Henry (Paddy) Thornberry – AGW Member 1962 – 2002

Henry Thornberry, known as Paddy was born Jan. 16, 1926 and died in New York on 21st July, 2002 on the final day of that year’s Open Championship, at the age of 76. Paddy was a regular on the golf circuit while working for UPI in the 1960s. He was born in Dublin, Ireland and died while on holiday at his daughter Susan’s residence in New York.

He became a member of the AGW in 1962 and was later made an honorary member. Renton Laidlaw remembered Paddy as a “respected journalist who was popular with everyone he worked with”. The following is the obituary put out by the UPI:

William Henry “Paddy” Thornberry, a longtime sports editor for United Press International, died Sunday, July 21, while visiting his daughter from his native Ireland. He was 76.

Thornberry joined United Press, as it was then known, in 1947, after serving in Palestine as a British Army paratrooper. He was born January 16, 1926, and attended local schools in Dublin and later the London School of Economics.

“He had a ball with UPI,” said his daughter, Susan Maraglio, and often regaled the family with tales of office high jinks. Thornberry covered several Olympics, including Melbourne and Rome, and his daughter says she went along to some “which was wonderful.”

Maraglio said the family moved to New York in 1968, where Thornberry was assistant editor on the international desk. In 1974 he left UPI to join the New York Times News Service, where in 1984 he became executive editor. He retired in 1988 and moved back to Ireland, living with his wife, Gertrude, and a younger daughter, Carol, in Bray.

In addition to his wife and daughters, he is survived by two brothers, Paul of Wendover, England, and Kevin, of Monkstown, Ireland, a sister Anne Robinson of Bray; two grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews in Ireland, England and Singapore.

NEW YORK TIMES – 23rd July, 2002

Henry Thornberry, a former executive editor of The New York Times News Service, died Sunday in Coxsackie, N.Y. He was 76.

The cause was a heart attack, said his daughter Susan Maraglio.

Mr. Thornberry joined The New York Times in 1974 as syndication editor. A year later he moved to the news service as associate editor, becoming executive editor in 1984. He held the post until his retirement in 1988, when he returned to his native Ireland. He was visiting Ms. Maraglio in Coxsackie when he died.

The news service, which edits and distributes Times news and feature articles from The New York Times for use in other publications, currently has about 550 domestic and international subscribers.

Mr. Thornberry was sent to the United States in 1968 by The United Press, later part of United Press International, which he had joined in London in 1947.

He worked as an assistant editor on the international desk in New York for six years, then moved to The Times.

Henry William Thornberry was born in Dublin on Jan. 16, 1926. He studied at the London School of Economics and served in the British Army as a paratrooper from 1944 to 1947.

He is survived by his wife, Gertrude, of Bray, Ireland; and his daughters: Susan, of Coxsackie, and Carol Thornberry, also of Bray.