Donald H. Harrison
Donald Henry Harrison was born in New Rochelle, N.Y., on August 7, 1945, as the second son of Martin and Alice Harrison. The family moved back and forth between New Rochelle and Los Angeles, resulting in Don and his older brother Bill attending a variety of schools. Don graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1962. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from UCLA in 1966.
While attending college, Don wrote for the UCLA Daily Bruin, prompting his mother to observe sadly, “When you got your first byline, the world lost a doctor.” That was probably just as well, as Don never liked the sight of blood. While at UCLA, Don was a stringer for the Los Angeles Times, resulting in a job in 1965 as a summer relief reporter. He was part of the team that covered the Watts Riots of that year. Following graduation, Don was hired by the Los Angeles bureau of the Associated Press.
Drafted into the Army, Don was taking basic training at Fort Bliss, Texas, when the cartilage in his right knee tore, prompting an honorable discharge on medical grounds and a return to the Associated Press. As the slots in the Los Angeles bureau were filled, The AP sent him to Sacramento where Don covered the State Senate. In those days, reporters sat along the side walls of the Senate chambers. State Senator Mervyn Dymally (D-Los Angeles), who sat just across a narrow aisle from Don, befriended him, providing background on some of the floor debates and political rivalries. Dymally later was elected as California’s lieutenant governor.
In February 1968, Don married the former Nancy E. Zeiden, with whom he had two children: Sandi, born in 1972, and David, born in 1975. Both children went on to have two children of their own. Sandi’s are Shor and Sky; David’s are Brian and Sara.
Returning to the Los Angeles bureau from Sacramento, Don was involved in the coverage of the (Charles) Manson gang’s murders of actress Sharon Tate and four others, as well as in the coverage of President Richard M. Nixon’s frequent jaunts to the Western White House in San Clemente.
Hoping to be a foreign correspondent in Sub-Saharan Africa, Don was transferred to the AP World Desk, where he edited stories from correspondents stationed all over the world. When AP started bringing correspondents home because of an economic recession, Don became discouraged and accepted an offer in 1972 to be a politics writer for the morning San Diego Union. He covered the Democratic and Republican national conventions that year, and subsequently covered the competing campaigns of President Nixon and Democratic challenger George McGovern. He had the honor of flying with Nixon on Air Force One to San Diego.
Until 1980, Don continued to cover politics at the local, state, and national levels for The San Diego Union. He had the opportunity to swap jokes with then Governor Ronald Reagan as they flew from Chico, California, to Los Angeles; interview former President Gerald R. Ford at his home in Rancho Mirage, and cover former President Jimmy Carter as he led a Habitat for Humanity team building homes in Tijuana.
Working for the AP, the San Diego Union, and later for Jewish publications, Don covered 11 men who were or who became U.S. Presidents: Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. He also covered the men and women who were their political opponents.
In 1980, Don partnered in a public relations agency with L. J. Cella, handling a variety of accounts including that of Congressman Clair W. Burgener, who was opposed in that year’s election by Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Tom Metzger. Don devised the “Hatfield and McCoy” strategy of getting people who normally were political adversaries – Republican and Democratic opponents – to appear together and announce that whatever their differences were, on one matter they agreed: there was no place for a Klansman and Neo-Nazi like Metzger in elective office from San Diego. Burgener won reelection overwhelmingly.
Differences over how quickly to grow the public relations agency resulted in L.J. offering to purchase Don’s share of the company in 1982. That same year, Don was asked by the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner to take a short-term contract covering the gubernatorial race pitting Attorney General George Deukmejian against Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley. After Deukmejian, a Republican, won, Don accepted an offer from San Diego’s Acting Mayor Bill Cleator to serve as his press secretary. In that role, he coordinated the city’s arrangements for media coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to San Diego. He also helped to create the San Diego Cruise Industry Consortium and served as executive director of the San Diego Homeport Festival that welcomed “the Love Boat” to San Diego.
After Roger Hedgecock was elected as mayor of San Diego, Don opened his own public relations firm, The Harrison Enterprises. He continued as executive director of the San Diego Cruise Industry Consortium and also handled other tourism accounts, most notably Old Town Trolley Tours of San Diego.
An important incident in Don’s life was the bat mitzvah of his daughter, Sandi, at Temple Emanu-El. In a ceremony in which the Torah was handed from one generation to another, Don had an electrifying moment. Here his daughter was inheriting the Jewish tradition about which he knew so little! Don had grown up in an unaffiliated Jewish family, whereas Nancy was raised in a kosher-observing, Conservative Jewish home. Don decided he would learn about his wife’s Conservative Judaism, and so switched his membership to Tifereth Israel Synagogue, where he came under the tutelage of Rabbi Aaron S. Gold, of blessed memory. He and Nancy became adult b’nai mitzvah at Tifereth Israel.
