By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Former Salisbury Post Chairman and Publisher James F. Hurley III died early this afternoon, losing his most recent fight with cancer.
Hurley, 80, who went by “Jim” and “Jimmy,” had spent the last several months in the Kate B. Reynolds Hospice House and Pallative Care Center in Winston-Salem.
He underwent an operation for the cancer in late 2011. In his final months, he communicated only with gestures and written notes.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Three different Hurleys served as publisher during the family’s 85 years of ownership of the Post: James F. Hurley Sr. (Jimmy’s grandfather); J.F. Hurley Jr. (his father) and Jimmy himself, from 1974 until the newspaper was sold to Evening Post Publishing Co. of Charleston in early 1997.
Jimmy Hurley guided the paper through its most profitable era. He made the newspaper his career, rising from a sports correspondent at 13 to the editor’s job 20 years later, before later becoming publisher.
But Hurley also will be remembered for leading some of the community’s biggest fund-raising campaigns and his own personal contributions to projects touching virtually every facet of life in Rowan County.
He and his wife, Gerry, were married for close to 54 years. She was constantly by his side at the hospice house, and youngest brother Gordon visited them every day.
A more detailed story will follow in Tuesday’s Post.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263.