OCEAN CITY — Ocean City and Worcester County lost a community pillar and visionary this week with the passage of Hale Harrison at the age of 75.
Harrison and his family are synonymous with Ocean City, and the entire county, from their vast hospitality interests to endless charitable efforts, which often went unnoticed or unpublicized. A Stephen Decatur High School graduate, Harrison attended the University of Maryland before returning to Ocean City to operate the family hotel business.
The Harrison family has been in the hospitality business in Ocean City since 1952 when Lois and George Harrison built and opened the Harrison Hall Hotel. At one point, the Harrison family owned the largest peach orchard business in the world based in Berlin through Harrison Brothers Nurseries dating back to 1884.
Harrison was a partner in the Harrison Group Resort Hotels and Restaurants. Harrison and his brother John founded the Harrison Group in 1970 and the company now owns a dozen hotels and numerous restaurants in Ocean City as well as hotels in North Carolina and Virginia.
While his private business success is as impressive as it comes, Harrison’s public service is also legendary. He served on the Ocean City Council from 1978 to 1982 and also served on the Ocean City Planning Commission, including a stint as chairman. His volunteer contributions to the community are too lengthy to list entirely, but he was instrumental in bringing Atlantic General Hospital to Worcester County and served on various boards and commissions throughout his life.
At the time of his passing this week, Harrison was serving as the chairman of the 12-member Board of Directors for the Calvin B. Taylor Bank. He was proud to declare he was the youngest ever to join the Taylor Bank Board of Directors in 1975 and was the longest to serve at 47 years.
A clearly emotional Mayor Rick Meehan at the close of Monday’s meeting fondly recalled his friend Hale Harrison, who passed away earlier on Monday.
“On a sad note, we were all shocked to learn today Hale Harrison had passed away,” Meehan said. “Everybody up here certainly knew him and everyone in this room knew him. I think it’s safe to say just about everybody in this town knew him.”
Meehan, who joined the council in 1985, fondly recalled his contributions during a time of great change for the resort.
“He served with [late former Mayor] Harry Kelley,” he said. “He served at a very important time in our history. He made decisions that impacted generations and will continue to impact generations to come.”
Meehan said much of what Ocean City has become was nurtured during those transition years when Harrison served on the council and on the planning commission.
“That was a time of great change,” he said. “When you look at Ocean City today and see how it has been redeveloped, Hale and his family have been a big part of that.”
Meehan closed his comments with an emotional nod.
“He will really, really be missed,” he said. “It’s with a heavy heart that we remember him today.”
Former Ocean City Mayor and State Senator Jim Mathias this week shared many memories of Harrison, with whom he was close and had been friends for over 50 years. Mathias, who has been Harrison’s neighbor for decades, said when his family moved to Ocean City and began its fledgling arcade business, Harrison was there to help as a mentor and an early friendship bond was formed that lasted half of a century. Mathias said family always came first for Harrison, and that he always felt like family over the decades of their friendship.
“He loved his family,” he said. “That was his first allegiance. He was a quiet man and he always told me the unvarnished truth. He was a straight shooter.”
Beyond running his vast business operations, his community service and his philanthropic efforts, Harrison was quietly known for his charitable spirit. Whether it was providing rooms or meals to a family displaced by a fire or lending a helping hand in the event of an emergency, Harrison quietly stepped in to offer assistance whenever needed, according to Mathias.
“He was a very private man,” he said. “I don’t even know most of what he did. When there was a person or a family in our area that had some kind of hardship or tragedy, he was right there. Every element of who we are as a community, he was always there to do his part.”
Mathias said his years of service on the council and later as mayor did not overlap with Harrison’s one term on the council, but he respected his approach to city government.
“He believed in the local government,” he said. “He was instrumental in the transition to a city manager form of government. He believed in the public trust, and he was all about transparency. He wanted everything out front.”
Harrison and the Harrison Group Resort Hotels and Restaurants were instrumental in ushering in a new era of popular, branded hotels in Ocean City, according to Mathias.
“He was a visionary,” said Mathias. “He saw the future in the whole flagged hotels trend. There weren’t a lot of branded hotels in Ocean City for a long time. He brought in Holiday Inn and Quality Inn and Best Western. He was really a pioneer in bringing branded hotels to Ocean City and the whole culture of expectations and quality. He was an oceanfront guy. That’s where he wanted to be.”
Like Meehan, Mathias said Ocean City is a better place because of Harrison and his countless efforts on behalf of the resort and beyond.
“We are a better community because of Hale,” he said. “We are a stronger community because of Hale. For those reasons, our future looks bright here in Ocean City.”
In a statement Tuesday morning, Taylor Bank President Raymond Thompson praised Harrison for his long-term commitment to the community bank.
“During his 47 years of service on our Board, Mr. Harrison was the bank’s in-house expert on the Ocean City tourism industry,” he said. “An outstanding business and civic leader, Mr. Harrison’s sharp business acumen combined with his quiet way endeared him to all who knew him. We will miss his exceptional leadership as our Board Chair. He was extremely proud of our bank, and our bank employees.”
On behalf of the Atlantic General Hospital Board of Trustees, AGH President/CEO Don Owrey and the entire hospital system, Board Chair Charlotte K. Cathell said Harrison’s impact on this community was immense, particularly his influence to help launch AGH.
“A great void has been created by the loss of one of the early visionaries of Atlantic General Hospital, Hale Harrison,” Cathell said. “Hale followed in his father’s footsteps, who in the mid-1940s started the movement to build a hospital in Worcester County, and in the latter ‘80s and early 90s worked along with a number of other community leaders and fought tirelessly to obtain the goal of a local hospital. In the early years, Hale was a behind-the-scenes guy who would quietly use his influence and contacts with numerous local and State of Maryland business leaders and government leaders to garner support for the building and continuing operation of the hospital. He was a member of the original Board of Trustees and served as chair from 1998 to 2000 during which time AGH became an independent hospital system. We all will miss our former leader and great friend of the entire hospital system and community.”
From a hospitality perspective, Ocean City Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association Executive Director Susan Jones said it’s difficult to imagine the resort without Harrison.
“The hospitality community is certainly in shock after learning of Hale’s sudden passing,” said Jones. “Having been raised in a hospitality household, Hale was truly a forward thinker, an icon, setting the tone for Ocean City tourism. I remember how proud he was when we recognized his mother, Lois, as a ‘Steel Magnolia’ as she truly was a Lady of Hospitality. Her Harrison Hall hotel was the first in Ocean City to have private bathrooms in every room. Hospitality was certainly in his DNA. It is hard to imagine what Ocean City would be like without the drive, intelligence, and vision of Hale Harrison.”
