Thomas Ray Aaroen, a former sports reporter for the McFarland Community Life newspaper, died on Wednesday, May 25, following a brief battle with cancer. He was 71.
Aaroen graduated from McFarland High School and attended two years of college at UW-Platteville, UW-Whitewater, and UW-Eau Claire. After reporting for the Community Life, he went on to a career with the U.S. Postal Service in Madison.
Ronald R. Johnson, former publisher of several Wisconsin newspapers, died on May 17, 2022, of COPD. He was 82.
Interested in newspapers and printing as a child, he had a paper route at a young age and worked for The Dixon Evening Telegraph while in high school. During his career, he worked for newspapers in Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. In the mid-70s, he was the owner and publisher of newspapers in Argyle, Albany and Monticello.
Russell John Newton, of Verona, died on May 21, 2022, after a three-year battle with ALS, at the age of 62. Newton spent most of his life working in the newspaper industry, beginning his career delivering for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison. As an adult, he held management positions with the Chicago Tribune, the (Norfolk, Va.) Daily Press, the Orlando Sentinel, the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union Tribune and the San Antonio Express.
A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, July 16, at Capital Brewery in Middleton.
Charlie Friederich, a longtime journalist for The Milwaukee Journal, died May 28, in Monroe. He was 87.
After earning his master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill, he began his journalism career as a reporter for the Binghamton (New York) Press. He moved to Wisconsin in 1961 to join The Milwaukee Journal, where he worked for almost 30 years. Friederich retired from The Journal in 1990.
Stuart Carlson, a longtime Milwaukee Journal Sentinel political cartoonist, died Friday, June 10, at age 66.
Carlson, a West Bend native who earned an arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, served as a cartoonist for The Milwaukee Sentinel and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from 1983 to 2008. He was first hired by the Milwaukee Sentinel as a lifestyle reporter in the features department.
John "Jack" Knowles, former owner of the Hillsboro Sentry-Enterprise, died May1, 2022, following a battle with vascular dementia. He was 85.
Knowles 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. Knowles sold the newspaper to Morris Newspaper Corporation of Wisconsin in 2004.
Paula Kay (Davel) Fredrickson, a longtime writer for The Dodgeville Chronicle, died on May 15, 2022, following a brief illness. She was 76.
After studying journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, she was hired by the Blanchardville Chamber of Commerce to write stories about local businesses. She began her 38-year newspaper career with the Blanchardville Blade-Atlas, and went on to work for The Dodgeville Chronicle, The (Mineral Point) Democrat-Tribune, and the Pecatonica Valley Leader.
Thomas Walter Dorman, a former newspaper reporter, sportswriter and photographer, died on Sunday, May 15, 2022. He was 70. He died doing what he loved and "was out photographing the full lunar eclipse when his coronary heart stopped," according to his obituary.
He discovered his love of photography through working in community newspapers and never went anywhere without a camera. Dorman considered himself a "street photographer," taking pictures of everyday people and events.
Jon Nels Olson, a longtime reporter and editor who lived in Milwaukee, died on on Thursday, May 19, 2022, of complications from Myotonic Dystrophy following a fall from his bicycle during the previous month. He was 63.
Olson began his career as the editor of the Middleton Times-Tribune before moving in to work as a reporter and associate editor of The Business Journal. He also produced the television show Business of Wisconsin. He worked as a business reporter for the Milwaukee Journal from 1991 to 1995 and then as a copy editor from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from 1995 to 2009.
Thomas G. Larson of Minong, Wis., former owner and publisher of The Osceola Sun, died April 12, 2022. He was 86.
In 1974, Larson purchased the Sun, which he owned for 18 years. Prior to purchasing the newspaper, he worked for the Quinco Press in Lowry, Minn., and the Morris (Minn.) Sun.
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