SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Harry Richard Horvitz, the former publisher of the Lake County News-Herald and the Lorain Journal, has died at home from cancer. He was 71.
Horvitz, who died Thursday, was the son of Samuel A. Horvitz, who died in 1956 and left a wealthy estate that was fought over for years by his feuding sons.
After years of litigation and acrimonious public bickering, the estate was split into three sub-trusts under a plan approved by Cuyahoga County Probate Court.
Selling the family's publishing interest was part of the division of assets. The feud lasted more than 30 years, resulting in 17 lawsuits.
'What we inherited is a curse,' said Leonard C. Horvitz, one of Harry's brothers. The brothers fought -- sometimes physically, according to published reports -- over control of the financial empire left them by their father.
Harry, the oldest of the brothers, had run the family's publishing interests. The Horvitz family once owned fivenewspapers and extensive cable television properties.
In addition to the newspapers in Lake County and Lorain, the Horvitz family owned the Mansfield News-Journal, the Dover-New Philadelphia Times-Reporter, and the Troy (N.Y.) Times-Record. The newspapers were sold in 1987 to Ingersoll Publications Co. of Princeton, N.J., and have again been sold.
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer said documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that Ingersoll paid $402 million for the newspapers. The Horvitz family estate had been valued at $700 million. Brother Leonard Horvitz operated a road construction business, while another brother, William, handled the family's real estate interests in Florida.
In 1978, Harry asked the probate court to remove William and family lawyer Francis Kane as co-trustees of the estate. Leonard, who was not named as a trustee, joined William and Kane in a counterclaim to oust Harry as a trustee. The break-up of the Horvitz estate was the final result of the claims.
At one time, Harry Horvitz addressed the feud publicly in one of his newspapers. 'Do I love my brothers?' he asked. 'Probably not. I didn't have anything to do with their birth. That was their mother and father. My relationship to my brothers is an accident of birth.'
Harry Horvitz was president of the Ohio Newspaper Association from 1976 to 1979. He was also a member of the board of the Newspaper Advertising Bureau and also sat on an American Newspaper Publishers Association committee to defend freedom of the press and the First Amendment.
He was born in Elyria and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance and Commerce in 1942 and the Midshipmen's School at Notre Dame University. He served four years in the Navy during World War II as a commanding officer of subchasers in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters.
He retired in 1988 and subsequently served as chairman of the H.R.H. Family Trust and the H.R.H. Family Foundation, both founded by his family to provide scholarships for children and grandchildren of former Horvitz employees.
He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
