Bill Stilwell, the former publisher and co-owner of the Malvern Daily Record, died Wednesday in Benton. He was 87.
He had been ill for about a year, said his son, Jim Ed Stilwell.
"He had been failing for about 2½ years," Jim Stilwell said. "Just a number of things that go wrong with a senior person who's lived a long life."
Billy Ed Stilwell was born Sept. 6, 1931, to Elliot Edmond and Alice Dawson Stilwell in Blue, Okla.
He was drafted right out of high school and saw combat duty in the Korean War, said his son.
"When he was drafted, he had only been in two counties in Oklahoma," Jim Stilwell said.
After active duty, he was in the Army Reserve from 1953 to 1960.
He married Glenda Trantham of Durant, Okla., in 1955.
In 1958, Bill Stilwell graduated from what is now Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant with a bachelor's degree in business administration.
From 1958-59, he worked selling advertisements for the Durant Daily Democrat.
In 1960, the family moved to Ardmore, Okla., when Bill Stilwell took a job as sales manager at The Daily Ardmoreite.
Then, in 1968, the family moved to Malvern, where he was general manager of the newspaper, said his son.
In 1969, Bill Stilwell became a third-party owner of the Malvern Daily Record. He eventually became publisher and continued to work there until 1982, when he retired.
Jim Stilwell said the whole family worked at the Malvern paper. When he was 8 years old, Jim Stilwell was doing commercial printing and throwing newspapers. His sister, Jennifer, was a cub reporter, and his mother worked in composing.
Bill Stilwell did a little bit of everything at the newspaper.
"There wasn't anything in the building that he could not and did not do," his son said. "At small daily newspapers, you had to be a jack of all trades and titles were not particularly important."
Tim Taylor of Little Rock was sports editor for the Malvern Daily Record for two years. He remembers Bill Stilwell "as a father figure to the younger members of the staff and a caring big brother to the older members."
"Bill Stilwell taught me more about the newspaper business than I could have gotten from any journalism school," Taylor said. "He never let us forget the most important link in the chain -- the reader. I developed skills working under him that I continue to use almost 40 years later."
Bill Whitehead, publisher of Fordyce News-Advocate, remembers working with Bill Stilwell at the Malvern newspaper in the 1970s, when it was an afternoon publication.
"Bill was just a good, honest, hardworking person," Whitehead said. "His expertise is in advertising. ... He was always a fair person to people and employees, a fun person to be around, always had a positive attitude."
Jim Stilwell said his father was "honest to a fault, forthright, a true leader who led from the front."
Bill Stilwell said his father had a passion for music. He played the upright bass, rhythm guitar and mandolin.
"He played in country bands, gospel bands, even professionally while in college, and in the Army," his son said. "His favorite things were playing music, fishing and working in the yard."
Bill Stilwell served on the Ouachita Technical College Board of Trustees from 1999 to 2013. In 2011, during his second seven-year appointment, the college's name was changed to College of the Ouachitas.
He served at different times as board secretary, vice chairman and chairman. Also at different times he was chairman of the academic committee and finance committee.
Metro on 11/30/2018