Allan A. Seiller
PITTSFIELD, Ill. -- Allan A. Seiler, 93, of St. Louis, formerly of Pittsfield, died Monday, Jan. 3, 2011, at his residence in St. Louis.
He was born Oct. 2, 1917, a son of the late Walter and Maude Virginia Eldridge Seiler. He married Virginia Morris of Des Moines, Iowa, on June 13, 1942, in Boise, Idaho. She died May 28, 1992.
He spent his early childhood in Chillicothe, Mo., later moving with his parents to Joplin, Mo., where he completed high school. He graduated in 1939 from the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. He worked for the daily newspaper in Des Moines and for Piper Aircraft in Lock Haven, Pa., until called into military service as a reserve officer in 1942. He served four years in the U.S. Army Air Corps, attaining the rank of major.
Following his return to civilian status, he was with the Bee and Herald newspaper in Jefferson, Iowa, and later was managing editor of the Hancock County Journal in Carthage, including the year it won the Illinois Press Association sweepstakes award as the best weekly newspaper in the state.
In December 1960, he joined the Pike County Republican newspaper in Pittsfield as its editor and publisher when Paul Findley, its owner, was elected to Congress. In 1963, Mr. Seiler purchased the Pike County Democrat-Times from John H. and A.B. Caughlan and James McHose. He continued its publication, along with the Republican, until April 1968 when both papers were combined as the Pike Press and published under the name of the Pike Press Inc., of which Mr. Seiler and Mr. Findley were joint owners until its sale in 1990.
Mr. Seiler won numerous state and national awards for editorial and feature story writing, photography and investigative reporting. In 1985 he was president of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors and in 1987 president of the Illinois Press Association. In July 2000 at the summer conference of ISWNE in Victoria, British Columbia, he was awarded the 25th annual Eugene Cervi award for "a career of outstanding service through community journalism."
He served eight years on the Pike County Board, two years as chairman, when the county's budget was balanced for the first time in the previous eight years. He appointed more women to various committees, boards and commissions than any previous chairman in the county's history.
Following his retirement from active newspaper publishing, he continued to write a column of commentary on a wide variety of subjects. He estimated his total career output of editorials at somewhat more than 5,000.
Mr. Seiler was an advocate of continuing adult education and took several courses through John Wood and other colleges. In his spare time he studied Italian and Arabic. He possessed a home library of more than a thousand books, even after selling and giving many away. His favorite authors were Shakespeare, Mark Twain, H.L. Mencken and O. Henry. He enjoyed operatic music, especially the works of Puccini, Verdi and Mozart. During one of his five trips to Italy, he attended a concert at the famed La Scala opera house in Milan. He collected inexpensive art and enjoyed the more notable work of Monet, Van Gogh, Degas and Renoir. His favorite American artists were Thomas Hart Benton and George Caleb Bingham. He enjoyed all kinds of museums, wherever they were located. He was a political "junkie" and closely followed politics at all levels of government.
Although he never attended a major horse race, he placed a modest bet every year at the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont events, sometimes winning but more often losing. He was a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals baseball teams.
After selling his home and leaving Pittsfield in 2004, he lived for a while in St. Louis and Des Moines, moving to Webster Groves, Mo., in April 2010. He was living with his daughter Betsy, receiving hospice care in her home, at the time of his death.
Surviving are two daughters, Anne Pettygrove of Des Moines and Elizabeth "Betsy" Garibay of St. Louis; seven grandchildren, Allan Goodin of Knoxville, Tenn., Sarah Bigelow of Chesterfield, Mo., Kate Slayden of Martinsburg, W.Va., Molly Scott of High Springs, Fla., and Alex, Emily and Adam Garibay, all of St. Louis.; and 12 great-grandchildren scattered around the globe.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife; and a brother, Robert Seiler.
SERVICES: 11 a.m. Saturday celebration of life will be held at the Airsman-Hires Funeral Home in Pittsfield. Private burial will follow in Oakwood Cemetery in Pittsfield.
MEMORIALS: In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors or to Oakwood Cemetery, both in care of Airsman-Hires Funeral Home, Box 513, Pittsfield, IL 62363.
ARRANGEMENTS: AIrsman-Hires Funeral Home, Pittsfield.
WEBSITE: www.airsman-hires.com.
Condolences may be expressed online at www.whig.com.
