Former Boston Publisher Dies at 68

By: E&P Staff C. Peter Jorgensen, former publisher of six weekly suburban Boston newspapers, died of cancer on Sept. 25 at the age of 68 at his home in Tunbridge, Vt.

Jorgensen, along with his wife and fellow Boston University journalism master?s program alum, Kathryn, bought The Arlington (Mass.) Advocate in 1969. When they sold Century Publications in 1986, the chain had grown to include The Winchester Star, the Belmont Citizen and Belmont Herald (now the Belmont Citizen-Herald), the Watertown Sun and the Newton Villager.

Jorgensen served as president of New England Publishers Inc. in the mid-1970s, a group that published four newspapers in Vermont and New Hampshire, as well as The Commercial and Financial Chronicle in New York City.

After selling Century Publications, he and his wife founded Historical Publications, which publishes The Artilleryman, a quarterly magazine Jorgensen founded in 1978; Civil War News, a current events newspaper started in 1988; and a national fire industry magazine, Fire Apparatus and Emergency Equipment, started in 1996.

In 1972 Jorgensen received the Golden Quill Editorial Award from the International Conference of Weekly Newspaper Editors for best editorial of the year. He also won numerous awards both in New England and nationally for editorial writing and photography. He was a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Press Photographers Association and served on the Massachusetts Bar Association Bar, Bench, Press Committee.

Jorgensen also was the former director of multiple industry associations, including the National Newspaper Association, New England Press Association, Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association and the Massachusetts Press Association.