The Life and Good Times of Harold Huston

Harold Huston

“When I was 17 my father was an idiot.  By the time I was 25, I couldn’t believe how smart he had gotten” Mark Twain

My father died today, Friday October 8, 2010.  The cause of death was a complicated bunch of medicalese related to heart, lungs and kidneys, but the real cause of death was a life lived to the fullest in every respect, and the parts were just plain worn out.  While he had been slowing down the past 9 months, everyone should take comfort in knowing he went out exactly as he wanted, with his boots on, going pretty much full tilt, even yesterday demanding that I talk business with him as usual before the sun was up.  He passed peacefully in his sleep.

He leaves his wife Joy, and two children, me and Kathy, who is married to Mark Closson, and his grandchildren, my three children, Adam, John and Louisa.

Alot of you knew him in a specific context, and because his friendships spanned decades and oceans, I’ll try to explain the breadth and depth of his life through this blog.

Dad was born in 1929 in Detroit, MI.  Like many in America during that time, his family didn’t have a lot of financial resources, but his father, also Harold, was resourceful, and little by little made things better for my father and his sister Nancy.  He would still talk about the fun times they all had, and special friends from Cass Technical High School, in particular Jack MacFarland with whom he got in all sorts of teenage trouble, particularly it seemed around boats on Lake St. Clair.

He graduated from Michigan State, a time which was interrupted by his service to the country as a 2^nd Lieutenant in the Korean War.  Defending South Korea will become very important to his business life later on.  During college, he met Joy Anne Stark, of Birmingham, MI, and they later got married.



The Happy Couple



An Officer and Gentleman

After graduation from MSU, dad’s first job was with the Carborundum Company.  His first posting was in Albany, NY as a field sales guy.  He rose through the ranks quickly, and was transferred to the Niagara Falls, NY World Headquarters, where he held a variety of senior executive positions.  Eventually he left, and held other senior positions with Bison Manufacturing and the SB Whistler Company.   He was one of the founders of Mastermelt, Inc. which was a company that held a patent on the melting of grey iron steel, at that time which was used in the manufacture of automobile engines.  26 years ago he formed Industrial Diamond Tool, and he literally worked until the last day of his life.  He always wanted to go out with his boots on, and he did.  He loved his customers, and always tried to give more than he got out of any business relationship.



Dad at South Korean War Memorial

At another South Korean landmark



Industrial Diamond Tool sells cutting and grinding tools to, primarily, the automobile and aerospace industries.  My father enjoyed an almost entire business career relationship with the Rosin family, of Los Angeles, through their company SL Fusco.  Working together, they partnered with EWHA Diamond, of Seoul, Korea.  It is for this reason that it became a constant source of wonderment to my father about his military time, and what that effort, along with hundreds of thousands of other people, made for him to later engage in business with a Korean supplier.

Like many proud veterans, he almost never talked about his time in the military.  Except, when I was a kid and was bitching and moaning about not getting some new toy or something like that, he’d tell me in his…uh…rather forceful voice YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT MISERY IS UNTIL YOU’VE BEEN IN A FOXHOLE IN KOREA IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER FREEZING YOUR ASS OFF AND GETTING SHOT AT.

Those of you who really knew my dad can probably appreciate the volume with which this was delivered.  Needless to say, I learned rather quickly to not complain, at least about much, especially the trivial.

The only time he ever got emotional in front of me about his time in the military was on the day of the 9-11 attacks.  I went over to my parent’s house to check on them.  I found my father in the family room, sitting there totally quiet, watching TV, tears streaming down his face.  I asked him what was wrong, and he said “I just never wanted you to know the hell that is war.  They have now hit on our soil.  I never thought something like this would happen…”

He took a lot of pride on national holidays like Memorial Day, the 4^th of July, and especially Veterans Day, of making sure not just a flag, but multiple flags were displayed on the house.  Grandson Adam, in particular because he was the first grandchild, quickly became my fathers special flag detail assistant, helping to raise and strike the red, white and blue.  When he would see a person in the uniform of a US military branch, he would identify them by rank, and most often salute.  He would also talk about the various honors they displayed on their uniforms. 

My father will be given military honors at the closing of the wake on Tuesday night, and he will be interred in Arlington National Cemetery.

While my father loved to sell, the most important thing to him was his family and friends (well, ok, at times it seemed like tennis was more important).



Daughter Kathy & husband Mark Closson

Our family was pretty typical, or at least what one would hope for.  As many people know, my father travelled constantly for business, particularly when Kathy and I were growing up.  Our mother stayed home and made sure everything ran like clockwork.  We had a lot of great times in places like northern Ontario, Cape Cod, the Bahamas, other pretty typical vacation spots, but most especially in Abino Bay at the cottage near the Canoe Club in the summer.  Dad loved to do stuff outside, so tending to his garden, fishing, sailing, and especially tennis, were favorite activities.

My father loved visiting his sister Nancy and her family, husband Bob and kids Josh and Julie, and his parents, at their homes in southern California.  When I moved to Newport Beach we would see each other there probably 4 times a year for several days at a time.  He loved the waterfront restaurants there, and appreciated the opportunity to play tennis outdoors in the winter months, and go for the occassional sail with me.

