Longtime Michigan weekly owner/editor/publisher who believed everyone has a story dies at 82 - Entrepreneur Generations

Rudy Petzold, former editor, publisher and owner of the weekly Tuscola County Advertiser in Caro, Mich. died Saturday at age 82, Andrew Dietderich reports for Tuscola Today. Petzold earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University and served in the U.S. Army between World War II and the Korean War, before returning to work at the Advertiser as a reporter before becoming editor and its owner and publisher for 25 years.

Petzold was highly regarded for believing everyone had a story. Brett McLaughlin, who was hired as a reporter at the Advertiser in 1972 and later served as publisher from 1991-2001, told Dietderich, “The first time I went too far in terms of maybe being too harsh, he was quick to remind me ‘You know, we tell the truth, but we do it with some charity.' Because that person that you’re writing about in jail could very well be sitting next to you in church next Sunday.”

Petzold addressed how he would describe what he does if someone walked into his business and asked what he was doing. He said this is how he might answer:

• I have a very special challenge and opportunity in this community. 
• I am not too important in my community but I try to be important to my community. 
• I chronicle and preserve the on-going history of my community – not just stories about the big shots but about wonderful everyday folks as well. 
• I focus attention on my community problems, its needs and challenges and try to arouse people to do something about them.
• I try to stand up for the little guy and try to be brave enough to stand up to the big guy if he gets too pushy. 
• I make heroes out of the good people in my town who do things that might otherwise get missed…young football heroes, pretty beauty queens, wonderful neighbors, talented craftsmen, happy newlyweds, delightful jubilarians. I have the honor and joy of recording their special moments that, summed together, make up life in my community. 
• I also have the job of pegging the heels in our community…isolating the few who use, or rather abuse their power, money or public trusts at the expense of the rest. 
• I am sort of an unofficial member of every club and committee, because I help promote and publicize their good work and help their civic projects succeed. 
• I don’t make a lot of money…some months none at all, but I feel well paid with a feeling of fulfillment and of being someone special and useful to many people in this community.

from The Rural Blog http://ift.tt/2aiShpP Longtime Michigan weekly owner/editor/publisher who believed everyone has a story dies at 82 - Entrepreneur Generations

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