Donald and Laurel Huibregtse, married for 62 years, died within hours of one another on Nov. 27, 2012. Laurel, age 85, died unexpectedly shortly before Don, who was battling cancer.
Both graduates of UW-Madison, Don and Laurel met while they were UW students during summer employment at Dairyman’s Country Club in Boulder Junction. They were married on April 1, 1950, and were the proud parents of four children, all UW graduates.
Don was 86 when he died. He was born in Plymouth and graduated from high school in Thorp in 1944. A 1949 graduate of the UW School of Journalism, he was employed as the state editor of the daily Eau Claire Leader and as a reporter for the Winona (Minn.) Daily News.
By 1953, Don and his wife, Laurel, purchased The Blair Press and moved to Blair. In 1966, Don and Laurel moved to Deephaven, Minn. There, Don worked for Miller Publishing Company as the editor of The Ice Cream Review and The Hog Farmers’ Gazette, trade magazines published in Minneapolis. By 1968, Don and Laurel purchased The Monona Community Herald and moved their family to Monona. They later also purchased The McFarland Community Life.
Don and Laurel published community newspapers in Wisconsin from 1953 until their retirement in 1988. Don served in several board positions for the Wisconsin Newspaper Association and was WNA president in 1986. He twice won Publisher of the Year awards for the small community weekly category in WNAF’s Better Newspaper Contest.
