Ron Filkins, a journeyman journalist who was at home anywhere he went, is remembered fondly

A memorial service was held yesterday for a journeyman journalist who worked many places in his career, usually for newspaper groups, but always seemed to find himself at home and in touch with his readers. Ron Filkins, publisher of The Kentucky Standard in Bardstown, Ky., died last week at 57. "Ron brought his personality to Bardstown on Day One," and quickly became comfortable in the town of 11,000, his friend Bruce Reynolds said at the memorial service at My Old Kentucky Home State Park.

We knew Ron as a publisher who more than measured up to the strong records of most of his predecessors at the paper, a thrice-weekly owned by Landmark Community Newspapers Inc. Not only was it named the state's best multi-weekly in the latest Kentucky Press Association contest, it took an active role in covering public affairs outside its home county, and Ron won local Society of Professional Journalists awards for editorials and columns. One of his last columns, on the U.S. Senate race, was an example. Read it here. (Standard photo shows Ron covering Bill Clinton on a visit before Kentucky's presidential primary in May)

"Ron was a leader," Reynolds said. "Not just at the newspaper where he happened to be working, and not just in the community where he happened to be living, and not just in the civic clubs like Rotary where he was member for over 30 years. . . . I don’t think Ron had his name on any brass plaque anywhere around here when he left us. My name happens to be on a plaque in a couple of places. But I would gladly drill them all off right this minute if I thought that I had any chance whatsoever of achieving what Ron Filkins achieved with his engravings. … The name Ron Filkins is engraved indelibly on dozens of hearts and minds stretching from Iowa to Nebraska to Texas to Arkansas to Indiana to Kentucky."

After college in Arkansas and Iowa, Filkins settled in Texas. He first became an editor at The Perryton Herald, then "moved to newspaper management, serving Southern Newspapers and the Walls family of newspapers for 10 years," Standard News Editor Stephanie Hornback wrote. He joined Landmark in 1996 as publisher of the Perry County News in Tell City, Ind., and came to the Standard in 2002. He was also regional manager for three Landmark weeklies: the Leader-Union in Vandalia, Ill.; the Red Oak Express in Red Oak, Iowa; the Opinion-Tribune in Glenwood, Iowa; and The Spencer Magnet in Taylorsville, Ky. (Read more) For a tribute from a reader, click here.

UPDATE, July 9: The Filkins family has designated Kentucky Child Now, the state affiliate and lead agency for Colin Powell’s America’s Promise, as a recipient of memorial gifts. Click here for the memorial information page, here for the memorial gift page.