Of the 15 men and women who sat in the editor’s chair at the Times-Republic office in Princeton between 1940 and 1990, none contributed more to the field of journalism than Phil Norman, who ran the newspaper from October 1949 to June 1955.
Norman, 33 when he arrived in Princeton, had the unenviable task of following Harry Hobart, who had founded the Princeton Times in 1935 and merged it with the Princeton Republic, founded in 1867, in 1937.
Hobart improved the reporting, editing, typography, and printing of the newspaper, used more local photos, introduced new features such as a comics page and High-Times (articles written by local high school students), and built a strong connection to the community, particularly through his newsy and folksy “Seen and Heard Around Town” column. He brought the Times-Republic through World War II and into a more modern newspaper age.
Hobart’s biggest regret was not following through on plans to raze the building he bought at 436 West Water Street, across from the Times-Republic office, and replace it with a new printing plant and newspaper office.
Norman knew he had big shoes to fill when he arrived in 1949 but was up to the task. He invested in a camera and darkroom and published more photos, established a strong editorial voice using a trusty Underwood typewriter, and was wise enough to continue “Seen and Heard Around Town” before transitioning to “Bits of This and That.” He launched the citywide Christmas home-lighting contest in 1951 and spoke in favor of fluoridation, against plans to end passenger rail service to Princeton, and in support of the divisive rural school consolidation plan.
Phil Norman
John Philip Norman was born in Ames, Iowa, the son of a professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State College who loved to travel. By the time he arrived in Princeton, Phil Norman had visited every state in the Union as well as Alaska and much of Canada. He worked for a time as a newsboy selling the Des Moines Register in Ames.
After graduating from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism, Norman worked as a salesman for Sunbeam appliances and as an electric repair man before enlisting in the Army Air Corps in 1942. He attended aircraft engineering school at Yale University and served as an officer at various bases before being discharged at Truax Field in Madison in 1945. About a year later he became editor of a trade magazine published by The Trane Company in La Crosse.
He came to Princeton in 1949.
Princeton Times-Republic, Sept 29, 1949 – “In a business deal which was concluded Wednesday, except for some minor details, the Times-Republic and the Green Lake County Reporter were sold by Hobart and Hobart to J.P. (Phil) Norman of La Crescent, Minnesota. Final details of the deal are expected to be completed so that Mr. Norman will be able to take possession of the properties October 1st. The transaction involves the printing plants at both Princeton and Green Lake, the Reporter building at Green Lake and the printing and publishing business connected with them. Both H.H. Hobart of Princeton and William Hobart of Green Lake will remain associated with Mr. Norman for the time being in the publishing of these two Green Lake County newspapers.”
Norman and his wife, Jeanette, a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in home economics, had two sons, Richard and William, and one daughter, Susan, when they rented an upstairs apartment from Bertha Klawitter at Fulton and Main streets in Princeton. When introducing a new feature, Princeton Personalities, in November 1951 writer Madeline Dreblow noted, “Phil has three handsome children, replicas of their mother.”
The family settled into Princeton life quickly. Phil was named to the board of directors when the Junior Chamber of Commerce formed in October 1949 to replace the 12-year-old Princeton Service Club. He and Norman Megow led the recently reorganized Cub Scout pack, and he served as secretary of the Rotary Club. The older children attended the Catholic school.
“In 14 years of service to Princeton and surrounding territory your former editor has done a tremendous job. He has given you a newspaper of excellent merit,” Norman said in his first editorial on October 6. “. … His shoes are going to be tough to fill. They may not fit your new editor for some time to come, but with hard work, your cooperation, and maybe a slight amount of indulgence for a newcomer’s mistakes he is going to do his level best to maintain the standards that his predecessor has set.”
Norman’s front-page editorial on the local Lutheran minister’s opposition to Boy Scouting received a blue ribbon in the editorial division of the statewide newspaper contest at the Wisconsin State Fair in 1950. University of Wisconsin School of Journalism staff judged the contest. It was the newspaper’s first state award.
The Times-Republic produced its first four-color process printing job in May 1951.
Norman needed to seek his reader’ indulgence in November 1951 when he reported a magazine intended for the library ended up in the newspaper’s mailbox. Norman said the “New World Order” championed communist propaganda and quoted from the publication to prove it.
