GAFFNEY, Merrill Stanley

GAFFNEY, HALLOCK, PICKFORD, VON KROG

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 11/11/2014 at 01:39:36

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Saturday, August 10, 1940, Page 16

THEY STARTED HERE
No. 21 in a Mason City Series of Success Stories

MERRILL S. GAFFNEY, Leading Newspaperman

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The story of Mason City's Merrill Gaffney is one of those that, good as it is today, will make better telling 10 or 15 years from now. For it is the tale of a newspaperman whose day is still in the ascendancy, moving toward a zenith not yet in sight.

Now chief editorial writer for the Reno, Nev., Gazette, Merrill is being groomed for a prominent post in the national chain o newspapers headed by Merritt C. Speidel of Iowa City and associations. The Speidel organization, which owns or has interest in papers in Chillicothe, Ohio; Iowa City; Salinas, Cal.; Reno, and Cheyenne, Wyo., is on that offers real opportunity, for it is a fast growing organization.

Merrill Gaffney was born in Mason City 37 years ago [June 7, 1903], the son of Mr. and Mrs. W. L. [Walter Lyman and Lulua Mae (Hallock)] Gaffney. He spent the average boyhood of Mason City's youth 25 and 30 years ago, attending Jackson grade school and Mason City high school.

* * *
His father, a locomotive engineer, early tried to interest the boy in things mechanical, but he had his mind on something else - writing. And that interest was manifested in a concrete way, for his essays and stories were entered and won awards in contests at the North Iowa and Iowa State fairs.

Merrill Gaffney had also another interest - athletics. As he moved into high school work he also took up high school athletics, competing in track and football. He also competed in junior college and in freshman football in Iowa, winning a number sweater at the university.

A third liking was for music. As a boy Merrill Gaffney studied the violin and played four years in the Methodist church orchestra. He still plays his violin, occasionally in public.

* * *
His bent for things journalistic showed up in the youth in high school when he worked on the school annual. He was a schoolmate of Meredith Willson and was graduated in the class of 1921. After a year of junior college, Merrill dropped his schooling for a year to be a mailman - not because he wanted to take up that work for life, but because he needed to help finance his way through college.

So it was 1924 when the Mason Cityan arrived in Iowa City to take up his second year of college work.

At the University of Iowa, Merrill Gaffney was an outstanding campus figure.

The Mason Cityan's flair for journalism was quickly apparent. He [be]came the Iowa City representative for a string of some 40 newspapers including the famed Christian Science Monitor, and had been on the campus less than a year when he landed the highly sought after Hawkeye editoralship. The Hawkeye is the university annual. The edition the Mason Cityan put out was ranked among the firest 10 among all those entered in a national contest of college annuals.

In addition to these efforts, Merril was the night editor of the Daily Iowan for a time.

* * *
And in other campus affairs the Mason City youth was outstanding. He made some of his college expenses through his newspaper work and helped to pay for his room and board by working. He was a member of and president of his college fraternity, Delat Upsilon, and was also outstanding in the activities of Sigma Delta Chi, honorary jounalistic fraternity. And he was a power in campus politics.

In his senior year the promising young journalist was elected president of the senior journalism class and secretary-treasurer of the association of the senior class presidents.

A record of the sort Merrill Gaffney made at Iowa is a good recommendation and so he was offered a job on the Mason City Globe-Gazette, which he quickly accepted.

* * *
For two years he was in his home town, reporting and gaining practical experience. One of the jobs he handled was the issuance of the ambitious anniversary edition, which marked the 75th birthday of Mason City. He also assisted Arthur Pickford with the farm news and picked up valuable knowledge in that line.

Then in 1928 the Sioux City Tribune was looking for a man to work as reporter and assist the city editor. The Mason Cityan was chosen.

The year after he went to Sioux City, Merrill Gaffney was married [October, 1929, Eldora, Iowa] to Miss Ruth M. Von Krog of Eldora. Today they are the parents of two daughters, 6 [Dorothy] and 2 years [Karen] of age.

In the four years that followed the Mason Cityan demonstrated the truth of the recommendation given him and in 1932 with the aid of a similar boost went to Waterloo as the Courier's editorial writer and farm editor.

* * *
There he stayed until last March, writing his editorials capably and forcefully and showing a real understanding of farming and farm problems. It was during this period, in fact, that he became so well posted on farming that he began writing for farm publication. And this in spite of the fact that he was born and reared in a city setting.

Then last winter the Speidel organization began to look about for a man of Merrill's age to take the job at Reno, with the idea in mind that if he could produce he would be assured of advancement in the extensive newspaper group.

Merritt Gaffney was recommended for the job, that of editorial writer for Nevada's leading newspaper and got the post.

And so another son of Mason City has made his mark - part of it anyway. But in all probability he is far from finished for at the age of 37 he has already gone a long way in the newspaper profession. And he give every indication of going still farther.

NOTE: Merrill Stanley Gaffney died on January 24, 1969, Los Angeles, California. Ruth M. (Von Krog) Gaffney was born September 4, 1907, and died in April of 1990, Los Angeles, California. They were interred at East Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Sacramento, California.

Photograph courtesy of Globe-Gazette

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2014

Cerro Gordo Biographies maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen