Leelanau County resident Gilbert Bogley was honored last week as the former Traverse City Record-Eagle president and publisher received the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Service Award (DSA) for his civic and community service.
Bogley moved to northern Michigan from Detroit in 1960 and began selling ads before being named the Record-Eagle ad manager.
“It sounded like a career that I might be pretty good at. I had sold ads for my high school newspaper and even won an award,” Bogley said.
Bogley is the first Leelanau County resident to be presented with the award in its nearly 100year history. The DSA award is among the region’s oldest and most prestigious awards, established by the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce in 1929.
When Bogley first arrived in Traverse City, he had plenty of job offers, including opportunities from former Michigan Governor and department store manager Bill Milliken, broadcasting pioneer Les Biederman, and longtime newspaper publisher Austin Batdorff. Bogley chose the newspaper gig, and the rest is history, as they say.
The Princeton University graduate served as a second lieutenant in South Korea until 1954 and continued in the Army Reserves until 1960. In civilian life, Bogley started in insurance in 1955.
Bogley was introduced to northern Michigan thanks to a cat-sitting opportunity with his wife, Anne, that would change the trajectory of their lives. He worked as the ad manager for the Record-Eagle before moving to Medford, Oregon, in 1978 when the newspaper was bought by Ottaway Newspaper Publications.
Originally, Bogley was asked to stay on as the general manager but was shot down when going for the publisher’s position because of his broad connections with the area’s establishment. Ottaway eventually offered Bogley the publisher position in Medford with a handshake deal that he could come back to Traverse City one day.
“They were good with their word. And I was gone for nine years,” Bogley said. “The people at Ottaway and Dow Jones really thought I knew too many people in Traverse City to be an effective publisher, that I would be frightened to say anything that might offend some of the top establishment, which wasn’t true. I had fought with those guys, my best friends, for a lot of years on a lot of issues.”
The trip to Oregon proved to be a blessing in disguise for his family. His son Bill got his master’s and Ph.D. at the University of Oregon and ended up heading the math department at Oregon State. His other son, John, graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. His daughter also earned her law degree in Oregon.
“That period of time turned out for my family to be a really good thing,” Bogley said.
Nearing the end of his term in Oregon, Bogley was asked to work in New York as part of the newspaper company’s management, which he declined.
“I came all the way out here so I could come back to Traverse City,” he said. “The only job that I ever coveted in my life. I’m not a money chaser. But being the publisher at the Record-Eagle was the only job I really wanted ever to have. And I got it, and it was a wonderful experience,” Bogley said.
Even when he was in Oregon, Bogley made sure he was back for the summer for at least a month.
“I never really lost touch with the community when I was gone. I got plenty of fly fishing back here as well as out there, which is my real love, despite my family,” he said. “By the time I was here for two years, I knew every merchant that was in business in the Traverse City area, and so I made a lot of friends that way. And my wife was very good at making social friends.”
As Bogley exited the newspaper industry nearly three decades ago, he recognized the challenges facing the industry.
“As long as you can control the business of gathering your local news, that’s your franchise at the Leelanau Enterprise and at the Record-Eagle. If your newspapers continue to be the major source of your local news, they’re going to be alright,” Bogley said. “If you’re willing to use it and to share it, you’ll be in business for a long time. If you lose control of that, you don’t have much reason for being because there are lots of places to get out the word on advertising.”
As for the future, Bogley is trying to stay upright in his fight against bone marrow cancer.
“I’ve been sick for about three years now. But I’ve beaten it so far. What I’m going to do is relax, read, sail, fly fish, enjoy life, and serve on boards where I’m needed and wanted,” he said.
Bogley will always remember the height of his newspaper career at the Record-Eagle when their circulation passed 40,000 Sunday newspapers to serve more than 80,000 readers.
“That was a lot of fun,” Bogley said.
