JOANNE VAN NAMEE

In an era when many family newspapers were sold and technology rapidly changed the news business, Joanne Jordan Van Namee remained steadfast in her commitment to keep the Bangor Daily News in her family and to ensure the paper informed and educated her hometown residents. Mrs. Van Namee, chairman of the board of directors of the Bangor Publishing Company, died Wednesday at the age of 82.

A small desk in Mrs. Van Namee’s office at the News highlights the importance of family and continuity. The wooden desk was made in 1823 by Josiah Clark Towle, the grandfather of Lillis Towle Jordan, Mrs. Van Namee’s mother. A plaque on the desk notes that Mr. Jordan wished the piece to be kept in the family. The same applied to the News

The News was purchased in 1895

by her grandfather, J. Norman Towle. Both her parents, Fred D. Jordan and Lillis Towle Jordan, served as publisher of the News as did her former husband, Richard K. Warren. The publisher is now Mrs. Van Namee’s son, Richard J. Warren.

In 1971, Mrs. Van Namee was elected vice president of the company. She was elected president in 1974 and became chairman of the board in 1986. During her 35 years with the News, she oversaw unprecedented changes. Early in her tenure, newspaper pages were set in hot lead by men working at huge Linotype machines. Today, all the work is done on a computer.

There were also major changes in the newspaper business as large chains began to buy up papers across the country. In 1910 there were 2,100 independently owned newspapers in the United States. Today, slightly more than 300 of the nation’s 1,500 daily newspapers are independently owned, a number that continues to decline. Most family-owned newspapers have a circulation of less than 20,000, far smaller than the Bangor Daily News.

Confident a good management team was running the News, Mrs. Van Namee turned her attention to improving Bangor. She was a sustaining member of the Junior League of Bangor and was the organization’s president when it established the Speech and Hearing Center, which is now the Warren Center for Communication

and Learning. She was also active in other health and safety organizations.

Just weeks before her death, Mrs. Van Namee was extremely proud to see her son, Rick, and his wife, Beth, awarded the Norbert X. Dowd Award for community service and the advancement of business.

A member of a prominent local family, Mrs. Van Namee met many of the country’s best-known personalities. When she was 10 she flew with Amelia Earhart during the aviator’s visit to Bangor. Dinner guests at her home never knew what celebrity they might be seated next to.

Mrs. Van Namee also enjoyed talking with employees at all levels at the News and took a genuine interest in their welfare.

“I guess I’ve always thought of it as a home place,” she said of the paper. ” … Why, it’s just been family.”

That “family” mourns her passing.