George B. Irish

1944 - 2022

News story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

George B. Irish, a Toledo native who became a corporate executive with Hearst Newspapers after serving as publisher of dailies in Michigan and Texas, died Tuesday at his Avalon, N.J. residence. He was 78.

The cause was an apparent heart attack, his daughter Sandi Draper said. He and his wife, Jeannie, had lived in New York City and were in Avalon as they awaited the completion of a new home in Villanova, Pa.

Mr. Irish was vice president and Eastern director of the William Hearst Foundation of California and the Hearst Foundation Inc. of New York. The foundations, separate from the corporation, serve as national philanthropic resources for organizations working in culture, education, health, and social services, according to the Hearst Foundations' website.

"George made the world a better place in business, in philanthropy, and as a friend," said Virginia Hearst Randt, president of the Hearst Foundation, according to the Hearst-owned Laredo Morning Times.

William Randolph Hearst III, Hearst Communication's chairman and a leader in the foundations, said: "George was a member of the family. We are deeply saddened by his passing but filled with gratitude for his many years of stewardship, professional wisdom and, especially, his friendship."

Mr. Irish retired from the corporation in 2008. As Hearst senior vice president and president of newspapers in 1998 he led Hearst's newspaper group as it expanded investments in print and online operations.

"My focus is on developing our business," Mr. Irish told The Blade in 1998. "With the advent of new technology, there is new opportunity for newspapers."

Mr. Irish earlier was publisher of the Midland Daily News in Michigan and, in Texas, the Midland Reporter-Telegram, the Beaumont Enterprise, and the San Antonio Light.

"He loved analyzing situations," said his brother John Irish, a former Lucas County chief deputy treasurer.

He was born Feb. 27, 1944, to Carolyn and Thomas Irish, the second oldest of what would be four boys, and grew up on Harvard Boulevard in South Toledo.

"I got my start with the Toledo Blade as a carrier in 1956 out of the old Broadway office across from Danny Thomas Park," Mr. Irish told The Blade in 1998.

His brother said: "He always had a drive." That included competing against other carriers "to see if he could get more customers."

He returned to his hometown at least annually to visit family and friends, his brother said.

"It meant a lot to him. He would walk the neighborhood - 'Mr. So-and-So lived in this house, and I had to collect on Thursday from him,'" his brother said. "He enjoyed reminiscing. He enjoyed coming back to Toledo."

He was a graduate of the former Divine Word Seminary in Perrysburg Township and of Millikin University in Decatur, Ill. He was Millikin's 1976 "young alumnus of the year," received an honorary doctorate in 2000, and was chairman of the school's board of trustees.

He began his career with the newspaper in Decatur and in time became personnel director. He was with the newspaper in Midland, Mich., when it was acquired by Hearst, and he remained with the firm.

"He was loyal," Mrs. Draper said.

He was almost a father figure to many who worked for him, said Robert Rivard, a former Newsweek magazine chief of correspondents, who became deputy managing editor of the San Antonio Light, of which Mr. Irish was publisher. That newspaper folded, and Mr. Rivard later was executive editor of the San Antonio Express-News, which Hearst acquired.

Mr. Irish was straightforward, generous, spiritual, and community-minded - and had little tolerance for office politics, Mr. Rivard said.

"George cared a great deal about mentoring people," said Mr. Rivard, who in retirement founded the San Antonio Report, a nonprofit digital media organization. "He was the very best of all the bosses I had in a 45-year career in journalism. I learned a lot about community from George and came to embrace commitment to community."

Mrs. Draper said: "He just had a servant's heart to give back to the community."

He was active in the Order of Malta, a Catholic lay religious order. He was a former president of the Texas Daily Newspaper Association and was 1992 "leader of the year." He was on the board of what was then the Newspaper Association of America. He received the American Press Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

He and the former Mary Rettig married Jan. 29, 1966. She died Jan. 23, 2005.

Surviving are his wife, Jeannie Wetherill Irish, whom he married July 22, 2006; daughters Sandra Draper and Christine "Christi" Sheedy; stepdaughters Jayne Ann Puccio and Amy Wetherill Cooley; brothers Charles Irish and John Irish; three grandchildren, and four step-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m. Thursday at Hanneman-Keller Funeral Home, Fremont. Funeral services will begin at 10 a.m. Sept. 23 at St. Joseph Church, Fremont.

The family suggests tributes to Millikin University, Decatur, Ill.; Society of the Divine Word, Techny, Ill., or the Ben Rogers-Lamar University "I Have A Dream Program" in Beaumont, Texas.