Walter B. Stevens
October 10, 1916 - July 17, 2013

Walter B. Stevens, 96, editor emeritus of The Messenger, a lifelong
newspaperman and a World War II veteran, died Wednesday, July 17, 2013, at
Friendship Haven in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

He served as managing editor and editor of The Messenger for 34 years, until
he retired in 1988 at the age of 71, and was editor emeritus until his
death. Walt was honored by the Iowa Newspaper Association with its Master
Editor-Publisher Award in 1982 and its Distinguished Service Award in 2003.

A visitation will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Celebration Center at
Friendship Haven, 420 Kenyon Road, Fort Dodge. Services will be held at
10:30 a.m. at Corpus Christi Church, 416 N. 8th St., Fort Dodge, with burial
to follow at Corpus Christi Cemetery. Military honors will be presented by V.F.W. Post No. 1856 and the Iowa Army National Guard. Memorials may be sent to the Walter
and Ruth Stevens Journalism Scholarship fund at St. Edmond High School, 2220 4th Ave. N., Fort Dodge, Iowa 50501. Arrangements have been entrusted to Gunderson Funeral Home & Cremation Services in Fort Dodge.

Walt is survived by son Paul (Linda) Stevens of Lenexa, Kan., daughter Jan
(Mike) Tracy of Cherokee, Iowa, and son David (Cheryl) Stevens of Pittsboro,
N.C.; grandchildren Sarah Tracy of Lincoln, Neb., Jenny (Andy) Volanakis of
Cambridge, Mass., Molly (Travis) Templeton of Olathe, Kan., Jill (Darren)
Kenyon of Red Wing, Minn., Kate (Andy) Eller of Lenoir, N.C., Jon Stevens of
Lenexa, Kan., Matt (Ali) Stevens of Fairchild AFB, Wash.; and great
grandchildren Sophie and Brennan of Olathe, Max and Teddy of Cambridge, Lily
of Lenoir, twins Hayden and Talon, and Matteo, Isabella and Greyson of
Fairchild AFB.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Ruth, who died Aug. 27,
2011; his parents; his sisters Frances, Agnes, Ruth, Irene, Esther and
Berniece; brothers Ed, Al and Fritz, and a great grandchild, Jocelyn.

Walter Bernard Stevens was born Oct. 10, 1916, on a farm in Bow Valley,
Neb., the seventh of 10 children of Henry and Margaret Eickhoff Stevens. His
family moved to nearby Hartington when he was 10 and he graduated from Cedar Catholic High School in 1933 at the age of 16. After graduation, he began work as a reporter for the Cedar County News. He and Ruth Petersen met in the fall of 1936 when they both worked at the weekly newspaper. Walt was named managing editor before he reached the age of 21. The News was the start of Walt's long career in newspaper journalism that took him from
Nebraska to Minnesota, Missouri and Iowa.

Walt left Hartington in 1938 to become news reporter and sports editor of
the Brainerd (Minn.) Dispatch and was promoted to editor of the daily in
1940. Two months after Pearl Harbor, Walt was drafted into the U.S. Army in
February 1942 and attended Officer Candidate School in Fort Sill, Okla.,
graduating as a second lieutenant. He joined the 77th Field Artillery
Regiment and in February 1943 his unit was shipped overseas.

Walt's unit saw combat in the European Theatre for 33 months, beginning in
North Africa, then the invasion of Sicily, the landing in Anzio and the
liberation of Rome in June 1944, followed by a march through northern Italy
into France and Germany until the end of the war in Europe in May 1945.

Walt was discharged from the Army as a captain in November 1945 and resumed newspaper work at the Excelsior Springs (Mo.) Standard, where he became editor and publisher. He and Ruth were married on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, 1946, at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Excelsior Springs. When Harry Truman came to Excelsior Springs on the evening of the 1948 election, Walt covered the newly elected president's first appearance after his surprising defeat of Thomas Dewey.

Their son Paul and daughter Jan were born in Excelsior Springs and their son
Dave was born in Fort Madison, Iowa, where they moved in 1949 when Walt
became managing editor of the Daily Democrat. In early 1954, the family
moved to Fort Dodge, Iowa, when Walt was named managing editor of The
Messenger. They moved into a house owned by former Messenger editor Granger
Mitchell and lived at that house, on 11th Avenue North, for the next 50
years. They sold the house and moved into Friendship Haven in early 2003.

In his tenure as managing editor and editor of The Messenger, Walt directed
the Messenger news staff and wrote thousands of editorials over the years
that focused on local issues in Fort Dodge and the Messengerland area. He
interviewed many presidential candidates over the years, including George
H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, when they came to Fort Dodge to campaign in the
Iowa caucuses.

In 1978 Walt began writing a weekly personality column called Spotlight that
chronicled the lives of residents of the Messenger area and in the next 27
years, he had written more than 1,000 Spotlights before producing his final
one in 2005. He also wrote a Saturday column titled Accent for a number of
years. Walt and his son Paul wrote a book in 2006 on the history of The
Messenger on the occasion of the newspaper's 150-year anniversary.

In a column he wrote upon retirement as full-time editor in 1988, he told
Messenger readers he would continue to write editorials and his Spotlights.
He wrote, "I continue to put off full retirement at an age when most
sensible people hang it up and head for warmer climates. Full, immediate
withdrawal could be traumatic - I'm happy to have the chance to ease into
retirement by writing editorials and continuing with the weekly Spotlights.
Old editors don't die, they just write away."

Walt was active in the Iowa Newspaper Association. He served as president of
the Iowa Associated Press association.

He was a member of Corpus Christi Church since the family moved to Fort
Dodge in 1954 and also served as an usher for more than 30 years and was a
member of the Knights of Columbus. Walt was involved in many civic and
community groups in Fort Dodge. He was president of the Recreation
Commission when Harlan and Hazel Rogers Park was dedicated, secretary of the
Mercy Hospital board and a promoter of the merger of Mercy and Lutheran
Hospitals into Trinity Regional, the 1990 Frontier Days Parade Marshal and
received the Lions Club¹s 1985 Community Service Award, the Noon and
Sundowner Sertoma Club Awards and the Masonic Awards. He was a member of the
Fort Dodge Noon Lions Club and served as a Lion for 73 years.

One of the many highlights of his life was being part of the first Brushy
Creek Honor Flight from Fort Dodge in May 2010 in which area World War II
veterans traveled to Washington to view the World War II Memorial and other
monuments in the nation's capitol.

Since he became eligible to vote in 1940, Walt never missed voting in a
presidential election and the ballot he cast in last November's election was
the 19th consecutive presidential election in which he voted.

After his wife Ruth's death, the Stevens family established the Walt and
Ruth Stevens Journalism Scholarship at St. Edmond High School, which all
three of their children attended.

The family would like to thank the staff at Tompkins Health Center and the
Gardens at Friendship Haven and Trinity Hospice for the kind and loving care
they provided him in his final days. The family also thanks former Fort
Dodge mayor and judge Albert Habhab and his wife Janet, and Messenger
Publisher Larry Bushman and his wife Sandy for their friendship with Walt
and Ruth over many years.

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