Hans Massaquoi | Magazine editor, 87

Hans Massaquoi, a former managing editor of Ebony magazine who wrote a distinctive memoir about growing up black in Nazi Germany, died in Jacksonville, Fla., on Saturday, his 87th birthday, his son said.

"He had quite a journey in life," said Hans J. Massaquoi Jr., of Detroit. "Many have read his books and know what he endured. But most don't know that he was a good, kind, loving, fun-loving, fair, honest, generous, hard-working, and open-minded man. He respected others and commanded respect himself. He was dignified and trustworthy. We will miss him forever and try to live by his example."

In an interview in 2000, Mr. Massaquoi told the Associated Press that he credited the late Alex Haley, author of Roots, with persuading him to share his experience of being "both an insider in Nazi Germany and, paradoxically, an endangered outsider." His autobiography was first published in 1999 and a German translation was also published.

Mr. Massaquoi's mother was a German nurse and his father was the son of a Liberian diplomat. He grew up in working-class neighborhoods of the port city of Hamburg.

Eventually he left Germany, first joining his father's family in Liberia, before going to Chicago to study aviation mechanics. He was drafted into the U.S. Army while on a student visa in 1951. Afterward, he became a U.S. citizen and eventually became a journalist. - AP