By: E&P Staff Charles Fournier Dare, 86, the third-generation editor and publisher of the Star News, Elk River, Minn., died Dec. 15. He is survived by his daughter and a sister.
Dare, whose grandfather acquired full ownership of the newspaper in 1882, became editor of the paper in 1951 and was publisher for the last seven years before its sale in 1982 to former Minnesota governor and former H.B. Fuller president Elmer L. Andersen.
The Star News described the man known locally as Chuck as soft-spoken, fascinated by machines and interested in literary matters. "The newspaper seemed a natural to satisfy both interests," Dare wrote in a 1981 column. But first he studied auto mechanics after high school and aircraft mechanics and catapult operation after joining the Navy and serving in the Pacific during World War II.
Upon matriculating at the University of Minnesota on the GI Bill, Dare was steered toward journalism by a Veterans Administration counselor, according to a lengthy obituary by Editor Jim Boyle in last week's Star News, which noted that he was named its editor "after a short stint in Iowa at a newspaper."
That was 1950, when the Star News installed a Comet flatbed press, which Dare figured would last 10 years, according to the Boyle's account. But it was only five years before the Star News and five other papers began using an offset press at a new plant in Princeton. Boyle quoted his predecessor: "Gone was the rhythm of the old press, the pungent smell of news ink, and the satisfaction of repairing a web break and getting the press going again."
A member of civic organizations, Dare stayed in touch with local events into his 80s, occasionally submitting letters to the editor at his old paper.
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