ASHLAND — Stan Champer has practically been an institution at The Independent.

The newspaper’s associate editor, who has worked in a supervisory position since 1968 and helped implement several changes, including redesigns and the move from an afternoon to morning edition, is retiring today.

Champer’s newspaper career, which started in the circulation department at The Tribune in Ironton and also included a stop as a reporter at The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington spans 50 years — from 1959 to 2009.

And it’s been some kind of ride.

At The Independent, where he started in March 1964, he has maintained the position of reporter, city editor, managing editor, editorial page editor and associate editor.

As a young reporter only a month on the job at The Independent, he covered President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s “War on Poverty” swing through eastern Kentucky in 1964. LBJ was making several stops, including in Inez and Paintsville.

“Several of us were each given one of those stops as our assignment — me, George Wolfford, Dave McGuire, Lee Mueller and Gene Marvin,” Champer said. “We all had stories to write about that swing through this part of the state. My assignment was to cover the speech he gave on the steps of the Mayo Vocational School in Paintsville.”

Later in his career while in management, Champer helped coordinate coverage for stops in Ashland by President Nixon in 1973 and President Clinton in 1993.

He was also the point man for the newspaper when the tragedy of 9/11 stunned the nation in 2001.

Many changes came to The Independent and the industry as a whole during his tenure, but Champer’s leadership was a constant at the newspaper.

“I think the profession’s been changed by the faster pace of the world that we live,” he said. “It’s an instant world now ... news breaking on television and on the Internet. We probably analyze ourselves more than anybody in any other profession.

“Down through the years we’ve made some good decisions and some not so good as an industry. We’ve certainly made our product a lot more attractive and we’ve bent over backwards, I think, to write stories that we feel are more relevant to the readers.”

Champer wasn’t involved with the coverage of the Marshall plane crash in 1970 but he was practically on the scene of the tragedy. He was flying in from Chicago after attending a convention and scheduled to land at Tri-State Airport on that fateful Saturday evening.

“We were scheduled to land at Tri-State (Airport) 20 minutes after the Marshall plane had been scheduled to land,” he said. “Of course, the bulletins at that time came out but they didn’t know what plane it was. When word got out there had been a plane crash, people working here naturally assumed it was the plane I was on. My parents were at home watching television not sure if it was my plane or not.”

On the plane, he said, the pilot announced their plane was being diverted to Roanoke, Va., where passengers could call their families. They didn’t mention the accident at Tri-State Airport.

“It was at that airport (in Roanoke) down there that I found out about it,” Champer said.

He said everybody sprung into action upon learning of the Marshall plane crash to work on stories for the morning edition.

It was that same kind of attitude in 2001 when 9/11 happened, Champer said.

“Like everybody else, we knew that we were looking at something we had no idea where it was going. We started setting the wheels in motion,” he said.

Champer reported to then publisher Joe Vanderhoof about what was happening and later met with Vanderhoof and the news staff in the publisher’s office to determine a plan.

“Joe Vanderhoof looked at me and said ‘What do you want to do Stan?’ I told him I want to put out a paper tomorrow morning (at the time the paper published in the afternoon). Everybody worked throughout the day and into the night and we had a morning edition that next morning.”

There were also three makeovers on the front page the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001 to give readers the most up-to-date information.

Champer said it’s that kind of teamwork and dedication that makes the newspaper industry thrive and part of what he’ll miss the most in retirement.

But as for his chosen career path, Champer said, “I don’t have any regrets.”

Champer started at The Independent in March 1964 after being offered a reporting position by then editor Jim Norris, Jr. In 1968, at the age of 25, he was promoted to city editor and in 1973 to managing editor. While he started in 1964, he had a leave of absence to finish college. He graduated from Ohio University with an English degree in 1966.

“Stan has reached the 50-year milestone of working in the business he loves with the last 44 plus of those years at The Independent,” said publisher Eddie Blakeley. “I am pleased that Stan will be able to retire while in good health and enjoy the fruits of his labor.”

I am saddened for the loss The Independent will suffer without his presence.

“Stan has always strived to make The Independent the best journalistic product it can be. His never-ending quest to improve the product, provide our readers with the news and information that is important to them and share his knowledge and expertise with rookie staff members has made the Independent the great paper that it is today.”

Editor/General Manager Mike Reliford, who has worked with Champer all but his first year at The Independent, said his close friend will be missed.

“Stan takes a lot of institutional memory out the door with him,” Reliford said. “We will not only miss his professionalism, his talent and his friendship but that love and dedication so many of us have felt for this newspaper. It will feel like a loss in the family.”

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.