Paul M. Herron, who founded the Washington Bureau of National Mortgage News in the early 1980s, died this past weekend. He was 91.
Herron was a jack-of-all-trades in journalism, covering everything from theatre and the Washington social scene to real estate and the banking/thrift industry.
Herron was hired by NMN (then called National Thrift News) founder Stanley Strachan to give the young trade newspaper a presence in Washington and on Capitol Hill. He went on to cover the historic Garn-St Germain Act, which deregulated the S&L industry, and many other key stories.
“Paul Herron helped expand this newspaper’s credibility when he started a Washington bureau for what was then National Thrift News. Paul was an old-school newspaper reporter and an insider with decades of experience covering real estate. He covered many, many bill markups, administration housing policy directives, and trade group meetings for NTN, adding demonstrably to the scope of coverage the newspaper could supply out of its New York operation.
“Paul was a courteous and gentlemanly person, loved by his colleagues and respected by those he covered. For many years after his retirement from National Mortgage News, we kept an old manual typewriter in our Washington bureau in case he should decide to drop in and write something,” said Mark Fogarty, editor of National Mortgage News.
Born April 27, 1921, in Asheville, N.C., he was a resident of Alexandria, Va., and before that Kensington, Md. His cause of death was listed as prostate cancer. Herron was predeceased by Kathleen Goodwin Herron, his wife of 51 years.
He served in the Navy during World War II, and also received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Maryland.
He is survived by his children, Robin Herron and husband, John Wasowicz, of Alexandria, and Judith Herron Barral of Fairfax. Also surviving are his brother, Richard Herron of Elkton, and four grandchildren.
