Harry N. Downs Sr.
1906 - 1974

Inducted June 17, 1999

Born April 29, 1906, in Mount Carroll, Ill., Harry Downs had eight years of experience in the newspaper business by the time he graduated from high school. He had started as a newspaper boy in the fourth grade.

He worked at the Mount Carroll Mirror-Democrat all through school and then at newspapers in Minnesota and North Dakota. For five years, he was foreman of the Northern Minnesota Publishing Co. in Hackensack, Minn.

Harry Downs and Mamie Wynn were married in Backus, Minn., on Nov. 7, 1928. They were the parents of two children: a daughter, Agnes Isle, and a son, Harry Jr.

In 1940, Downs and Mike Vukelich purchased the Aitkin, Minn., Republican, a weekly newspaper and printing business. In 1945 they sold and moved to Wolf Point, Mont., to run The Herald-News.

In 1960, Harry and Mamie Downs purchased Vukelich’s shares in The Herald-News in Wolf Point. He had been an absentee partner since 1946, when he had moved to Cody, Wyo., and acquired other newspaper interests.

He later acquired the Poplar Standard and the Culbertson Searchlight.Each has been a first-place winner in the Montana Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Contest, with many of the award-winning articles having been written by Harry.

In addition to serving as president of the Montana Press Association from 1969 to 1970, Downs was a charter member of the Wolf Point Elks Lodge; a past grand master of the Odd Fellows Ledge in Backus, Minn.; and a member of the Wolf Point Chamber of Commerce. He was named as the Wolf Point Jaycees Boss of the Year in 1968.

Through the years, Downs guided many young men and women as they began careers in the publishing business. This mentoring continued throughout his career as a publisher as a steady stream of young, enthusiastic men and women joined the staff of The Herald-News to get their start in the newspaper business.

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