Friday, April 26, 2013

Big Al | In death, a businessman to the very end

[Neuharth's gravestone, which he erected prior to his death]

Former Gannett Chairman and CEO Al Neuharth, who died April 19 at age 89, will be buried in a public ceremony in his hometown on May 18 at South Dakota's Eureka Cemetery, alongside his parents, brother and sister-in-law.

His gravestone, which he bought and had placed alongside his family's graves, lists as his accomplishments the businesses he founded: USA Today, the Freedom Forum foundation, Florida Today in Brevard and the Newseum in Washington, according to the Aberdeen American News. He poked fun at himself by also engraving "SoDak Sports 1952 (failed 1954)," for his first media venture.

Neuharth was born in Eureka March 24, 1924, the youngest of two brothers.

Arrangements were made with Lien-Straub Funeral Chapel of Eureka.

[Photo: American News]

19 comments:

  1. Why is he being buried fully a month after his death? I have no idea.

    In northern states, burials are sometimes difficult during the dead of winter, because the ground may be frozen solid. But I doubt that's an issue right now in Eureka, where the current temperature is 50 degrees.

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    1. I once met a person who was in the business of digging graves. He was moving to a warmer climate so he was selling his equipment which included a jet engine. Not knowing when I was talking to him that he was a grave digger, I asked what he was doing with a jet engine. He said, "I'm a grave digger and in the winter, that's what we use to thaw the ground to dig the graves."

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    2. They've been busy rounding up the pallbearers, making sure they can all coordinate their schedules to carry the casket: Martore, McCorkindale, et al. With Dubow's back problems, they can forget about him.

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  2. Richard Michem4/26/2013 12:02 PM

    I wondering if he left his body to a medical school to play with before he buried. When their threw with whats left he get buried.

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  3. Wonder what USA Today's gravestone is gonna look like.

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  4. got his gravestone ready ahead of time, kind of like the pyramids. Oh' and the bust of your head in the lobby at the florida today building in Brevard has an old chewed up piece of green gum stuck in the upper left nostrol.
    God Speed MY friend!

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  5. For that matter, I wonder what Gannett's gravestone is going to look like. It should have the busts of Dubow, Dickey and Martore as they helped bury this company and its loyal,dedicated workers.

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  6. If someone puts a USA Today logo on my tombstone, expect to see my cold dead hand to rise above the ground and scratch it off LOL!!

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    1. Al gives us the last word on his feelings about the NEW USAT logo.

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  7. I wonder what his last words were?
    Certainly not "Rosebud."

    Click "Reply" if you have a good guess.
    I'll start with mine:

    "BLUE BALL."

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    Replies
    1. Steve Jobs' last words were: "Wow, wow, wow."

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    2. Well, considering he fell, they might have been: "Oww, oww, OWW!"

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  8. And, at the end of the road, we all exit in the same manner. No longer "big" anything. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.

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  9. Seems very appropriate. USA Today is as dead as Neuharth. Pun intended.

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  10. The Gannett bigwigs can go on a Jetcapade to the service, while others lower on the totem pole will be stuck with seats on a Buscapade to SoDak. Even in death, Big Al has zero humility.

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  11. I'm hearing "Girl on Fire" is pissed off that the new logo wasn't used. And what about equal space for USAT Sports Media Group. Where the hell is their logo?

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    1. My mother picked up USA Today at the hotel yesterday and said...This is the ugliest logo ever. Why did they change it? Guess Big Al agreed with her and the rest of the world.

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  12. Nothing screams "class" like logos on your tombstone.

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  13. Actually more understated than Frank Gannett's final resting place: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=2687&PIpi=75420340

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