Longtime Arizona Newspaper Publisher Dies At 84

CASA GRANDE, Ariz. (AP) — Donovan Kramer Sr., longtime publisher of the Casa Grande Dispatch and owner of several weekly community newspapers in Arizona, died Sunday. He was 84.

Kramer died at Casa Grande Regional Medical Center of complications from pulmonary and renal failure. Services are pending.

"Mr. Kramer was a true gentleman who dedicated his life to community journalism," said Michelle Williams, chief of bureau for The Associated Press in Arizona. "His legacy lives on through his newspapers, which cover the communities they serve with a sense of purpose and history that's rooted in decades of ownership by Mr. Kramer and his family."

Kramer, son of a weekly newspaper editor and publisher in Illinois, and his wife, Ruth, purchased the Casa Grande Dispatch in 1962 after a vacation in Arizona. They converted the Dispatch from a weekly to a daily in the 1970s. They soon bought weekly newspapers in Eloy, Coolidge, Florence and the White Mountains, and later opened papers in Arizona City and Maricopa.

Kramer served in World War II and studied journalism at the University of Illinois, where he was a member of Sigma Delta Chi, now the Society of Professional Journalists. He graduated in 1948 and became editor and publisher of the Fairbury (Ill.) Blade.