“We don’t know just how the library uses this material, whether they spend our good money for it or it is mailed to them free, but our suggestion is that it be kept in the fiction department and issued only when accompanied with ‘Aesop’s Fables,’” he wrote in Seen and Heard Around Town.
Norman issued a front-page apology the following week: “Members of the Library Board and staff have expressed regret at the publishing of the article and have since informed me that the magazine in question, plus others of similar nature, are not subscribed to and get no further than the wastebasket. … It is regrettable that officials of the library felt that the article was aimed at them and their handling of library affairs. No such intent was intended, and I am deeply sorry that such interpretation was given to the story.”
Norman added a dark room to the Water Street office in spring 1952. “Lack of these facilities locally has made picture taking a slow and costly proposition,” he told readers. “By mid-April we should be in position to run many more local pictures each week.” He continued to pay $1 for photos of timely events from readers.
Norman also recruited additional correspondents to provide news of Mount Tom, Pleasant Valley, Dayton, Bend Road, Marquette and Neshkoro. He redesigned the newspaper’s nameplate and reorganized the paper’s content when The Western Newspaper Union dropped the “ready-print” service that had been part of the Republic since it was founded in 1867. The service provided press-ready pages of state, national and world news and features that weekly newspapers could not afford to set and print themselves.
During its peak, more than 7,000 newspapers subscribed to the Western Union ready-print service. By 1952 that number had dwindled to 1,412. Newspapers, however, could still subscribe to individual features.
“It will be possible to retain some of the features now incorporated in the ready-print section but there will be new ideas and features of local interest which will make the Times-Republic a better paper for the community which it serves,” Norman told his readers in March 1952. “Plans call at present for a six-page newspaper. … Long-range plans indicate that the Times-Republic will jump to eight pages steadily within a few months. These will be eight pages of news, features, and stories with pictures of local interest to our readers in Green Lake and Marquette counties.”
Norman purchased an 11-ton press in July 1952 and knocked a hole in the back wall to get it into the shop.
Princeton Times-Republic, July 31, 1952 – “You’ve heard of quilting bees, barn raising bees and painting bees, well last Thursday night the Times-Republic had a ‘press bee.’ Several husky stalwarts and some who just gave advice dropped into the Times-Republic after the last paper rolled off the press last Thursday and with many a grunt and groan and nothing more than some stiff joints to show for it later, room was made for the new Miehle press. There didn’t seem to be any one man in charge, everyone just pitched in and before 11 o’clock that night the old newspaper press had disappeared. … Even the smallest pieces were plenty heavy to most of us, though Harry Novak picked them up like they were tooth picks. … We are greatly indebted to Harry, Florian “Slim” Mlodzik, Mac MacDonald, Eddie Krystofiak, Frank “Dinty” Moore, and Lloyd Marquardt. … On Friday morning the Hennes Trucking people of Appleton brought our new Miehl press into town and throughout the day we had more pleasure watching some real artists at work moving and jockeying our new 11-ton behemoth into the back shop. They were a pleasure to watch as they handled the new press like a mother would handle her newborn baby. Monday night we had it operating and Wednesday we ran the first part of the newspaper thru it. We have a lot to learn about it, but we hope in the very new future to be able to give you a much better printed newspaper and to go to eight pages of home-printed newspaper every week. The new press will print four regular sized newspaper pages at one time which is twice what the old press would do. It fact, it will take a sheet 56 inches by 44 inches, and with our new folder you should be getting a better product all around.”
With six years of on-the-job newspaper experience, Norman made the unlikely leap at age 39 to the University of Missouri School of Journalism in 1955.
Princeton Times-Republic, May 12, 1955 – “The sale of the Princeton Times-Republic and Green Lake County Reporter was announced early this week to Robert E. Francis of Chippewa Falls, Wis. Mr. Francis will take over the editorship and publishing duties of both papers and the job printing business associated with the enterprise. Associated with Mr. Francis will be Richard Pugh, former editor and publisher of a weekly paper in Spring Valley, Minnesota. … Phil Norman, the former owner, will continue his association with the two publications during May. He plans on leaving some time in June for Columbia, Missouri, where he will be associated with the school of journalism, University of Missouri.”
