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Funds & Loans. Few World-Herald staffers knew the boss well, but many of them realized that he was not as cold as his enemies thought he was. He was always launching campaigns to raise money for people in need; many a staffer who wanted to buy a house or pay a hospital bill got a generous, open-end loan from the paper with the personal approval of "H. D." To maintain his fierce independence. Doorly took little part in organizations, but launched many of his own civic betterment plans. After World War II, he conceived and pushed through a city improvement plan that gave Omaha a new auditorium and better streets, more fire stations and many other improvements.
A fortnight ago in his modest home on Omaha's Elmwood Road, Henry Doorly, 75, had a heart attack and was ordered to the hospital. At home again in a few days, he called the paper, ordered a campaign to raise money for the victims of the Northeast floods. Then last week he announced his resignation as president of Omaha's World Publishing Co. and stepped aside to a much less active role as chairman of the board. Doorly's son-in-law, Ben H. Cowdery, 46, is publisher of the paper, but Doorly handed the presidency to Editor Walter E. Christenson, 56, who has been with the World-Herald since 1928 and has risen on the editorial side. An able, shirtsleeves newspaperman and a staunch conservative, Christenson is expected to continue in Doorly's tradition.
But World-Herald staffers and other Nebraskans know that there are not many of Doorly's breed left. Said one of his daughters, Mrs. Katherine Doorly Young: "I think there aren't going to be any more like him [in these] days of making friends and influencing people."