Harold W. TURNBULL, barely 16, and enroute to school, learned there was an opening for at job at the Diagonal Reporter, turned back, applied for and got the job. He was paid $2.00 per week for after school hours and all day Saturday. Following graduation in May he became a full-time employee.

Thomas S. WAFFLE, editor and publisher was an excellent craftsman and the willing apprentice learned quickly and well.

A linotyped was installed shortly after the business moved to the building in the south block of Main Street, with Harold mastering the operation and care of that complicated piece of machinery by taking a correspondence course.

He purchased the newspaper after working for Mr. WAFFLE and his estate for fifteen years, and shortly after also purchased the building.

That long-time fifty year assocation ended with retirement in April 1972, with the TURNBULL family, Harold, his wife Mildred, and their son Miles, still calling the upstairs home until 1982. Mildred "helped out" with the Reporter

With a relationship based on caring and on integrity, the Reporter earned and held a secure place in the community. During World War II it provided a network of communication between those in the service and those at home.

Through the columns of the Reporter, Mr. TURNBULL supported and boosted each forward movement of the community, giving personal service to the board of education, when the school playground became reality, as a member of the town council, charter member of the Lions Club, church official, and prime mover in the depression years, when a softball league involving the whole community relieved the awful tension of the times. He organized independent basketball and was a member of the local baseball and softball teams.

Under his tutelage schoolboys went on to make careers in the newspaper and printing businesses, namely Corwin BONEBRAKE, Jack BONEBRAKE, Gaylard ZARR and Bryon GUNSOLLEY. Others were Mrs. Leo (Ann) LINKEY, and the TURNBULL'S son, Miles, who with his wife, Jane, is co-publisher of the Leavenworth Echo, Leavenwroth, Wa.

Following retirement, Mr. TURNBULL was honored with an Appreciation Day, held in Diagonal, awards for fifty years service by the Iowa Press Association, the supervisors of Ringgold County, and an award for leadership from the Governor of Iowa.

~Contributed by Mildred TURNBULL.

  NOTE: Harold Watson TURNBULL was born in 1906, and died in 1990. Harold was the editor and publisher of the Diagonal Reporter from 1922 to 1972. He married Mildred WILEY on March 10, 1928. Mildred was born in 1903, and died in 2005. They were interred at Diagonal Cemetery, Diagonal, Iowa.

Brief History of Diagonal Printing Museum

  Courtesy of Diagonal Printing Museum

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, September of 2011

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