Joseph Close Harsch
Joseph Harsch studied history at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1927 after writing a thesis on the Hundred Years' War.
Joseph Harsch traveled to Corpus Christi, Cambridge where he received a bachelor's degree from Cambridge University in 1929.
Joseph Close Harsch was named as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Joseph Harsch studied history at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1927 after writing a thesis on the Hundred Years' War.
Joseph Harsch traveled to Corpus Christi, Cambridge where he received a bachelor's degree from Cambridge University in 1929.
Joseph Close Harsch was named as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Joseph Close Harsch was born May 25, 1905, in Toledo, Ohio, United States, the son of Paul Harsch, a real estate salesman, and his wife Lela. When Paul Harsch became a Christian Scientist, he raised his sons in the faith, which would lead to a career-long affiliation for Harsch as a reporter.
Joseph Harsch studied history at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1927 after writing a thesis on the Hundred Years' War. Later, he traveled to Corpus Christi, Cambridge where he received a bachelor's degree from Cambridge University in 1929.
In 1929 Joseph Harsch went to work as a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor in Washington.
At the outset of the Great Depression, Harsch was a newly hired young reporter at the Monitor in Washington. He stayed at the Monitor for nearly fifty years and filed stories from Washington, Rome, Berlin and other locations. Shortly after England's declaration of war, Harsch traveled to Berlin, where his reporting made him the first to cover World War II from both sides. On his way to the Soviet Union during a stopover in Hawaii, Harsch and his wife were asleep when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor began.
He met General Dwight D. Eisenhower in France. During the capture of Albert Speer in Glücksburg Castle (Speer was Adolf Hitler's Minister of Armaments and War Production) Harsch translated for a British officer leading the arrest and he reported of the capture of Karl Dönitz in a hospital of Mürwik (Muerwik), who was the head of the Flensburg Government. Harsch also reported from the Nazi concentration camps in 1945 when the Allied forces made their advance, and in the early years of the so-called Cold War, Harsch correctly predicted that the Iron Curtain would eventually fall along with the Soviet bloc.
Harsch made his first broadcasts during the time he was in Berlin as bureau chief for the Christian Science Monitor, filling in sporadically for William L. Shirer who was the noted Berlin correspondent for CBS. After Harsch returned to the United States, he joined CBC in 1943. In 1953, Harsch shifted his allegiance to NBC, serving as a news analyst for four years before returning to London as the senior European correspondent for the network. He became so well known in London circles that he was invited to dine with the Queen.
ABC became his broadcast home in 1967, when he was a commentator for the network until 1971, assigned to the American Entertainment Network effective 1/1/68. During the course of his broadcasting career, he continued to write his newspaper column.
He died on June 3, 1998.
Joseph C. Harsch was known for his work for the three major television networks, sometimes as a correspondent, other times providing commentary. He spent more than sixty years writing for the Christian Science Monitor. Joseph C. Harsch saw many historical events as they unfolded, from the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the Soviet Union during the early years of the Cold War. Harsch wrote several famous books based on what he had covered for the Monitor, including Pattern of Conquest, The Curtain Isn’t Iron and At the Hinge of History.
Joseph C. Harsch married Ann Elizabeth Wood, the daughter of retired United States Navy Rear Admiral Spencer S. Wood. The couple had three sons and remained married for 65 years, before Ann's death in 1997.
On the evening before Harsch's 93rd birthday and a month before his death, he married Edna Raemer, his editorial assistant of 25 years.