Published in Quincy Herald-Whig from January 25 to January 27, 2011
PITTSFIELD, Ill. -- Allan A. Seiler, 93, of St. Louis, formerly of Pittsfield, died Monday, Jan. 3, 2011, at his residence in St. Louis.
He was born Oct. 2, 1917, a son of the late Walter and Maude Virginia Eldridge Seiler. He married Virginia Morris of Des Moines, Iowa, on June 13, 1942, in Boise, Idaho. She died May 28, 1992.
He spent his early childhood in Chillicothe, Mo., later moving with his parents to Joplin, Mo., where he completed high school. He graduated in 1939 from the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. He worked for the daily newspaper in Des Moines and for Piper Aircraft in Lock Haven, Pa., until called into military service as a reserve officer in 1942. He served four years in the U.S. Army Air Corps, attaining the rank of major.
Following his return to civilian status, he was with the Bee and Herald newspaper in Jefferson, Iowa, and later was managing editor of the Hancock County Journal in Carthage, including the year it won the Illinois Press Association sweepstakes award as the best weekly newspaper in the state.
In December 1960, he joined the Pike County Republican newspaper in Pittsfield as its editor and publisher when Paul Findley, its owner, was elected to Congress. In 1963, Mr. Seiler purchased the Pike County Democrat-Times from John H. and A.B. Caughlan and James McHose. He continued its publication, along with the Republican, until April 1968 when both papers were combined as the Pike Press and published under the name of the Pike Press Inc., of which Mr. Seiler and Mr. Findley were joint owners until its sale in 1990.
Mr. Seiler won numerous state and national awards for editorial and feature story writing, photography and investigative reporting. In 1985 he was president of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors and in 1987 president of the Illinois Press Association. In July 2000 at the summer conference of ISWNE in Victoria, British Columbia, he was awarded the 25th annual Eugene Cervi award for "a career of outstanding service through community journalism."
He served eight years on the Pike County Board, two years as chairman, when the county's budget was balanced for the first time in the previous eight years. He appointed more women to various committees, boards and commissions than any previous chairman in the county's history.
Following his retirement from active newspaper publishing, he continued to write a column of commentary on a wide variety of subjects. He estimated his total career output of editorials at somewhat more than 5,000.
Mr. Seiler was an advocate of continuing adult education and took several courses through John Wood and other colleges. In his spare time he studied Italian and Arabic. He possessed a home library of more than a thousand books, even after selling and giving many away. His favorite authors were Shakespeare, Mark Twain, H.L. Mencken and O. Henry. He enjoyed operatic music, especially the works of Puccini, Verdi and Mozart. During one of his five trips to Italy, he attended a concert at the famed La Scala opera house in Milan. He collected inexpensive art and enjoyed the more notable work of Monet, Van Gogh, Degas and Renoir. His favorite American artists were Thomas Hart Benton and George Caleb Bingham. He enjoyed all kinds of museums, wherever they were located. He was a political "junkie" and closely followed politics at all levels of government.
Although he never attended a major horse race, he placed a modest bet every year at the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont events, sometimes winning but more often losing. He was a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals baseball teams.
After selling his home and leaving Pittsfield in 2004, he lived for a while in St. Louis and Des Moines, moving to Webster Groves, Mo., in April 2010. He was living with his daughter Betsy, receiving hospice care in her home, at the time of his death.
Surviving are two daughters, Anne Pettygrove of Des Moines and Elizabeth "Betsy" Garibay of St. Louis; seven grandchildren, Allan Goodin of Knoxville, Tenn., Sarah Bigelow of Chesterfield, Mo., Kate Slayden of Martinsburg, W.Va., Molly Scott of High Springs, Fla., and Alex, Emily and Adam Garibay, all of St. Louis.; and 12 great-grandchildren scattered around the globe.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife; and a brother, Robert Seiler.
SERVICES: 11 a.m. Saturday celebration of life will be held at the Airsman-Hires Funeral Home in Pittsfield. Private burial will follow in Oakwood Cemetery in Pittsfield.
MEMORIALS: In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors or to Oakwood Cemetery, both in care of Airsman-Hires Funeral Home, Box 513, Pittsfield, IL 62363.
ARRANGEMENTS: AIrsman-Hires Funeral Home, Pittsfield.
WEBSITE: www.airsman-hires.com.
Condolences may be expressed online at www.whig.com.
