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Highsmith, Hugh Purcell
Age 94, of Fort Atkinson, died on June 7, 2009, at Fort Atkinson Memorial Hospital. He was born June 22, 1914, in Duncanville, Illinois, to Harry J. and Fannye (Purcell) Highsmith, and grew up in Southern Indiana. He graduated from Owensville (Indiana) High School in 1931 and from Indiana University (Bloomington) in 1936 with a degree in journalism. He came to Wisconsin in 1938 to take a job with the Western Advertising Agency of Racine. He married Doris M. Morter of Milwaukee on April 15, 1944. In 1945, they moved to Fort Atkinson where Highsmith became general manager of the National Agricultural Supply Company (NASCO). The following year, he and a partner purchased the company and Highsmith became president and chief executive officer. In 1956, after ten years as president, Highsmith sold his interest in Nasco and started The Highsmith Co., Inc. Among other activities, the new business published Farmer's Digest magazine (until 1969) and began mail order marketing of books, supplies and furnishings to schools and public libraries. In 1965, the company built a new facility just east of Fort Atkinson that served as corporate headquarters for the next 43 years. The business prospered,...