The Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation is pleased to announce the distinguished industry leaders who will be inducted into the Wisconsin Newspaper Hall of Fame on Thursday, Nov. 10, at The Madison Club, 5 E. Wilson St., Madison.
The 2022 inductees are (click to read bios):
- Emma Brown (posthumous), The Wisconsin Chief, Fort Atkinson
- Dickey Chapelle (posthumous), Shorewood native, photographer and one of the first female war correspondents, killed in Vietnam
- Charles “Chuck” Gauger, Trempealeau County Times, Whitehall
- Peter Fox, Wisconsin Newspaper Association
- Phil Muench (posthumous), Grant County Herald Independent, Lancaster
The 2022 Hall of Fame Banquet will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a cocktail reception. Dinner will be at 6:30 p.m., with the induction ceremony to follow. Tickets can be purchased online for $55 per person, $420 for a table of eight, or $650 for a corporate table sponsor (includes a table of eight and recognition at the event). The deadline to register is Nov. 2.
There are several ways to get involved with the Wisconsin Newspaper Hall of Fame banquet and support the mission of the WNA Foundation. See a complete list of event sponsorships and congratulatory ad options.
Emma Brown
Emma Brown, co-founder of The (Fort Atkinson) Wisconsin Chief, was the first successful female editor and publisher in Wisconsin.
Born on Nov. 6, 1827, in Auburn, N.Y., she and her brother, Thurlow W. Brown, first published the newspaper in Auburn under the name The Cayuga Chief. In 1856, they moved to Fort Atkinson, changing its name to The Wisconsin Chief.
After Thurlow died in 1866, Emma continued to publish Fort Atkinson’s first newspaper on her own. When W.D. Hoard first came to the area, he turned to Brown to print his Jefferson County Union until he was able to raise the funds needed to buy his own printing plant.
Originally devoted to upholding the ideal of temperance, under Emma’s leadership the Chief began to include more reform pieces, such as articles on prison conditions, factory conditions and women’s suffrage.
Emma continued to print the Chief until just before her death in 1889.
Dickey Chapelle
Dickey Chapelle, a Shorewood native and American photojournalist known for her work as a war correspondent from World War II through the Vietnam War, was one of history’s most fearless conflict journalists — and the first American woman to die on the job.
Born Georgette Meyer in 1919, “Dickey” — self-named after her favorite explorer, Admiral Richard Byrd — earned a full scholarship to study aeronautical design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after graduating first in her class from Shorewood High School at the age of 16.
Dickey was one of the first women foreign correspondents to cover World War II, the Korean and Vietnam Wars and Cold War military struggles. Her work appeared in “Reader’s Digest,” “National Geographic,” “Look,” and the “Saturday Evening Post.”
She covered stories in Algeria, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Greece, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Albania, India, Iraq, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Saipan, Jordan, Korea, Laos, Lebanon, the South Pacific, Turkey and Hungary, where she was arrested and imprisoned from 1955 to 1957.
On Nov. 4, 1965, Chapelle was killed by a land mine while on patrol with a platoon, becoming the first war correspondent killed in Vietnam.
Charles “Chuck” Gauger
Charles “Chuck” Gauger, who retired in 2019 after a 43-year newspaper career, began working alongside his father, who owned the Whitehall Times as a child and, later, during summers while attending UW-Stevens Point.
He joined the staff full time in 1975 as an advertising salesman. In 1984, he became general manager and, four years later, he was named publisher of the newspaper.
Gauger purchased the Independence News-Wave in 2002 and merged it with the Times.
In September 2010, Gauger sold the Whitehall Times to the Black Earth, Wis.-based News Publishing Company. He remained with the newspaper as general manager and oversaw the merger of the Times, the Arcadia News-Leader and the Galesville Republican into one paper, the Trempealeau County Times.
Gauger continued to serve as the general manager until his retirement in 2019. His retirement marked the end of 80 years of Gauger family newspaper ownership.
Peter Fox
Before lobbying on behalf of newspapers as executive director of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, Peter Fox was a respected newspaper editor.
As an undergraduate attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Fox served as a part-time copy editor for the Wisconsin State Journal, joining the paper full time during graduate school.
After eight years with the State Journal, during which he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from UW-Madison, Fox was named city editor of the Billings (Montana) Gazette in 1981. He became regional editor in 1983 and, in 1985, returned to Wisconsin to serve as editor of The (Racine) Journal Times, a position he held for nearly nine years.
After leaving the newspaper industry in 1994, Fox served as director of public information for the University of Wisconsin and, later was named workforce development coordinator and Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Employment by Gov. Tommy Thompson.
In 2004, he was named executive director of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, a role he held until 2010. During his tenure, the association made significant strides in membership participation and services to the state’s daily and weekly newspapers. He acted as a leading advocate for open records and meetings and helped pass the state’s Whistleblower Protection Act. He also launched Wisconsin’s free public notice website and digital newspaper archive.
Over the years, he has been honored with Distinguished Service Awards from the UW-Madison School of Journalism and the WNA. He also served as advisor of Montana State University’s student newspaper, The Exponent, from 2011 to 2019.
Prior to working in newspapers, Fox served in the U.S. Army Security Agency from 1967 to 1970 as a Russian linguist, and was stationed in Japan and Taiwan. He later served in the Wisconsin Army National Guard in a variety of positions, retiring with 32 years of service and the rank of colonel.
Phil Muench
Phillip J. “Phil” Muench, who grew up on the family farm in Boice Creek and graduated from Lancaster High School in 1986, worked more than three decades printing newspapers in southwestern Wisconsin.
In 1988, two years after graduating from Lancaster High School, he joined the staff of his hometown newspaper, the Grant County Herald Independent. He quickly took over as head pressman for Lancaster Newspapers, and he continued in the role for Morris Newspapers of Wisconsin, overseeing the printing of all of the company’s southwestern Wisconsin publications.
During a time when many newspapers were shrinking and consolidating, Muench managed the expansion of the original 1972 press — a project that moved the newspaper into the 21st century. He worked tirelessly to put out quality products and always made his co-workers feel like family.
After 32 years with the Herald-Independent, Muench died on Dec. 10 after an extended battle with COVID-19. He was 52.