Published in Quincy Herald-Whig from January 25 to January 27, 2011
Allan A. Seiller
PITTSFIELD, Ill. -- Allan A. Seiler, 93, of St. Louis, formerly of Pittsfield, died Monday, Jan. 3, 2011, at his residence in St. Louis.
He was born Oct. 2, 1917, a son of the late Walter and Maude Virginia Eldridge Seiler. He married Virginia Morris of Des Moines, Iowa, on June 13, 1942, in Boise, Idaho. She died May 28, 1992.
He spent his early childhood in Chillicothe, Mo., later moving with his parents to Joplin, Mo., where he completed high school. He graduated in 1939 from the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. He worked for the daily newspaper in Des Moines and for Piper Aircraft in Lock Haven, Pa., until called into military service as a reserve officer in 1942. He served four years in the U.S. Army Air Corps, attaining the rank of major.
Following his return to civilian status, he was with the Bee and Herald newspaper in Jefferson, Iowa, and later was managing editor of the Hancock County Journal in Carthage, including the year it won the Illinois Press Association sweepstakes award as the best weekly newspaper in the state.
In December 1960, he joined the Pike County Republican newspaper in Pittsfield as its editor and publisher when Paul Findley, its owner, was elected to Congress. In 1963, Mr. Seiler purchased the Pike County Democrat-Times from John H. and A.B. Caughlan and James McHose. He continued its publication, along with the Republican, until April 1968 when both papers were combined as the Pike Press and published under the name of the Pike Press Inc., of which Mr. Seiler and Mr. Findley were joint owners until its sale in 1990.
Mr. Seiler won numerous state and national awards for editorial and feature story writing, photography and investigative reporting. In 1985 he was president of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors and in 1987 president of the Illinois Press Association. In July 2000 at the summer conference of ISWNE in Victoria, British Columbia, he was awarded the 25th annual Eugene Cervi award for "a career of outstanding service through community journalism."
He served eight years on the Pike County Board, two years as chairman, when the county's budget was balanced for the first time in the previous eight years. He appointed more women to various committees, boards and commissions than any previous chairman in the county's history.
Following his retirement from active newspaper publishing, he continued to write a column of commentary on a wide variety of subjects. He estimated his total career output of editorials at somewhat more than 5,000.
Mr. Seiler was an advocate of continuing adult education and took several courses through John Wood and other colleges. In his spare time he studied Italian and Arabic. He possessed a home library of more than a thousand books, even after selling and giving many away. His favorite authors were Shakespeare, Mark Twain, H.L. Mencken and O. Henry. He enjoyed operatic music, especially the works of Puccini, Verdi and Mozart. During one of his five trips to Italy, he attended a concert at the famed La Scala opera house in Milan. He collected inexpensive art and enjoyed the more notable work of Monet, Van Gogh, Degas and Renoir. His favorite American artists were Thomas Hart Benton and George Caleb Bingham. He enjoyed all kinds of museums, wherever they were located. He was a political "junkie" and closely followed politics at all levels of government.
Although he never attended a major horse race, he placed a modest bet every year at the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont events, sometimes winning but more often losing. He was a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals baseball teams.
After selling his home and leaving Pittsfield in 2004, he lived for a while in St. Louis and Des Moines, moving to Webster Groves, Mo., in April 2010. He was living with his daughter Betsy, receiving hospice care in her home, at the time of his death.
Surviving are two daughters, Anne Pettygrove of Des Moines and Elizabeth "Betsy" Garibay of St. Louis; seven grandchildren, Allan Goodin of Knoxville, Tenn., Sarah Bigelow of Chesterfield, Mo., Kate Slayden of Martinsburg, W.Va., Molly Scott of High Springs, Fla., and Alex, Emily and Adam Garibay, all of St. Louis.; and 12 great-grandchildren scattered around the globe.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife; and a brother, Robert Seiler.
SERVICES: 11 a.m. Saturday celebration of life will be held at the Airsman-Hires Funeral Home in Pittsfield. Private burial will follow in Oakwood Cemetery in Pittsfield.
MEMORIALS: In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors or to Oakwood Cemetery, both in care of Airsman-Hires Funeral Home, Box 513, Pittsfield, IL 62363.
ARRANGEMENTS: AIrsman-Hires Funeral Home, Pittsfield.
WEBSITE: www.airsman-hires.com.
Condolences may be expressed online at www.whig.com.
