Harrison eventually bought 33 newspapers for Sulzberger-most of them in Florida- and ran a division of 4,000 people. He made the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group an important source of the company's profits in the '70s and '80s. Harrison targeted newspapers in high-growth areas without significant competition from another newspaper.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune was one of those papers. It wasn't an easy purchase. The owners had resisted for years, and when in 1982, they finally decided they were ready, Harrison had to convince New York Times executives immediately. Harrison decided to fly Walter Mattson, the president and CEO of the New York Times Company (who now lives part-time on Longboat Key), over Sarasota's brand-new highways and housing developments. "You could see nothing but growth," Harrison remembers. "And roads and houses bring in readers, and readers bring in retail." Mattson-who knew nothing about Sarasota-told Harrison. "Man, we gotta buy this."

Sulzberger rewarded Harrison with a seat on the board of the International Herald-Tribune, a newspaper based in Paris and owned by the parent companies of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Whitney Communications. For 17 years, Harrison met with other board members, including Sulzberger, the Washington Post's Katherine Graham and Ben Bradlee, and CBS's Bill Paley.

Harrison retired in 1993. Divorced by this time, his children out of the house, he lived alone in Atlanta, and dove into volunteer work. He sat on the board of Harvard. He started his own foundation to give college scholarships to underprivileged youth. For years, he rose before dawn almost every day to feed and encourage paralyzed patients at the Shepherd Spinal Clinic. If anyone asked him about his past, he would say he was a paper boy. Shortly after becoming a board member of Westminster Schools in Atlanta, one of the finest prep schools in the South, Harrison discovered that Westminster had never hired a Jewish faculty member. For two years, he and another board member fought to change the policy. Only when Harrison went to the national media and convinced the deans of admissions from 17 prominent universities to write letters in protest did the board reverse its policy.

In 1999, when Harrison was visiting his son Mark in Englewood, he met Bonnie Anderson, a Sarasota-based consultant who developed women's healthcare programs and facilities around the country. They met at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. "I was waiting alone and in came this good-looking woman," he says. "She sat down two seats away. I'm not good at making small talk so I asked, 'How do you like that paper?'" Bonnie was reading the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. "Good thing I said I loved it," she jokes today. For six months the pair corresponded (400 pages worth), with Bonnie constantly reminding Harrison that she was happy with her life and had no intentions of getting involved. They had their first date-at TGI Friday's at the Atlanta airport where Bonnie had a long layover-six months after meeting. Nine months later, they were married. "I fell in love with the persistent paper boy," she says.

It didn't take much to persuade Jack to throw away his Hickey Freeman suits and hundreds of ties and move to Sarasota. "I realized how much I really loved this place," he says. "How many interesting people with diverse backgrounds are here. By the time people get here, their social aspirations have been largely tempered. They are people who are satisfied with themselves. That's not true in Atlanta or New York City."

In addition to sharing an interest in Sarasota's arts offerings, the two volunteer for a number of local causes. They participate in the Sarasota County School District's Take Stock in Children, a program that pairs bright, aspiring kids from underprivileged families with mentors. For the last year and a half, they have been meeting once a week with a senior at Sarasota High School who is headed into medicine. Harrison is also on the local board of Communities in Schools, a board he was active on in Atlanta, which is also about helping kids succeed in school. After a recent battle with prostate cancer, he has also joined the board of the Wellness Community Southwest Florida.