Wally Rugg, 27 years a printer, and life is still good

By Alannah Allbrett

One of the Clearwater Tribune’s own, Wally Rugg, came to work at the paper in December of 1946 as an assistant printer’s devil. But Wally’s story begins in Canada where he was born. His parents moved to the big town of Peck when he was only two, so I guess you could call Wally a “native.” He graduated in 1942, from Peck High School which, in those days, was on “top of a hill.”

Wally served in the Air Force in WWII, stationed in St. Petersburg, FL during his basic training and later at McCord AFB. He was with the combat aviation engineers who built airfields for fighter planes.

Back home, one of Wally’s first jobs was driving a laundry truck route that covered Pierce, Weippe, and Grangeville. He dropped clothes off at the Orofino Laundry, across Orofino Creek. Wally spent some time working for the Sports Shop and later was hired at the Clearwater Tribune where he apprenticed and worked his way up from a printer’s devil to a career as a pressman and compositor. Wally said it took six years to become a Journeyman Printer. He got on-the-job training, subsidized through the GI Bill.

Wally learned many things in his newspaper years, such as running the hand press, a platen press – used for smaller print jobs like envelopes, campaign cards, letterhead, statements, and prescription pads. In those days, the paper did all the printing jobs for local businesses and the courthouse. Printing was not easy in those days working with hot metal, melted at 560 degrees, in an electric pot. Wally melted the metal for the metal pigs that were fed into the linotype machine. The news was set, one line at a time, and a page of set type slugs weighed 50 pounds. Wally said they almost ran a dog through the press one time when it jumped up on the paper.

During the flood of 1948, which put some of the equipment and paper supplies under water at the Tribune, Wally and Harley Casteel shoveled about two feet of snow off of the roof. Twenty-two inches of water ran through the building that day, and still the paper was published.

Wally met his sweetheart, Louise Conard in 1946. She was a local girl of 19, working as a waitress at the Riverside Café. He was an older man of 23 when he swept her off her feet. Louise became Mrs. Rugg in August of 1946, and the couple raised three children together. Their son John and daughters Marilyn and Patty all live in Lewiston today.

In his career as a printer, Wally worked for 27 years until health issues forced him to give it up. He served his community as the Post Commander of VFW Post 3296, and has served in all offices in the Odd Fellows Lodge. He is a Life Member of both organizations. Wally stayed in Orofino until 1993, but since his kids lived and worked in Lewiston, he relocated there. He lives in a seniors’ apartment building where he says he enjoys playing cribbage, the monthly dances, and he still goes out once in awhile to the casino. “Nothing can take your money quicker than the nickel slots,” he said. So Wally wisely sticks to playing the penny machines. Life is good for this retired printer, especially a day out fishing with his son.

Wally Rugg (seated) is surrounded by his family, Patty Rugg Leonard, John Rugg and Marilyn Rugg Britain.

Pictured is Wally Rugg, setting type for an advertisement, in his glory days at the Clearwater Tribune.

Co-worker of Wally Rugg, Julian Dahl is pictured working at the linotype machine at the Clearwater Tribune in October of 1967.

Julian Dahl (left) and Wally Rugg, pictured hard at work putting out the paper.

Happy 100th birthday Clearwater Tribune, Clearwater County’s official newspaper

By Alannah Allbrett

  As the Clearwater Tribune celebrates its 100^th anniversary this year, we want to remember other noteworthy things which were going on in the world in 1912. Interspersed in this story are some bits of history which help put our own into perspective.

·  In 1912, the last emperor of China, Hsuan T'ung, was forced to abdicate, and the Republic of China was established on January first. China also adopted the Gregorian calendar that year.

  Newspapers in the west, in 1912, had about as colorful a history as the old west from which they sprang. They included political feuds, bickering between rival editors, and racial comments. They were short on sensitivity and euphemisms were unknown.

·  In 1912, English explorer Robert F Scott, and his expedition, reached the South Pole, only to discover that Roald Amundsen had gotten there before them.

