Opinion: Springfield ad veteran remembered as family man

It follows that the void left by the recent passing of former Springfield advertising executive Doug Gary was wide and deep. Doug had a lot of friends.

Since he has been away from the advertising/public relations/media industry since Gary Advertising & Public Relations Ltd. closed up shop when Doug retired in 1993, he may be unknown by some. This column is written to point to a man who was well worth knowing.

I first met Doug when I came to Drury University. He was public relations director, and I was the Drury debate coach. Doug set out to generate some publicity for the debate teams. It didn’t take long for me to learn that he cut a wide swath in the Springfield media market; the debate team got more publicity than I expected.

Doug and I found we had a lot in common. For one thing, we shared Kansas roots. Although Doug was somewhat older than I, we both graduated from Kansas high schools and universities. Like so many of his generation, his education at Kansas State University was interrupted by service in the Army during World War II. As a decorated veteran, he returned to KSU, where he earned a journalism degree in 1946.

It was at KSU in 1944 that Doug met and married Elizabeth Fickle. Liz and Doug were a team both in life and in business for 57 years; she died in 2003. Doug and I also shared an early history in radio. Mine consisted of brief stints at two stations; Doug’s radio career spanned 18 years at stations in Colorado, Georgia and Kansas.

With a background of journalism, broadcasting and public relations, the move to create an advertising and PR firm was an obvious one. During the 19 years of the existence of the agency, business meetings and family meetings were one and the same. Liz was a principal in the business, along with a daughter, Sarah Elizabeth “Pepper” Colley, and her husband, Dave. At one time, their daughter, Candy Letterman, worked at the firm.

It isn’t that Doug and I were joined at the hip, but the similarities between us go on and on. We were both members of the Springfield Ad Club as it was being formed, and we were among the founders of the Public Relations Association of Springfield.

It was through a number of projects with the Ad Club that I got to know and respect Doug, Liz, Pepper and Dave. For these folks, most everything was a family matter.

His work with the Ad Club garnered Doug a President’s Award and the prestigious American Advertising Federation 9th District Silver Medal. He was listed in “Who’s Who in Advertising” and “Who’s Who in the Midwest.”

The connection with the Gary family extends to the Springfield Business Journal. Pepper Colley’s sister, Leslie Ann Stevenson, also a good friend, once was an SBJ writer. Dave Colley says that the Gary agency was the first one to place clients’ advertising in what was then Top’s Executive Journal, later to be known as SBJ. According to Dave, Doug had faith in founder-publisher Dianne Elizabeth Osis and believed in her fledgling newspaper. Thus, another similarity between us: I began writing the Rusty Saber in 1983 for the same reason.

There is so much left to say about Doug Gary. He was a devoted member of First and Calvary Presbyterian Church, where he was an elder and sang in the choir. He gave of his time to more organizations than space permits to list.

To me, his greatest assets included a complete devotion to his family and his no-nonsense outlook toward his profession. There was nothing wishy-washy about him. He called it the way he saw it. You knew where you stood with him: I like that in a person.

On the back of the program from his memorial service the names are listed of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, along with the names he carried through life: Doug, Dad, Grandpa, G-Pa and Friend. I am proud to have known him by the first and the last of these.

So long, old friend.

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.