81.

Mr. Harshaw is best remembered for his work at the Carthage Press, retiring in 1998. He first worked at the Evening Press in 1953 as a sports writer and later as the city editor.

“Jack will be best remembered as a longtime sports editor for the Press,” said good friend and fellow Press colleague Marvin VanGilder. “But there were periods of time when he was the city editor, briefly the managing editor and the associate co-publisher for a short period of time.
“He was a very skillful person and in the years when I was the city editor and he was the sports editor, we worked hand in glove,” continued VanGilder. “He was one of the most reliable journalists I have ever known. Of all the journalists I have worked with, he was the most consistent and most trustworthy.”

Mr. Harshaw was born Oct. 23, 1927, in Creston, Iowa, the son of John Winter Harshaw and Mary Marguerita Neuman Schwalbe Harshaw. He attended public schools in Creston and graduated from Creston High School in 1946.

He was a 1953 graduate of the University of Missouri, School of Journalism, Columbia, Mo.

“Jack was a very friendly and outgoing person,” said Carthage resident Sue Vandergriff. “He was a really good writer. If you read an article that Jack Harshaw wrote, there would be no mistakes in it. He had his facts correct and he was very readable. He gave you the whole story as he knew it.”
He married Betty Matthews on Aug. 21, 1954, in Carthage. 

Mr. Harshaw was very active in the Carthage Rotary Club, serving as the public relations chairman and the editor of the Carthage Rotary club bulletin for 37 years.  Jack received the honor of a Paul Harris Fellow from the Carthage Rotary Club for his many years of service to the club and community.

He attended the Disciple of Christ Church in Creston and the First Baptist Church, Carthage.  Mr. Harshaw was a veteran serving during WWII in Yokohoma, Japan, and then with the 141st General Hospital, San Antonio, Texas, before returning to Yokohoma, Japan.

He was a former member of the American Legion, Post 9, Carthage. Mr. Harshaw received several recognitions from the Carthage R-9 Board of Education, the Carthage FFA and the Carthage Rotary Club for his dedicated efforts of covering these events in the newspaper.

“Even 15 years ago, Jack Harshaw was one of a vanishing breed of newspapermen,” said Randy Turner, former Press managing editor, in his Turner Report blog. 

“His first job after graduating from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in 1952 was with The Carthage Press and he never left. He had many offers to return to his native Iowa, but he fell in love with Carthage and remained with The Press for more than four decades, never flashy, never demanding that his work be noticed, but simply doing his job day after day, year after year.”

Survivors include his wife, Betty of the home; two brothers-in-law, Robert Crusa and wife, Joy, Tucson, Ariz, Don Blankenship and wife, Roene, Carthage, Mo.; several nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by one brother, Allan Harshaw, Creston, Iowa.

Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 3, in the Knell Mortuary Chapel, Carthage.  A private family burial will be held in Park Cemetery, Carthage.

Memorial gifts are suggested to the American Diabetes Association in care of Knell Mortuary, Carthage, Mo.

"Jack Harshaw always did his job and expected you to do yours,” said Jo Ellis, formerly of The Carthage Press. “When I met him, he had been in the news business so long, he didn't let many things excite or upset him.

"His work was based on the old-fashioned concept of truly objective journalism, a factor which sometimes is sadly lacking in much of today's reporting."