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June 9, 1999
Bill Macklin, former Journal editor diesBy KEVIN SWEENEY Journal Editor HACKENSACK, Minn. -- Bill Macklin, who chronicled the life and happenings in New Ulm as editor of The New Ulm Daily Journal from 1951 to 1979, died Tuesday morning in a nursing home in Pine River. He was 81 years old. Macklin, whose career in journalism included stints with the Associated Press in London, St. Louis and Kansas City, found his home and the place to practice his craft in New Ulm. It was a place to raise his three children, and to write the kind of news he loved -- human interest stories and reports on the people and their doings that may not be earth-shaking, but which shape a town. After his retirement in 1979 he continued writing about the little things in life around him near his retirement home on Ten Mile lake near Hackensack. He described the joys of family visits, fishing, harvesting wild rice or collecting maple sap for syrup, and winters in the north woods until his pen was stilled by Alzheimer's disease, which was diagnosed in 1991. Visitation will be 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Thomas-Dennis Funeral Home in Walker, with a memorial service at 2 p.m. Friday at Union Congregational Church in Hackensack. He is survived by his wife Judy, his children, Scott County District Judge Bill Macklin Jr., Tom Macklin and Susan Paulson. He is remembered by friends and former employees alike as a "nice guy" in the truest sense of the word. Roger Matz, who was publisher of The Journal from 1974 to 1980, recalls preparing to deliver an address in Macklin's honor when the New Ulm Foundation and Mickelson Foundation instituted the Bill Macklin Fund in 1996. Whenever he asked people about Macklin's years in New Ulm, they all said, "He was a nice guy, a really nice guy." Matz said in his address he got tired of hearing that phrase over and over. "But, in essence, that is the summary of the one large anecdote of Bill Macklin's life in New Ulm. He is such a nice guy, such a kind person, that the warmth of Bill has created some kind of aura, some kind of mantle that overshadows or hides any particular, specific anecdote." Macklin was born Aug. 4, 1917, in Coon Rapids, Iowa. He moved to Minneapolis at the age of six when his father went to medical school, then moved to with his family to Litchfield, where he graduated in 1935. He was editor of his school paper in high school and worked as a correspondent for the West Central Tribune in Willmar. His first check in payment for one of his stories hooked him on journalism. "My God," he said, in a story written at his retirement in 1979, "If you can get paid for what you think is fun, then that's what I want to do with my life. His interest in journalism took him to the prestigious University of Missouri School of Journalism. He was editor of the school newspaper his senior year, and a correspondent for the Associated Press. After graduation he went to work for a newspaper in Springfield, Mo., for a short time before hooking on with the AP. He moved into the AP's St. Louis bureau until he was drafted in 1941. He joined the Army Corps of Engineers. While stationed in Florida he met Elaine "Becky" Beckstrom, who was serving in the SPARS, the women's corps of the Coast Guard. They were married, he was sent to Europe and she went home to Kansas. In September 1946 she gave birth to their son, Bill Jr, who was appointed as a district judge in Scott County after serving in the Minnesota Legislature. When Macklin was discharged from the Army after the war, he landed a job covering sports for the AP in London. Becky and Bill Jr. joined him there, and they lived in England for four years. Their daughter Susan was born there in 1948. Their son, Tom, was born in New Ulm in 1954. Macklin returned to the United States, working in the AP bureau in Kansas City until 1951, when he responded to an ad in Editor & Publisher from the New Ulm Daily Journal, which was looking for an editor. He was hired by publisher Walt Mickelson, came to New Ulm and remained editor for 28 years, the longest tenure of any Journal editor before or since. Macklin began writing his "Billboard" column shortly after his arrival in New Ulm, publishing it every Tuesday and Thursday until it moved to Sunday when The Journal started a Sunday paper in 1960. He continued writing it until 1994. It was published in several newspapers in northern Minnesota, near the home to which he and Becky retired. They were active members of the community, joining with their neighbors in wild rice harvests in the fall and maple syruping in the spring. They were active in the Union Congregational Church of Hackensack and the Ten Mile Lake Association. He and Becky did some traveling, visiting England and cruising the Mediterranean. Becky was diagnosed with cancer and died in 1987. He was introduced to Judy Voss through friends and relatives, and they were married on July 9, 1988. The couple lived near Hackensack and traveled through the U.S., Mexico and Europe, even after Macklin was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1990. In 1993, the Macklins traveled to China for a special commemoration ceremony. Macklin's grandfather had been a medical missionary to China, where he had established a 25-bed hospital in 1893. Bill and two sisters were invited to join in the centennial festivities as honored guests for four days. "It was a rare and glorious event," said Judy. "Bill was even able to give a speech to a packed auditorium at the main event of the celebration. It was translated by one of the young doctors as Bill spoke, and it was given a standing ovation." Soon, as the Alzheimer's took its effect, Macklin and Judy moved to Pine River in an assisted living center. In 1996 he moved to an Alzheimer's special care unit at Masonic Hospital in Bloomington. In 1998 he was moved back to Whispering Pines Care Center in Pine River, where he died Tuesday morning.
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