(News story) Lee Gagle, who won positions of increasing responsibility during a long career at The Blade, including ushering the newspaper and its workers into the computer age as systems director, died Saturday under hospice care in his Waterville residence. He was 86.
He was ill for a week, but had health problems in recent years, his daughter Kelly Karrenbauer said.
He retired in 1996 after more than a decade as systems director. In remarks to colleagues then, Mr. Gagle said a third production upgrade had begun.
"The Blade will eventually be put together electronically from front to back," Mr. Gagle said. "Someday this will make it available to our customers and readers in new ways."
Computers were becoming faster and more complex, Mr. Gagle said then, adding that he told The Blade's then-new general manager "that I would have enjoyed being his wingman but it was time to return to base and let someone younger handle the G-forces."
Bettyann Cole, retired senior information technology manager, said: "He was a great example of not only a manager but a leader. Lee would never ask any staff member to do a task that he was not willing to do himself. He took his responsibility to the company very seriously."
Ron Shnider, who was a longtime member of The Blade's retail advertising sales force, worked as a summer advertising sales intern when he met Mr. Gagle 52 years ago.
"Lee was as much a teacher as he was a boss," Mr. Shnider said. "In any position they put him in, he made things better. Lee was a team player, and that was important. He understood the meaning of relationships, be it with customers or his own staff. Although he was a brilliant man, he never talked down to anybody. He treated everyone with dignity and respect."
Mr. Gagle liked to learn how things worked, whether a computer system at the newspaper or a household system he wanted to improve.
"He liked to learn, and he liked to teach," his daughter said. "When it came to the conversion to a phone system and computer systems, he liked to figure it out and then figure out the right way to teach each person."
As systems director, he dealt with employees in every corner of the operation - those in advertising, circulation, production, the business office, but also writers and editors.
"There were not very many people he couldn't find something to like about, and I don't think there were very many people who didn't like him, even the crotchety ones," said his daughter, who works in the finance department.
For years in retirement, Mr. Gagle convened lunchtime get-togethers of Blade retirees.
He started working for the newspaper's circulation department in 1951 as a part-time station helper. He'd already been a Blade carrier. When he enrolled at the University of Toledo, he was an assistant district manager.
He later worked in the classified advertising department. He became retail advertising manager in 1969 after three years as assistant manager. He became ad services director in 1972, and in 1973 was named executive assistant, "responsible for developing new policies and processes involving interdepartmental relationships, and for directing special project for all areas of The Toledo Blade Co.," according to the news story announcing his promotion.
In December, 1985, he was named systems director, a new position.
Leroy Wesley Gagle was born Feb. 5, 1934, in Fort Wayne, Ind., to Anabelle and Elsworth Gagle. From his father, a salesman, he learned "you have to give people the benefit of the doubt and a way out of a situation," his daughter said. "Don't confront. Be kind. He believed people are trying to do the best they can."
His father's employer transferred him, and the family moved to West Toledo. Mr. Gagle was a 1952 graduate of DeVilbiss High School. He was an Army veteran and served in the military police with the Ohio Army National Guard. He was a first lieutenant when he left the guard in 1966.
Surviving are his wife of nearly 60 years, the former Suzanne Miller; daughters, Kelly Karrenbauer and Kerry Harris; sons, Michael and Steven Gagle; sister, Barbara Smith, and nine grandchildren.
There will be no services.
The family suggests tributes to the Friends of Wood County Parks or Way Public Library Foundation & Friends, Perrysburg.
This is a news story by Mark Zaborney. Contact him at
[email protected] or 419-724-6182.
Published by The Blade on Dec. 9, 2020.