By Jim Healy, Statesboro Herald

In 1973, Joe McGlamery had been working for Don McDougald for eight years at his Statesboro radio station WWNS when he was approached about starting a second radio station in town.

“That was a long process that required a bunch of trips back and forth to Washington, D.C.,” he said. “I knew in fairness to Don, who had been good to me, I couldn’t continue working at WWNS while applying for a competing radio station. So, I resigned and created a little company called Southeastern Media.”

Shortly after starting his company, McGlamery’s partners in the radio enterprise agreed to “put up the front money for a shopper. I started the Southeast Georgia Buyer’s Guide. It was moderately successful. Didn’t make a lot of money.”

Then, in the spring of 1975, Lou Stratton, the corporate ad director for Morris Newspaper Corporation, a Savannah-based company owned by Charles Morris, contacted McGlamery.

Morris wasn’t satisfied with the direction of the Statesboro Herald. He was looking for someone to tap into what he believed was a strong market.

“I met with Lou several times,” McGlamery said. “And he said, ‘Why don’t you sell your shopper to Charles and come work with us at the Statesboro paper?’ I asked him why and he said simply: ‘Well, I think you’d be good at it and I think you’d enjoy working with Charles.’ So, that’s what I did in June of 1975.”

And now, almost exactly 50 years after joining Morris’ company and the Statesboro Herald, McGlamery announced his retirement from his position as president of the Statesboro Herald and vice president of the Southeast Region for Morris Multimedia.

“It’s time,” he said. “Fifty years is a long time. I wish it could’ve been a lot longer. There was never a day that I dreaded coming to work. There was never a day when I could not wait until it was late enough to quit.”

Morris, who is president and CEO of Morris Multimedia, also remembers back in 1975 when McGlamery’s shopper got his attention.

“We competed for a while, and I realized he was a tough competitor,” he said. “I don’t know how he felt about us, maybe in the same way. But it just made sense if we could get together, we could probably improve the quality and success of our publication and that’s how it all came about. It certainly worked out for me. I hired a great leader and made a great friend.”

McGlamery attributes his long and productive career with the Herald and Morris to three primary factors: the support of his family, his co-workers across 50 years and Charles Morris.

“My wife Susan and daughter Nancy have been in my corner the whole time,” he said. “And that helped me, perhaps more than they know, at the office.

“I always thought that if you could bring together the right mixture of work ethic and innovative thinking, and then if you genuinely like the people you worked with – your chances of success were exponentially greater.

“Charles Morris is a man possessed of the leadership qualities that every company needs. He has demonstrated to me over the last 50 years that he can literally see around corners. Not only has he proven to be a gifted CEO, but I can tell you he is a man of high moral character and gentle personality.”

Building a work ethic

McGlamery was born Nov. 1, 1943 and grew up on a farm in the Middleground Community of the Blitch District of Bulloch County.

“It was a small family farm that my father had purchased in 1941. We planted primarily row crops – tobacco, cotton, peanuts, corn.

“Prior to buying the farm in 1941, during one stretch of nine years, they moved eight times. Always looking for a little better land, a little better opportunity with that growing family. And the whole family worked.

“So, it’s against that background that I learned at least part of the work ethic I developed in life.”

McGlamery shared a memory of a goal he set for himself as a teenager. Normally, McGlamery said, he would pack between 150 and 160 pounds of cotton per day. Experienced pickers could push 300 pounds a day, he said “But I set a challenge for myself at 15 and that was to pick 200 pounds of cotton in one day. My father had rented some land from Wiley Fordham. I still drive past that field from time to time.

“It had been a good season. So, I told my dad I want to get up at five o ‘clock. I want to be in the field by six. And when he called quitting time – he was the one person that called quitting time – we weighed up on a balance beam scale out in the field and I picked 206 pounds. He said ‘I don’t know what you’re gonna do boy. I can tell you it ain’t gonna be a cotton picker.’

“But I accomplished that mission.”

Finding a career

McGlamery was only 16 years old when he graduated from Statesboro High School in 1960. His brother-in-law was a mortician at Sipples Mortuary in Savannah. McGlamery had worked with him on occasion and thought he might pursue a career in funeral services.

But then fate in the form of someone whom McGlamery described as a “tender-hearted person” stepped in.

“I had taken journalism as an elective and when I told Ms. Deal of my future plans, she told me she knew the dean of the journalism school at the University of Georgia – John E. Drury.

“She told me: ‘I think he would enjoy having you as a student in the Henry Grady School of Journalism.’” Upon arriving in Athens, McGlamery met Don McDougald’s brother Worth, who headed UGA’s radio/television sequence at the time.