Norman reminisced about his time in Princeton in a farewell message to his readers in June: “It is a little difficult, even now, after a month of separation from the duties of an editor, not to have a fond remembrance or two for this typewriter and all the words it has seen in the past six years. … We remember how Duke Krause helped us over many a stumbling block. Clyde Gaugenmaler’s first introduction to Princeton. The pleasant times we had on Thursdays after the paper was out … while swapping tall tales over a cool brew. Our first Christmas sacking candy and peanuts for the children’s Christmas party. And, of course, that never to be forgotten Lions-Rotary basketball game. Many of you crowded in to see that spectacle, where the only score that counted was that tremendous boost to the fund for the youth center. Many friendships were made that night.”
Recalling the newspaper’s role in the consolidation debate, Norman said he took “pardonable pride in its efforts on behalf of the present district, and while some of its words were taken lightly, and others hotly, in the emotional battles which surrounded the reorganization, the friends it lost won it new respect, and over the years brought more friends back to the fold.”
Princeton Times-Republic, May 12, 1955 – “The Normans had the Ford garage install seat belts in their station wagon this week and of course the first thing to do was to test them out. All we succeeded in doing was to squeal about three dollars’ worth of rubber off the tires, but the belts really work fine. And despite all the criticism they are not at all uncomfortable. In fact, if you are developing a middle-aged paunch (like me) they provide a mite of support.”
Norman worked toward his master’s degree in journalism while working on the city desk at the Columbia Missourian, a daily newspaper for Columbia published by the University of Missouri Journalism School. He also covered city hall and other beats for the newspaper. His classes in summer 1955 included “How to Write Advertising That Sells.”
“Some of my good business friends will no doubt grin wryly at the title of that course,” he wrote friends in Princeton.
Princeton Times-Republic, Sept. 22, 1955 – “The board of curators of the University of Missouri has announced the appointment of J.P. Norman as an instructor in the school of journalism at the university, effective Sept. 1.”
Norman was promoted to city editor and taught news reporting and agricultural journalism classes at Missouri. His graduate thesis was “A Study of Productivity and Shop Layout in The Weekly Newspaper Shop.” He also wrote articles for Publisher’s Auxiliary, a weekly trade publication for the printing industry, on topics such as “Workflow in the Weekly Newspaper Shop” and “Rising Backshop Costs Are Eating Up Profits.”
Before retiring in 1980, Norman worked his way from graduate assistant to assistant professor, to full professor, to professor emeritus. He trained hundreds of students in one of the best journalism schools in the country. He served on the journalism school’s promotion and tenure board through the 1970s.
Author Steve Weinberg reflected on Norman’s unique path in his book “A Journalism of Humanity: A Candid History of the World’s First Journalism School” (University of Missouri Press, 2008): “Born in 1916, Norman joined the Missouri Journalism School faculty in 1955 from the realm of small newspapers and earned a late-in-life master’s degree in 1958. In conjunction with Norman’s eventual promotion to full professor, Editorial Department chairman Keith P. Sanders made the case that lack of scholarly research should not become an issue.”
Weinberg reported that Sanders acknowledged Norman was not the typical candidate: “He does not fit the stereotype most people – including, I suspect, most other faculty members – have of a full professor. His folksy sense of humor stands him in good stead; he is one of the few persons I know who is liked by virtually all who know him.”
Asked about his favorite J School memory when he retired in 2007, Chuck Woodling, a 1973 Missouri grad, replied, “Working the Saturday night reporting shift and being assigned by Phil Norman to go to the train station and see if anyone important was coming to town.”
Larry Meyer, a 1976 University of Missouri graduate, served as Norman’s teaching assistant for two semesters when he taught News 105, the introductory newswriting course. He reflected on those days in an article published on the journalism school’s website: “As Meyer recalled, Phil Norman was warm and friendly, but he held the students to some very tough standards in class, accepting no factual errors or spelling mistakes. Although most students worked hard, it was still demanding for them to get high grades. ‘Some students learned accuracy right there, which stuck with them for the rest of their career. That’s part of the Missouri method.’”