Even with his travel, he was as present a father as anyone could have asked for, yet, without ever once being a helicopter parent.  In fact, he sort of liked the idea of watching us try, and maybe it didn’t work out so well, and you’d have to pick yourself up and figure out how to do it better next time. 

Obviously, the word "sunscreen" was not in his vocabluary

At the helm of his boat "Joyous"

The cottage and the Canoe Club became focal points of our family life while my sister and I were teenagers.  Too often my father would be gone during the week during the summer, but he’d always have several weeks of pure vacation there each summer.  If he wasn’t on the boat, he was on the tennis court, and then at night, he and my mother would enjoy the company of the large circle of friends that became an extended family at the clubhouse.  Those friendships remain in place today.

The cottage was an old farmhouse, and its only real purpose was to have a place to eat and sleep, because in the summer around Buffalo, if you are inside, you better have a damn good reason.  The only time a family sit down dinner was required were Sunday nights.  Every other time, it was like almost a sailor’s commune.  The Canoe Club is world famous for the quality of the facility, the perfect and challenging sailing conditions, and its ability run races as well as any place on the globe.  This is evident by the multiple International Class regional, North American and World Championships events that are held there each summer.  My father encouraged us to have friends from far away places stay with us, so it wasn’t uncommon to have guests from Europe or South America during the summer.  Tito, in particular, came for a week, and I think he stayed a month. 

A lot of times we wouldn’t cross paths with my dad until Saturday morning at breakfast.  My mother would always cook some sort of breakfast for everyone in the house to eat.  We never really had any idea how many people might be there, so pancakes sort of became a staple.  I remember a couple of times my father sitting down at the table, looking at my friends and saying “ok, I know Hammer and Paul, but I don’t know you or you or you, but welcome. Now, there are two rules here – do not park in the circle part of the driveway in front of the kitchen and block the driveway, park in the lot in the back, and DO NOT DRINK MY BEER”.   The military style delivery got everyone’s attention.

The relationships that were created because of my parents hospitality at the cottage served my sister and I well, because we have life long friends as a result.  The global community of racing sailors is like no other group of people I have ever found, anywhere.  To whatever success I have had in the sport as a competitor and the other roles I play within the game, I owe it all to my father’s vision and sacrifice to make sure I grew up around the Buffalo Canoe Club and Buffalo Yacht Club.

My father knew that the lessons of life that one learns from sailing transfer over to every other part of a persons daily activities.  Racing sailboats is only partially about competition - it is at its best about becoming an independent and fully aware person.

Tennis in Florida, with the late Harry Stark, brother in law and business counsel

One of the happiest days of his life, on the BCC tennis courts with Adam

My father was a very good athlete.  He ran track, as a sprinter, in high school and college.  He remained very quick for a long time, and that speed served him well on the tennis court, which became his primary sport for a very long time.  He loved to watch tennis, especially women’s tennis.  I’m not sure who was his favorite, whether it was Chris Evert, or Steffi Graf, but for certain he loved watching Wimbledon and the US Open.

These two pictures were his favorite of his grandchildren as it represented the second opportunity for members of his family to have the benefit of being at the beach, playing on the sand, learning to swim and sail, and hopefully how to smash a tennis ball with authority and precision while making lifelong friendships.  The kids obviously inherited his love of ice cream too.

Adam and I on Kevin & Peggy Gregory’s Beneteau 44.7 “Odyssey" just three weeks ago.  This is the last boat my father was ever on, and the first boat on which Adam raced, which my father got to see through this photo.

Movies and everything about them were a somewhat secret passion of my fathers.  He knew so much about some aspects of the business, I often wondered why he wasn’t in the film business. He tied the love of movies and trivia to the last few days of life too.  The physician’s assistant, Melanie, who was helping to remove the fluid from his lungs that built up quickly, is very attractive.  When my father first saw her on Tuesday, rather than talk about his health, he told her that she could be Demi Moore’s double.  Just like my father to pass out a compliment like that to help lighten up the situation.  Yesterday Melanie said that there are some patients she always remembers, and my father would always be one of those because of that compliment. 

We all have been there; when you are younger you think you know everything. You want to rebel and reject the direction and guidance of your parents, particularly in your later teenage years.  But as you get older and wiser, you start to realize that maybe some of those lessons they tried to teach you weren’t all so wrong.  If everyone could have a husband, father and a friend like my dad, the world would no doubt be a better place.  81 years seems like it went by in flash.  Our family hopes that in some way you have benefitted from knowing, or knowing about, Harold Huston.

Visitation on Tuesday October 12, 4-8pm at Dietrich Funeral Home, 2480 Kensington Avenue, Amherst, NY 14226. Link to map.

Private burial services.  Flowers gratefully declined.  The family suggests that memorial contributions be made to The Hospice Foundation of WNY, 225 Como Park Blvd., Buffalo, NY 14227 or the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, fbo Sean F. Gregory Fund for Buffalo Yacht Club Junior Sailing, 712 Main Street, Buffalo NY 14202-1720