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From the Argus:
http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs...1011/1001/NEWS
Anson Yeager remembered as journalist, gentleman
By CORRINE OLSON
colson@argusleader.com
Article Published: 11/21/05, 7:37 pm
Ask people to describe Anson Yeager and the word they most often use is “gentleman.”
The longtime South Dakota newspaperman, who died Sunday, is remembered as a soft-spoken man with a deep love of South Dakota and his profession.
“He used to write what I call ‘Must, Please’ memos. He would label things that must get in the paper, but then he’d say ‘please,’ ” said Argus Leader reporter Jon Walker. “It illustrates something about the man that he had to soften his memos when something absolutely had to happen.”
Yeager, 86, came to the Argus Leader in 1947 to write obituaries and eventually rose to the position of executive editor. Even when he retired in 1984, after 37 years at the newspaper, he continued to write columns about the numerous places he and his wife, Ada May, visited.
“What Anson had probably more than anything else was a wonderful curiosity. He liked to examine everything,” said Dick Lee, former head of the journalism department at South Dakota State University.
Yeager’s son Anson Jr. agrees. “He just always kept an eye out for a good story and wanted to tell it,” he said. “I think he was a true South Dakotan at heart, and he really never wanted to live anywhere else.”
Lee met Yeager in 1978 when he came to take the job at SDSU.
When he established a distinguished alumni award for the journalism department, Yeager was the first person to receive the honor.
“He was just such an obvious choice in the quality of person he was, always outgoing, always up-tempo and always hopeful,” Lee said.
The Yeagers also were generous contributors to the journalism school. A new addition to the building bears Anson and Ada May’s names, and the largest scholarship handed out in the department was donated by the Yeagers.
Lee said he thinks it meant a lot of Yeager to have the building bear his name.
“He would always touch the letters of his name when he visited the building,” Lee said. . . .
Yeager was an incredibly polite person, Swenson said. “I’ve seen a lot of people lose their temper, and I never saw Anson do that,” he said. “He was always polite, even when people were jerks to him.”
The son of a Texas newspaperman, Yeager began his career in the 1930s, operating a linotype machine for a weekly newspaper in Faith. He enrolled at State College in 1937 but flunked out after his first quarter. He went back to college and earned his degree after serving in the Army during World War II. He also served for nearly 20 years in the South Dakota National Guard.
Terry Yeager, a Sioux Falls doctor and one of Yeager’s five children, said his dad worked long hours nearly every day of the week but still made time for his family.
Terry Yeager said he remembers his dad helping him prepare for the soapbox derby sponsored by the Boy Scouts and taking the family on trips to the Black Hills.
Mostly, the younger Yeager remembers the character of the man.
“I never heard a person say a negative thing about my dad,” he said. “Dad had a lot of class.” . . .
http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs...1011/1001/NEWS
Anson Yeager remembered as journalist, gentleman
By CORRINE OLSON
colson@argusleader.com
Article Published: 11/21/05, 7:37 pm
Ask people to describe Anson Yeager and the word they most often use is “gentleman.”
The longtime South Dakota newspaperman, who died Sunday, is remembered as a soft-spoken man with a deep love of South Dakota and his profession.
“He used to write what I call ‘Must, Please’ memos. He would label things that must get in the paper, but then he’d say ‘please,’ ” said Argus Leader reporter Jon Walker. “It illustrates something about the man that he had to soften his memos when something absolutely had to happen.”
Yeager, 86, came to the Argus Leader in 1947 to write obituaries and eventually rose to the position of executive editor. Even when he retired in 1984, after 37 years at the newspaper, he continued to write columns about the numerous places he and his wife, Ada May, visited.
“What Anson had probably more than anything else was a wonderful curiosity. He liked to examine everything,” said Dick Lee, former head of the journalism department at South Dakota State University.
Yeager’s son Anson Jr. agrees. “He just always kept an eye out for a good story and wanted to tell it,” he said. “I think he was a true South Dakotan at heart, and he really never wanted to live anywhere else.”
Lee met Yeager in 1978 when he came to take the job at SDSU.
When he established a distinguished alumni award for the journalism department, Yeager was the first person to receive the honor.
“He was just such an obvious choice in the quality of person he was, always outgoing, always up-tempo and always hopeful,” Lee said.
The Yeagers also were generous contributors to the journalism school. A new addition to the building bears Anson and Ada May’s names, and the largest scholarship handed out in the department was donated by the Yeagers.
Lee said he thinks it meant a lot of Yeager to have the building bear his name.
“He would always touch the letters of his name when he visited the building,” Lee said. . . .
Yeager was an incredibly polite person, Swenson said. “I’ve seen a lot of people lose their temper, and I never saw Anson do that,” he said. “He was always polite, even when people were jerks to him.”
The son of a Texas newspaperman, Yeager began his career in the 1930s, operating a linotype machine for a weekly newspaper in Faith. He enrolled at State College in 1937 but flunked out after his first quarter. He went back to college and earned his degree after serving in the Army during World War II. He also served for nearly 20 years in the South Dakota National Guard.
Terry Yeager, a Sioux Falls doctor and one of Yeager’s five children, said his dad worked long hours nearly every day of the week but still made time for his family.
Terry Yeager said he remembers his dad helping him prepare for the soapbox derby sponsored by the Boy Scouts and taking the family on trips to the Black Hills.
Mostly, the younger Yeager remembers the character of the man.
“I never heard a person say a negative thing about my dad,” he said. “Dad had a lot of class.” . . .
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