Published in Quincy Herald-Whig from January 25 to January 27, 2011
PITTSFIELD, Ill. -- Allan A. Seiler, 93, of St. Louis, formerly of Pittsfield, died Monday, Jan. 3, 2011, at his residence in St. Louis.
He was born Oct. 2, 1917, a son of the late Walter and Maude Virginia Eldridge Seiler. He married Virginia Morris of Des Moines, Iowa, on June 13, 1942, in Boise, Idaho. She died May 28, 1992.
He spent his early childhood in Chillicothe, Mo., later moving with his parents to Joplin, Mo., where he completed high school. He graduated in 1939 from the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. He worked for the daily newspaper in Des Moines and for Piper Aircraft in Lock Haven, Pa., until called into military service as a reserve officer in 1942. He served four years in the U.S. Army Air Corps, attaining the rank of major.
Following his return to civilian status, he was with the Bee and Herald newspaper in Jefferson, Iowa, and later was managing editor of the Hancock County Journal in Carthage, including the year it won the Illinois Press Association sweepstakes award as the best weekly newspaper in the state.
In December 1960, he joined the Pike County Republican newspaper in Pittsfield as its editor and publisher when Paul Findley, its owner, was elected to Congress. In 1963, Mr. Seiler purchased the Pike County Democrat-Times from John H. and A.B. Caughlan and James McHose. He continued its publication, along with the Republican, until April 1968 when both papers were combined as the Pike Press and published under the name of the Pike Press Inc., of which Mr. Seiler and Mr. Findley were joint owners until its sale in 1990.
Mr. Seiler won numerous state and national awards for editorial and feature story writing, photography and investigative reporting. In 1985 he was president of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors and in 1987 president of the Illinois Press Association. In July 2000 at the summer conference of ISWNE in Victoria, British Columbia, he was awarded the 25th annual Eugene Cervi award for "a career of outstanding service through community journalism."
He served eight years on the Pike County Board, two years as chairman, when the county's budget was balanced for the first time in the previous eight years. He appointed more women to various committees, boards and commissions than any previous chairman in the county's history.
Following his retirement from active newspaper publishing, he continued to write a column of commentary on a wide variety of subjects. He estimated his total career output of editorials at somewhat more than 5,000.
Mr. Seiler was an advocate of continuing adult education and took several courses through John Wood and other colleges. In his spare time he studied Italian and Arabic. He possessed a home library of more than a thousand books, even after selling and giving many away. His favorite authors were Shakespeare, Mark Twain, H.L. Mencken and O. Henry. He enjoyed operatic music, especially the works of Puccini, Verdi and Mozart. During one of his five trips to Italy, he attended a concert at the famed La Scala opera house in Milan. He collected inexpensive art and enjoyed the more notable work of Monet, Van Gogh, Degas and Renoir. His favorite American artists were Thomas Hart Benton and George Caleb Bingham. He enjoyed all kinds of museums, wherever they were located. He was a political "junkie" and closely followed politics at all levels of government.
Although he never attended a major horse race, he placed a modest bet every year at the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont events, sometimes winning but more often losing. He was a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals baseball teams.
After selling his home and leaving Pittsfield in 2004, he lived for a while in St. Louis and Des Moines, moving to Webster Groves, Mo., in April 2010. He was living with his daughter Betsy, receiving hospice care in her home, at the time of his death.
Surviving are two daughters, Anne Pettygrove of Des Moines and Elizabeth "Betsy" Garibay of St. Louis; seven grandchildren, Allan Goodin of Knoxville, Tenn., Sarah Bigelow of Chesterfield, Mo., Kate Slayden of Martinsburg, W.Va., Molly Scott of High Springs, Fla., and Alex, Emily and Adam Garibay, all of St. Louis.; and 12 great-grandchildren scattered around the globe.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife; and a brother, Robert Seiler.
SERVICES: 11 a.m. Saturday celebration of life will be held at the Airsman-Hires Funeral Home in Pittsfield. Private burial will follow in Oakwood Cemetery in Pittsfield.
MEMORIALS: In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors or to Oakwood Cemetery, both in care of Airsman-Hires Funeral Home, Box 513, Pittsfield, IL 62363.
ARRANGEMENTS: AIrsman-Hires Funeral Home, Pittsfield.
WEBSITE: www.airsman-hires.com.
Condolences may be expressed online at www.whig.com.
Published in Quincy Herald-Whig from January 25 to January 27, 2011
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