8060 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS April 16, 1985 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS JOE HARP He is, he says with a lopsided grin, "finally "There are a lot of great stories when you retiring after retiring." are the reporter," he says. "Of course, when Harp is probably Hagerstown's longest­ something doesn't get reported, it's your HON. CHARLES McC. MATHIAS, JR. running news show. He began his career fault." OF MARYLAND with The Morning Herald as a "very cub" Harp started working for $15 a week. It IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES cub reporter. He ends it after stints as re­ took him two years to get a $2.50 raise. He porter, city editor, managing editor, execu­ Tuesday, April16, 1985 worked six nights-Sunday through tive editor, and consultant. Friday-and remembers he got plenty ticked e Mr. MATHIAS. Mr. President, Joe Now 77, he says it's time to hang it up and off when he was told to work the seventh Harp, one of Maryland's finest news­ "let the young regime take over." day covering the long-standing Tilghmanton papermen, has stepped down from the It won't be easy. (jousting) tournament. He soon discovered Hagerstown Herald-Mail after 59 Even though he "retired" in 1980 at the seven days was to be the norm rather than mandatory retirement age of 72, he has re­ the exception. years, and all of us who have read the mained at his desk as a consultant, daily newspaper over the years will miss his supplying from his prodigious memory all When he joined the fourth estate in the deft touch. former Herald-Mail building in the first that Hagerstown history that occurred block of Summit Avenue, the newsroom was Joe Harp began his long and distin­ before most of today's crop of reporters was located on the third floor. It was a scene guished career back in the "old days" born. right out of "Front Page." when editors wore green eye shades, When he moves out tomorrow with his scarred Underwood typewriter, he'll take "We all wore green eyeshades ... and when newsroom decor duplicated the with him enough memories to write a book. hats indoors and out." sets in "The Front Page" and when re­ His family hopes he will. Reporters relied on shoe leather and the porters kept their hats on inside as "My kids have been after me to write a telephone to get all the news fit to print. well as out of doors. But Joe presided first-person account of my years as a jour­ Mostly shoe leather, Harp says. A telephone over the transition from those days nalist," he says. "Maybe I will. Maybe I'll call to any other exchange in the county when news was sent by Morse code to fix up a little office at home and put it all was a long-distance call at 10 cents a hello. the high speed computer technology down for them." "Management discouraged excessive use of of today. There'll be one heck of a lot to put down. the phone." Joe started his career as a cub re­ For 59 years, Harp has been at the center of Harp moved up the ladder to full reporter every major event in Washington County. status when Usilton, who was making $35 a porter and ends it after stints as re­ He has recorded the county's passing parade week, asked for a raise and was turned porter, city editor, managing editor, from Prohibition to Moral Majority. Like down. Usilton quit and Harp took over his executive editor, and consultant. And the Biblical preacher in Ecclesiastes, he's beat; covering city and county government, he carried out each of his duties with found there's not much new under the sun. the courts, the jail, the county hospital, the care and professionalism. As the Today's events have a precedent somewhere weather. Herald-Mail wrote in a goodby editori­ in his memory. "You personally covered everything," he As he contemplates the final "30" to his says. al: threescore years of reporting, he recalls It's well-nigh impossible to sum up Joe's that he wasn't overly impressed by newspa­ Newsmen didn't carry compact, spiral­ career or Joe the man. He is and was simply pering when he started. bound reporters' notebooks like they do one helluva newspaperman. As he remembers it, he had been graduat­ today. "You kept most of it in your head," He has seen it all, and he has written ed less than a year when his older brother Harp says. "The rest you jotted down on the about it all honestly, clearly, and fairly. Jerry, returning from his job in Hagers­ back of an envelope.'' He started out bright and ended up wise. town, told him he'd heard there was an He recounts the times he sat through Slow to burn, quick to laugh, he has given opening at The Morning Herald. long, late-night City Council sessions with balance and ballast to the turmoil that is a "I had to go to town for a dental appoint­ an envelope in his pocket and a paperback newsroom. ment," Harp says, "so I figured what the whodunit propped up in front of him. Once, In truth, The Herald-Mail is losing an ir­ heck, I'll go see about it." he says, he went through a book from cover replaceable talent and resource. He talked to Sam Phillips, who was then to cover in one meeting, but had an accurate I am happy to report that although general manager of The Herald-Mail Co. story in the next morning's paper. Joe is gone from his editorial duties, "Sam asked me if I'd mind working at "You learned how to glean the wheat he will not be forgotten. I, for one, night. I told him I'd work any hours. He from the chaff," he grins. intend to spend many more years shar­ said, 'Okay, get on upstairs.' It's a le on he's never forgotten. He still "I went to the dentist, then I came back writes briefly and to the point, from ing in the wisdom of Joe Harp. and started to work.'' memory and a few scribbled notes on the Some of Joe Harp's many accom­ Harp says he doesn't remember much back of an envelope. plishments were described recently in about his first day on the job. He surmises In all his 59 years as a newsman he has the Herald-Mail. I ask that the article he didn't do much. followed one philosophy: "If something be printed in the RECORD. "When I first came, I was lost. I didn't like happens today, write about it today and get The article follows: it. I started right out looking for another it in the next edition of the newspaper." job. I even applied at a bank.'' "MR. HERALD-MAIL"-FOR YEARS, JOE Hitting the next edition sometimes was a 59 He never heard from the bank, and some­ HARP KEPT PuLSE WITH THE NEWS hassle. where along the line he started liking the <By Gloria Dahlhamer) newspaper business. He remembers the night Roleigh Poffen­ It's odd to think that a possible toothache One of his first assignments was to cover a berger was murdered in Keedysville. Sports could lead to a career spanning six decades. piano recital for Dixie White, who was then editor Frank Colley was the only local re­ But if young Joseph Moody Harp hadn't The Herald's women's editor. "She said I did porter who owned a car, and Harp and had a dental appointment on March 25, a pretty good job," Harp recalls, "so I guess Colley cruised the county most of the night 1926, he never would have applied for a job that's when I started liking it." trying to get information. at The Herald-Mail Co. It was only because When he began what was to be a long and "Nobody was talking," Harp says, "and we he had to travel into Hagerstown from his colorful journalistic career, The Herald finally went to press with only a brief ac­ Smithsburg home to see the dentist that he boasted an editorial staff of four. The late count of the killing.'' decided to check out a reporting job his C. Neill Baylor was managing editor. Pres­ But he stuck with the story and when two brother had told him about. ton Usilton was assistant editor, Ms. White boys confessed to the murder, he had a Tomorrow, Harp will leave that job he ap­ handled women's news and feature stories, front page streamer. After they were tried plied for so offhandedly-59 years later to Frank Colley was sports editor. Harp was and sentenced to hang, he kept them in the day. the reporter. cigarettes and they kept him in copy. e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by the Member on the floor. April 16, 1985 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 8061 He wrote the final chapter from the He and other reporters spent hours talk­ "lifted" because he panned an act he didn't Maryland Penitentiary where he watched ing to school personnel and parents, piecing consider up to snuff. Once he appeared in a their execution. the facts together. "But we had the story by Potomac Playmakers production of "The "I didn't want to go," he confesses, "but presstime." Barker.'' Often he junketed to Baltimore or Sheriff Joe Baker accused me of being a Reporters were often the bearers of bad Washington or New York to catch the sissy, so I went with Baker and Deputy Bob news in the early years of the century, he Broadway shows.