While continuing to earn his living as a public relations specialist in tourism, Don found himself missing journalism. He volunteered to handle publicity on a pro bono basis for the synagogue. One story he wrote recounted a trialogue among Rabbi Gold, Rabbi Eliezer Langer (Orthodox) of Beth Jacob Congregation, and Rabbi Martin Lawson (Reform) of Temple Emanu-El. Israel Today, a forerunner publication to the San Diego Jewish Times, devoted its entire front page to the story, continuing it inside. Thereafter, Bob Lupo, editor of the San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage, complained that his publication had not been sent the story. Accepting apologies, he asked Don to become a regular volunteer writer for the Heritage, an offer Don accepted, figuring as a reporter he could learn much about Judaism.
And so began in 1986 Don’s coverage of the San Diego Jewish community, which continues to this day. Although the position was volunteer, Don was “paid” in increasingly impressive titles. He went from “staff writer” to “senior staff writer” to “columnist” to “associate editor” to “editor.” Nancy, meanwhile, built a business as a travel agent specializing in cruises.
In 2001, Don and Norman Greene purchased the Heritage from the financially ailing publisher Herb Brin, and kept the San Diego publication alive for another two years. Brin, facing mounting debts, unfortunately, had to shut down the three other Heritage publications in Orange County, Los Angeles and Central California.
During Don’s and Norman’s stewardship, the Heritage won 47 journalistic awards from the San Diego Press Club and the Society of Professional Journalists. Alas, advertising didn’t nearly cover the cost of printing and mailing the Heritage to 18,500 subscribers, and so, sadly, Don and Norman decided to cease publication. Their venture had cost them $250,000 in losses each.
Thereafter, Don wrote guest columns for the San Diego Jewish Times, and began publishing a blog called Jewishsightseeing. After the Jewish Times financially succumbed, writers of both the Jewish Times and the Heritage urged that a new Jewish news platform be created. Thus, San Diego Jewish World was born, which Don continued to publish and edit until 2022, when he sold it for $1 to Jacob Kamaras. Don continues to write for the website.
Don has authored nine books, all dealing with the rich Jewish history of San Diego County. The first, in 2005, was Louis Rose: San Diego’s First Jewish Settler and Entrepreneur. Thereafter, he wrote Schlepping Through the American West; 77 Miles of Jewish Stories; Waxie: An American Family Business Success story; and Schlepping and Schmoozing Through San Diego County, Volume 1: City of San Diego and Volume 2: Suburban Cities and Towns, and most recently, the three-volume Schlepping and Schmoozing Along the Interstate 5.
Writing Rose’s biography led to Don being appointed by San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy to the City of San Diego Historical Resources Board, and to his appointment as a member of the editorial advisory board of the Journal of San Diego History. He also served as an editor of Western States Jewish History.
— updated February 17, 2023–
Sandi Masori
Sandi Masori developed her book expertise organically by first writing her own book to promote the business she had at the time. That book led her to make over 100 TV appearances, (including The Today Show), got her booked on stages as a speaker, and ultimately brought in better clients who were excited to spend more money to work with a celebrity author.
Once Sandi wrote her first book, other experts started asking her to help them with theirs as well.
What began as a side gig, quickly grew into a full-time business and to date, Sandi has helped hundreds of authors self-publish their business authority or legacy books. Sandi is passionate about helping people achieve their publishing dreams.
Sandi grew up in San Diego, Ca and after traveling around the world making balloons, she returned to San Diego, where she now lives with her two children.
When Sandi is not writing books, or coaching others to write and publish theirs, she produces the Shape Up Sandi Show, and until recently ran Balloon Utopia (and Market With Balloons)- a San Diego based balloon decor and entertainment company, and The Masori Group, a San Diego based online/ offline marketing company. She also coaches and mentors marketing consultants and small business owners. Since the fall of 2013 Sandi has been invited to appear on numerous local and national and international TV shows, including The Today Show and Hallmark’s Home and Family Show. The media dubbed her “America’s Top Balloon Expert.” To see clips of her media appearances, visit her balloonexpert website.
Masori also runs a popular YouTube channel (Sandiballoon), where she teaches DIYers, Crafters and Balloon Professionals how to make Balloon Decorations and Balloon Art.
In the precious spare time that she has between juggling those interests, Sandi likes to hang out with her family, read books, see movies, travel and hunt for the best Sushi in town.
