Stanley Harrison dies at 81; headed communications at CPB

Stanley Harrison, a former communications director for CPB, died of cardiac arrest after a stroke on April 5 in Miami Beach, Fla. He was 81.

Harrison oversaw communications for CPB from 1976 to 1985.

He was born in Baltimore to Frank and Thelma Baer Harrison. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science at the University of Maryland, College Park, and his doctorate in government and public administration from American University in Washington, D.C.

At the time of his death, he was teaching at University of Miami’s School of Communication. He also taught part time at American University and at the Pentagon. Earlier in his career he worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun.

Harrison wrote several books, including 1998’s Editorial Art of Edmund Duffy, about a Pulitzer Prize-winning Baltimore Sun cartoonist, and, in 1999, Mencken Revisited: Author, Editor & Newspaperman. He was considered an expert on Mencken, and he edited the quarterly scholarly journal Menckeniana.

Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Frances; two brothers, Larry Harrison and Carroll Harrison; and sister Linda Harrison.

Burial will be April 19 at Lorraine Park Cemetery in Woodlawn, Md.