As McGlamery started his journalism track, he began focusing on the broadcasting side and in the final quarter at UGA, he took the first step in his professional career.

“Worth told his brother Don, ‘You know, we got this kid from Statesboro that might do you some good. He’d like to come down and do an internship with you for the Spring quarter,’” McGlamery said. “And that was the first time I visited WWNS.”

McGlamery worked that internship and another year. He then was scheduled to go to Coast Guard Officer Training School in Yorktown, Va., when Don McDougald suggested he join the National Guard. And so he did – the 117th Tactical Control Squadron of the Georgia Air National Guard.

McGlamery continued working with McDougald for nine years, where he did live remote broadcasts from almost every imaginable place in Statesboro, including the inside of a freezer.

“I’ve been very lucky. I’ve worked with some good people,” McGlamery said. “And Don McDougald was one of them. Now he could be cantankerous. But he had a heart of gold and he cared about the community.

“I think I learned as much about caring for your community and its health and safety, goodness and prosperity as I did anything else.”

Coming to the Statesboro Herald The Statesboro Herald was a Monday-through-Friday afternoon newspaper when McGlamery was hired in July 1975 to be administrative assistant to Donald Keith, who was president of the Herald. Three months later, McGlamery was named general manager when Keith was transferred to another Morris property.

Charles Morris had purchased the Herald from the Coleman family in 1971 and believed McGlamery could make the Herald a better-run and more profitable organization. Under McGlamery’s guidance, the Herald quickly became a more efficient business that “focused on delivering results for its advertisers and a quality newspaper to its readers.”

McGlamery also looked to expand media operations for Morris in Southeast Georgia. In 1980, he led the launch of the Tri-County Pennysaver shopper in Hinesville, which preceded the company acquiring the local Coastal Courier newspaper in 1982.

Working with Randy Morton, who was advertising manager at the Herald at the time, the Tri-County Pennysaver became the most popular print publication in the Liberty County area.

With the return of Georgia Southern football announced in 1982, the Herald went from a five-day afternoon publication to a seven-day morning newspaper.

In 1995, Morris appointed McGlamery regional vice president of Morris Newspaper Corporation, with responsibilities for supervising Morris newspaper and shopper operations in seven Georgia cities. At the same time, he was named president of the Statesboro Herald.

Over the next few years, in Statesboro and other properties under McGlamery, Real Estate Today publications were started and there was a relaunch of the Statesboro Pennysaver shopper, along with other Pennysavers in the region.

And it was a Pennysaver publication in Screven County that landed McGlamery and the Herald in front of the Georgia Supreme Court in 1999.

The city of Sylvania had barred the corporate umbrella of the Herald and the Pennysavers – Statesboro Publishing Inc. – from distributing the Pennysaver in the city limits. The city had enacted an ordinance in 1992 that prohibited distribution of free printed material in yards, driveways or porches.

McGlamery saw the city’s action as a violation of free speech and Morris agreed to pursue the action in court. After losing in Chatham County Superior Court, Statesboro Publishing appealed the decision to the Georgia Supreme Court, with local attorney Charles Brown arguing the case. In May 1999, the Court ruled 6-1 that the Sylvania ordinance violated freedom of speech and press under the U.S. and Georgia Constitutions.

Presiding Justice Norman Fletcher found that the ordinance was not narrowly tailored to serve the city’s desire to “protect its aesthetic beauty and prevent litter.” The majority held that there are other ways to prevent litter that would not infringe on free speech or the press.

The majority also found that the Georgia Constitution’s protection of speech requires the city to “narrowly draw its regulations to suppress no more speech than necessary to achieve the city’s goals.”

McGlamery said he believed he had a responsibility to pursue the case because “our job is to provide information to the public and a government entity was trying to prevent that.”

Brown praised McGlamery and Morris for standing up for Statesboro Publishing’s Constitutional rights. “He can take justifiable pride as a member of the press, which is the most significant bulwark against tyranny,” Brown said. “I treasure that experience in the Georgia Supreme Court to represent the paper in the Sylvania issue. Sweeter because we won.”

Colleagues

As he was thinking about retirement, McGlamery said he was “eternally grateful for all the talented, dedicated and caring people I have worked with at the Statesboro Herald and the entire company.

“I learned early on that my fellow employees didn’t care how much I knew until they knew how much I cared about the company, the job and about them.

“Let me express my heartfelt thanks for all of the help I received over the last 50 years. It’s a popular saying ‘don’t no one monkey make a show.’ This was absolutely true in my case. I relied on so many to help me think of new and innovative revenue streams along with ways to lower cost and increase productivity.”

