Harry "Hal" Lainson Jr.

HASTINGS - Harry Ackley "Hal" Lainson Jr., 98, of Hastings died Friday, Nov. 19, 2010, at home.

Services will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at First Presbyterian Church in Hastings, with the Rev. Dr. William Nottage-Tacey and the Rev. John H.G. Curtiss officiating. Private family burial will be in Parkview Cemetery at Hastings.

Visitation will be from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, with family present from 5 to 7, at Livingston-Butler-Volland Funeral Home & Cremation Center and one hour prior to service at the church.

Mr. Lainson was born on Aug. 7, 1912, in Fairbury to Celia (Jennings) Lainson and Harry Ackley Lainson.

Survivors of the immediate family include his wife, Gretchen, and two daughters and sons-in-law, Margaret and Charles Hermes and Mary and Jorn Olsen.

Other survivors include three grandchildren and spouses, Stephanie and Mark Bliss, William and Amy Hermes, all of Hastings, and Erica Olsen of Los Angeles, Calif.; one stepgrandson and spouse, Christopher and Allison Olsen of Plano, Texas; three great-grandchildren; and two nieces and two nephews and their families.

The family moved to Hastings in 1914, and in 1920 H.A. Lainson became manager of the new Wholesale Hardware Division of W.M. Dutton & Sons Company.

Hal graduated from Hastings High School in 1930, studied architecture at Iowa State University in Ames, business at Northwestern University, and returned to Hastings in 1933 to join his father in the business, graduating from Hastings College in 1934. Blessed with a fine baritone voice, he sang professionally as a young man.

Beginning as advertising manager at W.M. Dutton & Sons Company in 1934, he became general manager of the firm in 1937. In 1939, the name of the business was changed to Dutton-Lainson Company, there being no longer any Duttons in the firm.

In 1938, he married Gretchen Hollman of Minden.

The years of the 1930s went from severe economic depression and drought to the Second World War.

In 1940, Hal was assigned the development of the small Rose Manufacturing Division of the company and in 1941, H.A. Lainson purchased the Jaden Manufacturing Company and moved the factory to that location, where it remains today, retaining the Jaden name as well as the employees on the payroll. In the early 1940s the country was preparing for the coming war, and the company was awarded a shell contract that soon escalated into heavy production. Hal served on the U.S. War Department Shell Committee, traveling to and from Washington, D.C., by train in those years.

It was during this same period that the United States Navy was building one of the largest Naval Ammunition Depots in the country at Hastings, and the demands on the town were intense and overwhelming.

The Dutton-Lainson Company was proud to receive, three different times, the Army-Navy E Award of Excellence for their performance in the war effort. Only 5 percent of companies in the United States received this recognition, and many young women whose husbands were in the service, as well as older citizens in the Hastings area, contributed to that effort. In 1950, Hal became President of the Dutton-Lainson Company, and in 1960, following his father's death, Chairman of the Board.

In 1965, he received a Litt. D (Doctor of Literature) honorary degree from Whitworth College, and in 1982, an LLD (Doctor of Laws) honorary degree from Hastings College.

From the beginning, Hal Lainson's public service attests to his deep commitment to church, college, community, state, and nation. Among these are: Trustee, Deacon and Elder of the First Presbyterian Church; Trustee of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.; a founding member of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies in the 1980s, where he served as Chairman of the Personnel Committee and the Education Committee; National Director of The Navy League; Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Hastings College for 27 years, during which time 16 buildings were added to the college campus; he served as a member of the first appointed Civil Service Commission in Hastings, and the first Planning and Zoning Commission in Hastings; a founding Director and Corporate Secretary of the original Nebraska Broadcasting Corporation, KHAS radio, as well as the original Nebraska Television Corporation, KHAS-TV; Director of the National Association of Manufacturing 1950-1964; Director of Lincoln Telephone Company for 25 years; Director of the City National Bank & Trust Company for 27 years; Founder and Trustee of the Nebraska Independent College Foundation; Director of Associated Industries of Nebraska, serving as President; member of the first board of Economic Development for the State of Nebraska; member of the first Advisory Board of the Nebraska State Hospital Association; member of the Executive Committee for the Governor's Task Force for Government Improvement in Nebraska; first Commissioner for Nebraska's Commission for Post Secondary Education; Incorporator and first President of the Hastings Community Foundation; Life Member of the Hastings Salvation Army Advisory Board; a member of the Rotary Club; Member of the Hastings Masonic Lodge #50 and was awarded the Jordan Medal, at his death he was the oldest living member of Hastings Lodge #50 living in Nebraska; the Shrine, and Scottish Rite 32 degree K.C.C.H. The list does not include many other commissions and appointments, both state and national.

Conservative by nature, Hal Lainson was a conservationist who restored and enhanced any property for which he had responsibility, beginning with his Victorian home, which he expanded and improved during the 70 years he lived in it, and which expressed his discriminating taste, his knowledge of proportion and design, and his love of beauty, comfort, and hospitality.

With a logical and orderly mind, a gift for organization, procedure, and policy, he was perceptive and far-sighted in his judgments, all of which strengthened his leadership of the business and all other responsible undertakings. To the end of his life, he maintained a prodigious correspondence.

Active in community and church affairs, in state and national politics, in business and education, his long life reveals the values and standards that were implicit in all he did. With all his active involvement, he cherished his family, nurtured the minds, manners and careers of countless promising young people, and enjoyed both a keen mind and a remarkable memory. He was a man of character whose values and generosity inspired admiration and challenged imitation.

He was preceded in death by his parents and by his brother, John J. Lainson.

Memorials may be given to First Presbyterian Church, Hastings College, or Hastings Community Foundation. Condolences may be sent to www.lbvfh.com.