Former D.C. Pro chapter president and Hall of Fame member Dawson "Tack" Nail, 82, died March 25, a day after falling at home.
Tack headed the chapter back when things were much different. The annual awards dinner was a dinner-dance, with a band and all. Celebrities showed up to swear in the new officers.
One year, Vice President Gerald Ford was on hand. The VP confided in Tack that he didn't carry money and he asked if he could borrow a few dollars so he could make a purchase at the bar. Tack bought him the drink, but then had the chore of holding it or hiding it behind a Press Club curtain so no photos could be taken of Ford with a cocktail.
The Secret Service, of course, had a minute by minute schedule for Mr. and Mrs. Ford's schedule and it included leaving before the dancing began. Ford asked Tack if it would be OK if they stayed. They did and the Secret Service detail presumably earned some overtime that night.
Tack was executive editor emeritus of Communications Daily, the Warren Communications News publication he helped found about 30 years ago. Before that, he was executive editor of the weekly Television Digest. He joined Warren from Broadcasting magazine. He was the dean of the broadcast and telecommunications press in Washington.
At the National Press Club, he was a Golden Owl, signifying 50 years of membership and last fall was inducted in the Order of the Owl, reserved for "birds of a certain wisdom." He joined C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb on that network's first call-in show, which was telecast from the Club. He was on the Club's broadcast committee.
Tack was a regular at SPJ events and was interviewed at the chapter's 75th anniversary party in February for an oral history of the chapter. Late last year, he helped comb old chapter records stored in the Press Club Archives to track down the exact date of the chapter's founding, so we knew when to schedule the event.
Former WMAL program manager Irwin Starr remembers that Tack broke the gender barrier when he was inducted into American Women in Radio and TV.
The first president of SPJ's Maryland Pro chapter, Val Hymes — a former WTOP reporter who signs her emails as an "unrepentant, unretired old journalist" — sent this remembrance: "Tack was one of the key members of the Washington chapter to help start and support the fledgling Maryland professional chapter. He was always there when we needed him — a perpetual encouragement machine. He was a champion of membership for broadcasters, women, minorities and the disabled, cheerfully bucking the good old boy system of editors and publishers by charming them into acceptance."
TVNewsCheck ran several remembrances of Tack which can be seen here here: Tack Nail: Reporter, Character, One of a Kind
Donations in Tack's memory can be made to: the Dawson "Tack" Nail Memorial Fund at the Library of American Broadcasting, Box 2749, Alexandria, VA, 22301.; the Broadcasters Foundation of America, 125 W. 55th St., 21st Floor, New York, NY 10019; or in his name to the Southwestern Oklahoma State University Foundation, 100 Campus Drive, Weatherford, OK 73096.