John “Jack” Knowles, former owner of the Hillsboro Sentry-Enterprise, died May 1, following a battle with vascular dementia. He was 85.
Knowles was born on March 20, 1942, in Chicago to Bill and Evelyn Knowles. He spent the first 30 years of his journalism career at the Chicago Tribune, starting as a copy boy at 18 years old and working up to editor of the foreign news desk. He left the newspaper in 1989, moving his young family to a small farming community in Wisconsin and purchasing the Sentry-Enterprise. During his time as editor and publisher of the newspaper, he was honored with many awards in writing, publishing, photography and editing from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association.
Knowles sold the newspaper to Morris Newspaper Corporation of Wisconsin in 2004.
A celebration of life will be held on Thursday, June 16, with visitation from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., followed by a funeral service at 7 p.m. at the Picha Funeral Home in Hillsboro, Wis.
