Harper Harry Ink, Sr. (1888- 1953)

     Harper Ink was born in Canton, Ohio, attended Oberlin College and served in World War I.  The eldest son of Harry Harper Ink, inventor and founder of the Tonsiline Company that made cough syrup, Ink married Fern Robinson and they had one son, Harper Ink Jr. who was born in 1920.  Harper Sr. became president of the company upon the death of his father, a position he would hold until 1953.  Ink also directed completion of the Palace Theater in Canton, a project that had been started by his father.  Poor health necessitated that Ink move his family to San Diego in 1929.  Although he was not a tennis player, he encouraged his son to play tennis among other sports.  When his son was ranked number two nationally in singles in 1935, Harper Ink started the Harper Ink Memorial Tennis Tournament in Balboa Park. Ink continued to support the tournament and to assist young tennis players financially after his son went to Stanford and then the Army.  Among the players of national note who competed in the tournament were Bob Carrothers, Maureen Connolly and Karen Hantze. Later USTA president Franklin Johnson was also an Ink champion.  After Connolly first won Wimbledon in 1952, San Diego held a parade in her honor with Harper Ink, Sr. serving as the Grand Marshall. The Ink tournament was unusual and a breath of fresh air for San Diego tennis in several ways. It was an all-comers’ interscholastic championship held during the Easter vacation at Morley Field.  Ink decided against having an entry fee.  Losers were allowed to keep the balls, and the trophies came from Tiffanys.  Ink worked with school principals to promote entries, and he rewarded winners by paying for their trips to Los Angeles to compete in the Southern California Junior Championships.   Harper Ink’s contribution to San Diego tennis renews itself every year with the Ink Tournament which is now played at the Barnes Tennis Center, and the Bob Carrothers Sportsmanship Award which Ink created upon Carrothers’ death in 1940. Right up until his own passing in 1953, Harper Ink’s generosity touched hundreds of San Diego juniors.