Jack Nease

One of three reporters who won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the St. Petersburg Times, he considered investigative reporting and column writing his callings and all other employment something to do between real jobs. He was frequently in trouble with the rich and powerful because he loved to write about things they wanted to keep secret.

A native of Jacksonville, Florida, Nease worked for the Times (now called the Tampa Bay Times) twice, once immediately after graduation from the University of Florida in 1954, and again in this thirties when he collaborated with Martin Waldron and Don Meiklejohn to win journalism’s most prestigious award. He was soon promoted to city editor of the newspaper and, Nease used to joke, “was never heard from again.”

Actually he became associate editor of Congressional Quarterly in Washington, a publication about Congress owned by the same man who owned the Times. There he wrote and supervised coverage of Washington lobbyists, a job he said would have been impossible with a thousand person staff.

Later he became Washington correspondent for Tampa Tribune, a newspaper he had worked at before, covering the citrus industry, politics, and the Florida legislature. The illness and death of his sister, Carol, persuaded him to return to Florida where he worked as editorial writer and financial columnist at the Palm Beach Post for several years.

His final job in journalism was at the newspaper now named the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, where he wrote a widely read, and sometimes controversial financial and business column. A frequent target of his criticism was billionaire H. Wayne Huizenga, who Nease said had negotiated sweetheart contracts for his sports businesses with various government agencies.

Nease believed that his decline at the Sun-Sentinel came when Scott Smith, a short-time publisher of the newspaper who had tried and failed to see company property to Huizenga, objected to these columns. Soon afterward the paper transferred Nease to a clerical job. He sued, alleging constructive discharge, but lost.

Later Nease earned a Masters Degree in Fine Arts at Florida International University and taught journalism and creative writing at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton and Davie. He also wrote and published two novels set in South Florida, “Day and Night, Forever” and “No Other Animals.” Both were mysteries with broader themes.

Nease married twice, first to Judith Miller, with whom he had four children, Jacob Jr., Karl, Andrea, and Jacqueline, and later to Marian Pearlman, an attorney in Boca Raton. He is also survived by two grandchildren, Antonella Novi and Laura Novi.

Visitation has been scheduled for Friday, March 13th from 6-8pm at Kraeer Funeral Home, 200 N. Federal Hwy., Pompano Beach, FL 33062. Phone: 954-941-4111. A 1:00pm, Saturday, March 14th funeral service will be held at the Unity Church, FL, 261 SE 13th Avenue, Pompano Beach, FL 33060. Interment will follow at 12:00 noon, Sunday March 15th at Volusia Memorial in Ormand Beach, Florida.