Bill Borneman served as the general manager, editor and salesman of the Oconto County Reporter and its Beacon shoppers for 38 years before retiring. He died June 25, 2011, at age 84.
Borneman started his career in newspapers as a reporter for the Elkhart Truth in Elkhart, Ind. He later moved to Ottawa, Ill., and was managing editor of the Daily Times. He bought the struggling Oconto County Reporter in 1972, and he and his wife, Dorothy, built the newspaper into a thriving business.
Borneman retained his role as editor even after he sold the Oconto publications to Brown County Publishing Co. in September 1992, and after Gannett Co. Inc. purchased the Brown County Publishing newspapers, including the Reporter and its shoppers, in 2004.
For many years, Borneman’s Town Talk column appeared on the front page of the Reporter and his “Lakes Country Chatterbox” piece was devoted to news, gossip and teasing from that part of the county. Beyond his editorial job, Borneman canvassed the county for advertising to support the publications.
Borneman graduated from Elkhart High School in Elkhart, Ind., in 1945, served briefly in the Army and then attended Kalamazoo College in Michigan. He has two children from his first marriage, and three stepchildren with his second wife, Dorothy, who died in 2010.
