Blanton Winship Haskell

Blanton Winship Haskell, 83, died Friday, May 23, 2003 at home in Savannah. Mr. Haskell, son of George Owens Haskell and Frances Winship Haskell was born in Savannah on March 28, 1920. He spent his youth in Coral Gables, FL and in Macon, where he graduated from Lanier High School in 1937. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology and received a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1942. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. While stationed at Hunter Field, he met and in 1943 married the former Myrtice Draughon of Savannah. During WWII, he served in Air Intelligence with the Eighth Air Force in the U.S., Great Britain and Germany. Mr. Haskell was wounded in action and captured by the Germans shortly after the Normandy landings in 1944 and subsequently escaped from a prisoner of war camp. He attended the rank of Captain and left the army in 1945 at the end of the Second World War. Following WWII, he accepted a position as an engineer with the General Electric Corporation and worked in the companys factories in Lynn, MA and Schenectady, NY. In 1949, he went to work with the pulp and Paper Company Rayonier at its mill in Fernandina FL. He was named mill manager in 1955. He was later in charge of building a second unit for the companys Jesup mill and made mill manager there in 1956. In 1965, Mr. Haskell was promoted to Vice President of Manufacturing and transferred to what had become ITT-Rayoniers corporate headquarters in NY. He was ultimately named Senior Vice President and placed in charge of all manufacturing, timberlands, research and engineering. He oversaw the development, construction and early management of Rayoniers pulp mill in Port Cartier, Quebec, at the time one of the largest mills in the world. Mr. Haskell took early retirement from ITT-Rayonier in 1978 and pursued a second career as a consultant, with clients in both the American and Canadian pulp and paper industries, in particularly the timber Corporation in Temiscaming Quebec. He and Mrs. Haskell returned to Savannah in 1982 and have lived here since. Mr. Haskell was a member of Christ Episcopal Church, where he was baptized in 1920. He was an enthusiastic traveler, avid reader and independent thinker, whose interests ranged from history and science to literature and politics. He was a member of the Savannah Yacht Club. Survivors: wife, Myrtice Draughon Haskell of Savannah; son and daughter-in-law, Robert and Fatima Haskell of Savannah; daughter, Sally Haskell of Madison CT; granddaughters, Miriam, Lily, Katherine and Molly. Visitation: 4:00-5:00 p.m. Saturday at Fox and Weeks Funeral Directors Hodgson Chapel Graveside Services: 2:00 p.m. Sunday in Greenwich Cemetery. Remembrances: Hospice Savannah Inc. or Charity of Choice. Fox & Weeks Funeral Directors Hodgson Chapel Savannah Morning News May 24, 2003 Please sign our Obituary Guestbook at www.savannahnow.com