  If someone was ill, the papers did not hesitate to pronounce the victim, “will die,” “will recover,” or (when in doubt) “may die” – not exactly what a person wants to read about themselves when trying to recover from an illness.

·  In 1912, the U.S. Marines invaded Honduras. May 30, they were sent to Nicaragua, and on May 30 they landed in Cuba.

  According to the late historian, Bob Spencer, “As long as it was printable, no epithet was too strong when applied to an opposing editor or rival politician. History is filled,” he said, “with beaten, maimed, or dead editors, although the latter weren’t numerous, since the average gun-toter of the period was a lousier shot than the dime novels of the time would have us believe.”

  Publishers of the time were not expected to be “neutral” on any given issue; they were in fact, allowed to express political and personal opinions. In 1916, then Publisher of the Clearwater Tribune, I.R. Crow, was stumping in the gubernatorial campaign trying to get Moses Alexander elected. Alexander served as the 11th Governor of Idaho from 1915 until 1919. He was Idaho's first and, so far, only Jewish Governor.

·  In 1912, New Mexico became the 47^th state, and Arizona was admitted as the 48^th.  On Aug 24, the Territory of Alaska was organized.

  The first newspaper to get a toe hold into Clearwater County, in May of 1899, was the Orofino Courier.  It was published by the Greer Brothers using a small Army press which was common in those days because it was relatively easy to move and to set up.

·  In 1912, On April 15, the RMS Titanic sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York.

  The paper was located in a little, wooden clapboard building below Canada Hill (behind the former Health and Welfare building) on the corner of Third and Johnson Avenue. The paper was printed with page one being on the right side, where the last page would be positioned today, so one would read it from the back to the front.

·  In 1912, the Summer Olympics were held in Stockholm, Sweden, with the U.S. taking home 63 medals (25 gold, 19 silver, and 19 bronze).

  The Orofino News came along next. It ran from 1903, published by W.M. Chandler. In the same year The Optimist, published by Charles Hoffstetter, came to Orofino. It is unknown how long either of those two newspapers stayed in business. The oldest edition of The Optimist, found in the Clearwater Historical Museum, is dated April 21, 1905.

·  In 1912, The [Boy] Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Commonwealth by Royal Charter.

  The Orofino Tribune, a democratically slanted paper, came into being in September of 1905. W.C. Foresman was the editor and the publisher; I.R. Crow took over the publication in 1912.

·  In 1912, in the first official Major League game, Guy Zinn was the first batter to step up to the plate and the first to score a run in stadium history. The event did not get much media coverage because the game was played just a few days after the historical sinking of the Titanic.

  The counterpart of the Orofino Tribune, as the name implies, was the more republican slanted paper, the Clearwater Republican which began in March of 1912. Crow retired, and the two papers, which had an intense political rivalry during their publishing histories, merged to create today’s Clearwater Tribune.

·  In 1912, a meteorite, with an estimated mass of 190 kg exploded over the town of Holbrook, AZ causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town. The largest stone recovered weighed about 14 pounds.

  In 1923, a fire completely destroyed the Clearwater Tribune office and all of its printed copies from previous years. The paper was then housed in the building immediately south of its present location on  Main St.

·  In 1912, the first Balkan war was going on (1912-1913).
On Monday, Jan 2, Clearwater Tribune Publisher, Marcie Stanton and her husband Darold, were celebrating their thirtieth wedding anniversary. They were notified that a fire had broken out at their print shop on Grangemont Rd.

  The building, housed the WWII era press equipment used for printing the paper. Severe damage to the building and loss of heat needed to operate the pres, forced the Stantons to move the printing process to Lewiston.

  The upside of that move, allowed the Clearwater Tribune to switch simultaneously to the easier-to-hold size of today’s newspapers with 11” wide by 21” tall format.

  Despite two fires and two floods, the Clearwater Tribune has stood the test of time and is the “official paper” of Clearwater County – now with an online edition, a blog, and a presence on Facebook. Visit us online at: http://www.clearwatertribune.com/.