Paul Edward "Jerry" Nason was born on 14 April 1910 in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Mabel and Will Nason. His birth five days before the start of the Boston Marathon, at Newton Hospital on the famed marathon course, was prophetic in that the race would become his principal beat as a Boston Globe reporter. According to Nason in his The Story of the Boston Marathon (1966), he watched the marathoners that year "cradled in the arms of a nurse." As a boy, he and his friends would ride their bikes from Newton to Ashland to watch the start of the marathon and then accompany the runners back to Boston. Nason followed the marathon much as other boys his age would have followed major league baseball, compiling and comparing statistics on the runners. Despite his enthusiasm for long-distance running, he played football at Newton High School. Also attracted to journalism, Nason...