'A rich, full life'

By Louise Hoffman Broach / Governments Editor

SAVANNAH - Eric Wishnie, a senior producer at NBC Nightly News, has met many veterans through Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" projects.

But the man who Wishnie calls the greatest American hero he's ever known, wasn't the subject of a television documentary or a chapter in Brokaw's books, although he had certainly lived a life of bravery and spirit that could have placed him there.

It was Harold Secor, Wishnie's father-in-law.

Secor, a highly decorated World War ll veteran and prisoner of war, former Savannah village mayor, author and environmentalist, died Monday after a short illness. He was 84.

His step-daughter and Wishnie's wife, Dateline NBC Correspondent Dawn Fratangelo, said her father "lived a rich, full life focused on his country, family, community and business."

In 1943, Secor was an Air Force sergeant who was missing in action after his B-52 bomber crashed during a raid in Occupied France. For two months, his parents in his Wayne County hometown didn't know if he was dead or alive, but finally, they received word through the International Red Cross that he was a prisoner of war in Stalag 17, near Krems, Austria.

He was there two years, during which he formed a deep and lasting friendship with his German guard, Franz Heiler, who he would visit two decades later in Vienna. When they saw each other after nearly 20 years, the two hugged and cried.

"They were just guys first," said Wishnie. "(Heiler) was a Nazi, but he didn't believe in it. He was forced into the war, like a lot of young men were at the time."

Secor was awarded many metals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross and two Purple Hearts.

In the 1980s, he published "The Pre-History of Savannah," a book that focused on life in the area before settlers came.

As a little boy, he would comb the town's muckland for Indian artifacts, something he continued through most of his life.

"He wouldn't just pick up an arrowhead," Fratangelo said. "He would learn about it, write about it and then contribute it to science. He cared about it, and he cared that it was a piece of history of this place."

Although he traveled around the world, both in the service and later, Secor "thought the whole world started right here in little Savannah," his daughter said.

Secor and his brother ran Secor Lumber, a company their father developed from a grain and coal enterprise. Up until a week before he died, Secor was still working there, now with nephews David and Brian Secor.

"Even when he was in ICU, in the hospital, and he couldn't talk, he was pointing to a board with letters on it, saying that he wanted the boys to know he wanted to work," Fratangelo said.

"He was a great designer, and he did it all without the computers we have today," Wishnie said.

"But the funny thing is, he was a terrible fix-it man," Fratangelo recalled fondly. "I don't know if he could even check the oil in his car."

He was mayor of the village for four years and served on many town committees, including one to develop a huge conservation project currently being planned for the area by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Audubon Society.

In the new Savannah American Legion/VFW Post, there are frames filled with war memorabilia that Secor donated, including a picture he took of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

"You don't have enough paper to write about Harold," said long-time friend Casey VanLeeuwen.

"He did such a great job with us," Fratangelo said. "He was a loving father figure for me. It hurts us right now, because we feel his loss, but I really think he would have preferred it this way, not to linger. He had a very full life, and he wanted it that way."

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