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Passing of Purcell marks ‘end of era’ in community |
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Thursday, 18 September 2008 |
 By MICHELLE ZLOMKE
Chief Managing Editor
Former owner and publisher of the Custer County Chief, Harry Purcell, died at his home in California last week. He would have been 92 on Monday, Sept. 15. A celebration of life service is planned at his home in Livermore, Calif., Saturday.
A complete obituary appears in today’s Chief.
Purcell acquired part ownership of the Custer County Chief in 1949, along with his mother, Grace. They eventually became sole owners of the business and Purcell served as the Chief’s publisher for more than 35 years.
His father, Emerson, was a founder of the Chief in 1892 and worked as its publisher until his death in 1943.
“Harry’s death marks the end of another era in the history of Broken Bow,” said local historian Phil Gardner. “Harry and the Purcell family were great contributors to the community.”
Purcell was working at the Beatrice Daily Sun when Japan launched a military strike on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Although he had two small children at home and was exempt from military service, he enlisted in the Army to serve during World War II.
“He told Mom he just couldn’t walk downtown and hold his head up high and the only way to hold his head up high was to enlist because it was the right thing to do,” said his daughter, Deborah McCaslin.
“Harry had a unique personality of his own,” Gardner said. “He was soft-spoken and had a real nice smile that you couldn’t help but smile back at.”
Purcell retained ownership of the Custer County Chief until 1984, when he sold the business to Smith Newspapers, Inc.
He and his wife, Anita, maintained homes in California and Nebraska from 1971 until the sale of the newspaper.
McCaslin, current publisher of the Custer County Chief, said Purcell led the newspaper through many upgrades.
Printing technology at the publication went from handset type, to Linotype, to computer offset printing during his tenure.
Under Purcell’s leadership, the Custer County Chief was the fourth paper in Nebraska, and the first non-daily in the state, to evolve to offset printing, McCaslin said.
In a 1992 letter congratulating the publication on its centennial anniversary, Purcell reflected on some of the challenges in publishing a community newspaper.
“Publishing a newspaper in a small community is not always popular and many times controversial,” Purcell wrote.
“I remember one incident when an article was printed about the Merna Ladies Aid Society meeting. When the article came out, a printer had turned an ‘m’ over, making the word wet, reading how the ladies wet and each lady did her part.”
Purcell’s letter is reprinted on Page A4, the Viewpoint page of today’s Custer County Chief.
While in Broken Bow, Purcell was an active member of the library board, the hospital board, the airport board and Custer ARC.
He was one of the local businessmen instrumental in bringing cable television to Broken Bow, McCaslin said, and was a founder of the Children’s Christmas Fund.
“Harry was very civic-minded and belonged to everything imaginable,” Gardner said.
Angela O’Brien, a founding member of Custer County’s Arc (then the Association for Retarded Citizens) said Purcell used the presence of the newspaper to help community causes.
“He was very, very good about publishing anything we needed,” O’Brien said. “He was very kind in helping us with our communication.”
In addition to his involvement in local activities, Purcell also was an Ak-Sar-Ben ambassador and was active in the Nebraska Press Association.
Purcell pursued his education in journalism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
He left the university to work in advertising at the Beatrice Daily Sun and the Grand Island Independent before returning to the family publication. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 25 September 2008 )
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