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Don Gronning
KIRKLAND – Fred Willenbrock, the long-time editor, publisher and owner of The Newport and Gem State Miner newspapers died Saturday, Feb. 14, of cancer at the Wockner Hospice Care Center in Kirkland, Washington. He was 73.
Fred and his wife Susan owned and operated The Miner Newspapers from 1986 until 2015. While Willenbrock said he was retiring, he remained active in journalism, writing many in-depth articles for The Spokesman-Review, including stories on Kalispel Tribal leader Glen Nenema, the Border Patrol and a profile of Pend Oreille County Prosecutor Dolly Hunt that was picked up by the Associated Press and ran in many papers around the country.
He remained in contact with the staff at The Miner and quietly stayed involved in the workings of Pend Oreille County, especially economic development.
“Fred’s legacy at The Miner and in the community will be felt for a long time,” current Miner publisher Michelle Nedved said. “Fred was the epitome of a newspaperman. He was keenly aware of the influence a newspaper has on a community, and he worked tirelessly to make sure his influence steered Pend Oreille County is a prosperous direction.”
Retired Pend Oreille County Prosecutor Tom Metzger said he appreciated Willenbrock’s professionalism.
“The relationship between prosecuting attorneys and journalists must be based on trust,” Metzger said. “I knew that I could always trust Fred. Fred was a man of his word.”
He remembered a time he and Willenbrock went to the Pullman campus of Washington State University where they spoke to a journalism class about the importance of trust in the working relationship between public officials and journalists.
“A classroom setting is very different from forging actual working relationships in the real world,” Metzger said. “Fred really opened some eyes that day.”
Metzger said Willenbrock was a tireless advocate for the community, working on everything from community beautification to tourism and economic development.
“Fred’s energy and excitement about various community projects was contagious,” Metzger said. “Fred was a really good guy.”
Jim Murphy remembers Fred as a strong supporter of Newport schools. Murphy worked as a teacher, football coach and athletic director at Newport High School for more than 25 years.
“Fred was instrumental for years around the school, especially athletics,” Murphy said. “He did so much to support all the programs.”
Murphy said he and Willenbrock spent hours discussing how to make things better.
“He’s going to be greatly missed,” he said. “He was a pillar of the community, that’s for sure.”
Public Utility District commissioner Curt Knapp said he admired Willenbrock’s wealth of knowledge.
“Not just about the PUD and government, but of life itself,” Knapp said.
He said when Willenbrock thought it was warranted, he was an equal opportunity critic in his editorials.
“I don’t know if I ever knew Fred’s politics,” he said.
In addition to Nedved, other Miner journalists said they appreciated Willenbrock’s leadership.
David Johnson worked as a sports columnist, reporter and editor at The Miner in the early 1990s before going on to a career as a magazine editor.
“The more publishers I met over the course of my life, the more I appreciated Fred’s ability to juggle all the pressures that came with his job on a small newspaper,” Johnson said by email. “I think now that he must at times have taken a lot of heat to protect as much of the paper’s independence as possible, and the reporters who worked for the paper. Had several publishers later in my career and none of them were better than Fred.”
Janelle Atyeo started her career with The Miner, working the first eight years of her career in Newport.
“Fresh out of college at Gonzaga, I remember sitting in his office as he coached me on some basics of covering public meetings – finding the news amongst the agenda items, crafting the story in my head on the trip back to the office, and even in a small community where everyone knows everyone, the importance of maintaining objectivity,” Atyeo said by email.
She said it is advice she passes on to reporters she works with today as editor of two agricultural publications in the Midwest. She also appreciated his deep knowledge of local history and his storytelling ability.
“Leaning against the drafting table in the basement newsroom, he’d give us the colorful backstory to inform whatever article one of us reporters was typing up at our desk,” she said. He was community minded, she said. “The Miner reflects that to this day. And the community is better for it.”
After selling the paper in 2015, Willenbrock also spent a lot of time traveling with Susan, and visiting their two sons and their families, Colin and Katie, and their children Carson and Kennedy on the west side of Washington, and Devon and Courtney and their son Kasen, in Texas.
Willenbrock studied journalism at Western Washington University and the University of Washington. He and Susan were married in 1977, and they moved to Newport in 1986, to live out his lifelong dream of owning a community newspaper. Prior to that he was managing editor for the Monroe Monitor.
From the start, Willenbrock immersed himself in every aspect of the newspaper business, covering sports, human interest stories, local government, school events, rodeo parades, high school graduations, etc.
Willenbrock steered The Miner through major technological changes, from 35 millimeter film cameras to digital, from typesetting to computers.
Willenbrock had many stories about his adventures owning The Miner, like the time the Pend Oreille County Sheriff invited him out into the woods to take photos of a murder scene. He learned the hard way why all the sheriff’s deputies were smoking cigars.
He believed that following the money was the best way to hold government accountable and he faithfully wrote at least one – if not two – editorials each week.
His passion was economic development. He was part of the movement to get Ponderay Newsprint Co. to open a mill here in Pend Oreille County. He was a member of the Centennial Plaza Committee, which he often joked was just him and Gladys Bishop, until Gladys passed away and it was just him.
He spearheaded the welcome signs at both ends of Pend Oreille County, at Diamond Lake and the entrance to Newport, and spent countless hours doing manual labor at the Newport High School football stadium.
Under his leadership, The Newport Miner and staff earned many awards including First Place for General Excellence from the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. Fred served on the WNPA board of directors and as WNPA President. In 2020, Willenbrock was honored with the prestigious Miles W. Turnbull Master Editor/Publisher Award for his significant contributions to his newspaper, community, state and the WNPA.
A Celebration of Life will be held March 28 at 10 a.m. at the Priest River Events Center.
MICHELLE NEDVED CONTRIBUTED TO THIS STORY.
