Hal Suit

Who was Hal Suit?

Harold Columbus Suit, known as Hal Suit, was an American local television news personality and political figure who won the 1970 Republican nomination for Governor of Georgia but lost the November general election to future U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

A native of Youngstown, Ohio, and styling himself as a "Taft Republican", Harold Columbus Suit had Southern ancestry — his father was born in North Carolina and his mother in Tennessee. A 19-year-old college student in 1941 at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he completed his studies in history and political science at the University of Florida at Gainesville, Florida and late studied at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. During the remaining years of World War II, he served in the United States Army, was twice wounded and decorated for valor.

Upon leaving the military, he became, in 1947, a radio news announcer. In 1954, he moved to the small Georgia city of Albany, where he was part of the founding staff of the city's first, and sole VHF television station, WALB-TV, which began broadcasting on April 7, 1954. After five years, Suit moved to WSB-TV in Atlanta, the state's first television station, which first went on the air in September 1948. Gaining recognition in a major media market as a top local anchorman, political editorialist and news executive, he received the 1967 National Headliner Award. During that period, WSB-TV was affiliated with NBC, and Suit became known to a national audience by doing frequent reports from the South for the network's news broadcasts.