Former Tribune manager dies
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Michigan City - Robert C Averitt, former Peru Daily Tribune general manager and retired
publisher of the Michigan city News Dispatch, is dead.
Averitt, 89, of Pottawattomie, died at 4pm Sunday May 9 at Life Care Center following a
lengthy illness.
He was a longtime Michigan City community leader.
Averitt served Nixon Newspaper, the parent company of the News Dispatch, for more than a
half century.
He was a golf professional before turning to newspaper work. Starting in 1926 at the
Wabash Plain Dealer as an advertising solicitor, he soon rose to the position of
advertising manager.
Two years later he transferred to the Peru Daily Tribune as advertising manager and became
the Tribune's general manager in 1933.
Meanwhile in Michigan City, the Nixon-owned evenin Dispatch was challenging the
territorial rights of the Michigan City News. In 1936, Averitt walked into the evening
Dispatch office and announced he had been appointed general manager.
Under Averitt's leadership the evening Dispatch and the Michigan City News
consolidated to become the News-Dispatch on June 6, 1938.
Avertt was named general manager of the infant newspaper. Under his direction the
newspaper grew from slightly more than 9,000 circulation to almost 19,000 circulation. It
was under his direction, also, that a new home was constructed for The News-Dispatch in
1960, and he was active in the planning and construction of the building that currently
houses the newspaper.
Averitt, whose position later became publisher, retired from the News-Dispatch at the end
of 1973 to become vice-president of special projects fro Nixon Newspapers.
In ending his active management role at The News-Dispatch, Averitt said in a retirement
article written by Elwin Greening in 1973:
"I have had the good fortune to have fine and considerate employers and employees
during my years in Michigan city. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to work with so
many good and capable civic leaders on those projects which every community needs if it is
going to progress."
John R Nixon, president of Nixon Newspapers, said:" Michigan city and Nixon
Newspapers have lost a giant of a man in terms of what R C Averitt meant to his community
and what he meant to the company he served for decades.
Bob Averitt was at my father's side in the '30s when he struggled to keep the
Dispatch afloat. They won that battle and others in the years that followed. Those
victories helped provide the solid foundation on which Nixon Newspapers now rests.
While R C was working diligently for the Dispatch and later the News-Dispatch, he was also
working diligently for the betterment of Michigan city. His involvement in community
affairs and endeavors was extensive, particularly his pioneering work in making the United
Fund the successful organization it has been over the years." Nixon continued.
The YMCA, the Elite Youth Center, the hospitals and several other organizations can be
thankful that there was good cases on behalf of the community, Michigan City has lost a
truly extraordinary man."
Greening, News-Dispatch columnist and retired editor, who worked under Averitt for many
years, also recognized his civic work.
"Bob Averitt's contributions to Michigan city cannot be measured in words",
Greening said. His first big achievement when he came here fro Peru in 1936 was to end
the stranglehold that gambling and vice had on our community at the time."
Al Spiers, a former editor of the News-Dispatch, retired editorial director of Nixon
Newspapers, recalls the newspaper winning the prestigious Inland Daily Press Association
Award in 1946.
Spiers said Averitt submitted the application that year centering on the newspaper's
efforts to spark community progress after World War II in the face of gambling interests,
a conservative, tired Chamber of Commerce and a cynical, apathetic, leaderless citizenry.
Averitt helped to raise money to buy the Municipal Golf Course for the city and helped the
Michigan City Booster Club buy and build the Municipal Airport. He was active in the
purchase of the land and in the building of Camp To-Pe-Ne-Bee, a Boy Scout camp. He was a
leader in fund drives to build additions to two hospitals and the new YMCA.
He was the last surviving member of the World War II War Bond committee in Michigan City.
When the John A Garretson Distinguished Service Award was started in 1983, Averitt was the
first recipient. He was nominated for the award by two different agencies.
Averitt was born Aug 16, 1903, in Bedford, Ky. the son of Thomas G and Anner E Averitt. He
married the former Cleo Hite on Dec 29, 1928 in Peru. They have three children - George
Robert Averitt, Michigan City, Sharon Grieger, Arlington Heights, Ill., and Ann collins,
Lynchburg, Va.