H. Mitchell Bliss, who spent nearly 17 years as a part of The Janesville Gazette newsroom, died Thursday, Aug. 26, in Janesville. He was 96.

Bliss — no relation to the Bliss family that owned the newspaper — joined The Gazette in 1957 and served as a reporter until 1965, when he was named city editor. In 1983, after a five-year hiatus working in public relations for the State Bar of Wisconsin, he was named editor of the newspaper. It's a position he held until his retirement in 1989. 

Bob Franzmann, who worked for more than 30 years at the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, died Monday, July 19. He was 86.

Born in Coloma, Mich., Franzmann attended UW-Milwaukee, where he discovered his love of journalism. He graduated in 1962 as a part of the school’s first class of journalism graduates before starting his newspaper career at the Rhinelander Daily News. He spent a year there before joining the State Journal newsroom, where he remained until his retirement in 1994.