Following the unexpected death of a 60-year-old managing editor at the Missourian in 1973, Norman went to bat for the understaffed city desk. “Seeing an opportunity, city editor John Philip (Phil) Norman made his case … for increased coverage of agricultural issues, which had dropped off drastically in the previous decade,” Weinberg reported. Rumors also circulated that Norman would become managing editor.
Norman did not get the editor job. It went to 29-year-old Daryl R. Moen, who had been editor of two small dailies, including the Portage (Wis.) Register, before arriving at the Missourian in 1974.
Norman’s career highlights also included spending a year as consultant to the Korea Herald, an English language newspaper in Seoul, and working with the Associated Press, United Press International and the major television networks to improve election night coverage nationwide.
Norman died in February 2008 at age 92 at University Hospital in Columbia.
“Hundreds of students will remember him for his sense of humor, his passion for the craft of journalism, his unfeigned interest in students and stories, and even his final exams – the famous N.I.T.s,” his obituary in the Columbia Daily Tribune noted.
The other guys
The Times-Republic changed hands four times in the four years following Norman’s departure. He sold, coincidentally, to a graduate of the University of Missouri J School, Bob Francis, who also was an Army Air Corps veteran. He had mostly recently worked with his father in a concrete products business in Kansas City. Francis operated the Princeton paper for about 15 months, until August 1956, when he took a job as director of public relations at Ripon College, and the Green Lake paper until 1962, when he moved to Connecticut.
Francis sold the Times-Republic to Mr. and Mrs. Merlin E. Matzke, effective Oct. 1, 1956. The Matzkes had been weekly newspaper owners in Minnesota for 24 years. Both were journalism graduates of the University of Nebraska. They lasted less than a year in Princeton and sold the Times-Republic to Mr. and Mrs. Adam Tentis of St. Paul, Minnesota, in August 1957. Adam had been a linotype operator for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch.
The Tentis experiment also lasted less than a year. They sold to Keith Van Vuren, third-generation publisher of the Seymour Press, in May 1958. For the first time in the newspaper’s 91-year history, the Times-Republic publisher did not live in Princeton. Van Vuren hired Bill Schweinler, a 1957 journalism graduate of Stevens Point State College whose father operated a newspaper in Mosinee, as his Princeton editor.
Van Vuren added recent Whitewater State College graduate James Wolff to his Seymour staff in July 1959 and named him editor of the Seymour Press in August, about the same time Van Vuren announced that he had sold the Princeton Times-Repubic to George Van Landuyt, who had worked in the Kenosha News newsroom for 16 years.
Schweinler stayed for the transition and later accepted a position with a newspaper in Lovell, Wyoming.
Van Landuyt sold to Van Vuren’s fellow Seymour businessmen Vernon and Joseph Lubinski in October 1959. They operated as the Princeton Publishing Company with Wolff, 25, who had gotten married in September, coming from Seymour to run the Princeton operation. His first day on the job was Monday, November 1, 1959.
“Coming into a new town is always an exciting experience and our arrival in Princeton was no exception,” Wolff told his new readers in his first “Correct Me If I’m Wrong” column. “We left our previous home so fast Monday morning that numerous things were forgotten, such as a suit, tie, cuff links, etc. which made me somewhat of a standout at Monday night’s Rotary Club meeting. Quite an impression for a guest to make.”
Wolff graduated from Seymour High School in 1953. He played baseball, participated in forensics and served as editor of the school paper as a senior. At Whitewater, he participated in debate, played on the baseball team and was a member of the college’s traveling bowling team. He was editor of the Royal Purple newspaper in 1958-1959.
Wolff purchased the Princeton Times-Republic in 1964.
Princeton Times-Republic, July 30, 1964 – “The Princeton Times-Republic is now a ‘one-owner’ newspaper, having been purchased recently by James Wolff. For the past 4 ½ years, the newspaper and printing business here was owned by a corporation known as the Princeton Publishing Company, with Vernon and Joseph Lubinski of Seymour as principal stockholders. During that period Wolff had been operating the business for them as managing editor until this month when he bought out their interests. Thus, the name of the business will revert back to the Princeton Times-Republic.”
Wolff in 2024 is editor emeritus of Berlin Newspapers. (I will have more on his tenure as editor in a 1960s post). Schweinler resides in Gillette, Wyoming. The other editors of the ‘50s have passed away.
Thank you for caring and reading about local history.