Thu Mar 11 2010
Services were last week at South Frankfort Presbyterian Church with visitation at noon for Albert E. Dix, 80, who died at his home of pancreatic cancer Dec. 1. Burial was to follow at Frankfort Cemetery in Frankfort, Ky.
The former publisher of The State Journal in Frankfort, Dix had also served from the early 1980s until his retirement in 1996 as chairman of the board of the Wooster Republican Printing Co. aka Dix Communications, a group of family-owned newspapers that includes the Record-Courier and its weekly publications, six other daily newspapers and several radio stations. Born Aug. 18, 1929, in Ravenna, he was the son of Albert V. and Ruth Dix. He attended elementary school in Ravenna, but in 1939 moved with his family to the Martins Ferry, Ohio area after the Dix family acquired The Times Leader, which served Martins Ferry and Bellaire.
He graduated from the Linsly School in Wheeling and then went to college at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where he majored in political science, graduating in 1951. He then served in U.S. Army Intelligence from 1953 to 1955. He was a personable man and thoughtful of others. A fourth-generation journalist, Dix first worked at The Times-Leader in Bellaire, where his father was publisher. He moved to Frankfort in October 1962 to become publisher of The State Journal after the Dix family acquired that publication.
A Republican in a southern-leaning, Democratic state with the city of Frankfort as its capital, he was credited by politicians in the state for keeping opinions and reporting distinctly separate. His support of a constitutional amendment was considered important in gaining passage of a measure that reformed the Kentucky judicial system.
As a newspaper publisher, he was active in the community, although he shunned the limelight personally. He founded the Kentucky Book Fair in 1981, an annual event that continues to this day. Through The State Journal, he also founded an All Academic Banquet for high school students to encourage them to excel at academics. He helped lead the campaign for a new library in Frankfort and the establishment of a YMCA in the community. Dix also was a member of the board of directors of First Capital Bank of Kentucky, the Frankfort/Franklin County Industrial Development Authority and the local Kiwanis Club. He served two terms as chairman of the American Saddlebred Museum at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. He was active in the South Frankfort Presbyterian Church and once served as a lay preacher so his then-pastor, the Rev. John Hunt, could take a vacation.
He loved fishing and making fishing rods, electric trains and saddlebred horses. He played golf well, but gave it up in favor of fly fishing. He was avid fan of The Ohio State University Buckeyes and for many years held season tickets so he and his wife of 56 years, Edna, could attend.
He also supported the nearby Kentucky Derby and for a time held box seats for the event. In addition to Mrs. Dix, other survivors include his daughter, Ann Maenza, who succeeded her father as publisher of The State Journal; son, Troy Dix, publisher of the Ashland Times-Gazette in Ohio; Amy Dix Rock, senior director of regulatory and scientific affairs at Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Nashville, Tenn.; four grandchildren, Evan, Stewart and Melissa Dix and Lauren Maenza; and sister, Prudence Hilger of the Centennial, Col., area.
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