About two years before McGlamery, Bulloch County native Randy Morton joined the Herald as an advertising sales executive. Morton worked with McGlamery for 43 years, including 17 as publisher of the Statesboro Herald. He retired in 2018.

“Joe and I share many memories, working together over the years,” Morton, who also was publisher of the Coastal Courier for several years, said. “We could write a book. With the help of some very creative and loyal staff, we were able to do exciting and innovative things. Our customers became friends and we had a lot of fun. We could not have done it without Joe and the support from Charles Morris.

“But years pass quickly. The Herald will not be the same without Joe. He believes in being the first to work and the last to leave. Everyone looks up to him. He will be greatly missed.”

Karen Tanksley had been working at the Statesboro Herald for a year before McGlamery started there. After working for many years as his assistant and with his encouragement, Tanksley took over as publisher of the Effingham Herald in 1999 and retired in 2015.

“I was with the company for 43 years and I never felt stagnant,” Tanksley said. “There was always something new to learn. I’m somebody who started part-time in the newsroom answering questions when customers called in. I went from there to managing a newspaper. How many people get that opportunity? Well, Joe gave me that opportunity. He encouraged me. I never would have done that on my own.

“I just feel like that my 42 years with him, he really made me a better person. I think anybody who had any extended contact with him would say the same thing.”

Beth Freeman, regional comptroller for Morris Multimedia in Southeast Georgia, started working at the Herald in 2000.

“We followed Joe’s lead. And it always was a good one,” she said. “I thank him for all the years of his guidance and his leadership.”

Kathy Kurazawa retired several years ago after working for 34 years as Morris’ executive assistant. She worked with McGlamery on numerous assignments.

“Joe and I had a lot of projects that we worked on together – trying to put together all the ideas that Mr. Morris had,” she said. “And of all the publishers and managers and co-workers that I worked with, Joe had the most patience. He also was very honest with me. His words are always very thoughtful, but he would be honest with you in the politest way if he thought you were missing the mark. I really appreciated that.”

Melissa Lee has worked in information technology and other areas for several properties in Morris Multimedia and now with Morris Technology for more than 25 years. She has worn several hats in working with McGlamery, but one very specific instance stands out for her.

“Our first issue of the Effingham Living magazine back in 2007 had some technical issues,” she said. “It took almost 48 hours straight of me working on it to get it right and ready to send to the printer. There was nothing Joe could do to help me except offer moral support. But that he did. He was there the whole time. That’s how I see Joe work with everybody. He is always there for you.”

Mark Griffin worked for Morris Multimedia for 30 years, including as publisher of the Coastal Courier, Liberty Life Magazine, the Bryan County News and The Frontline, a weekly newspaper that serves Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield.

“When I think of all the people Joe has given opportunities to or mentored in all his years with the Herald and Morris, that is a huge number,” he said. “He always offered a guiding hand or a word or more, if you asked, whenever we needed it.”

Jenny Foss, who is editor of Statesboro Magazine, remembers the day McGlamery hired her for the job.

“The best phone call I ever got was from Joe McGlamery. He said, ‘Jenny, we need an editor,’” she said. “He had the vision for a quality publication celebrating all the good news about Statesboro. I’ve been here for 18 years working with Joe. He is a great boss who is very supportive. He has always given me autonomy and a sense of ownership in my job, for which I am forever grateful.”

Pat Donahue first met McGlamery when he began working for the Statesboro Herald in the 1980s. Donahue went on to become editor of the Coastal Courier and Effingham Herald, Morris properties in McGlamery’s Southeast Georgia region. After working for another newspaper group for several years, McGlamery recruited Donahue back to Hinesville as editor of the Courier.

“What has always struck me most about Mr. Joe is his dedication and commitment to putting out the best products possible, whether it is a newspaper or a magazine or anything else we do,” Donahue said. “He’s always been willing to help and offer advice and counsel whenever it is asked of him on a wide range of issues, from personnel to budgets to deadlines, without being overbearing. He’s given me a great deal of latitude, and I am greatly appreciative of that.”

Reagan Daly came to work at the Statesboro Herald in 2008. As a sales executive, Daly went on to found Moments magazine, was a studio host for many Herald video shows, sales manager at the Savannah Pennysaver and also general manager of Statesboro Magazine.

“Joe McGlamery, known to myself and my family as ‘Mr. Joe’ set the bar high for bosses,” she said. “He led with compassion, steady enthusiasm, and encouragement. Every idea that I presented to him was appreciated, and he quietly (and unknowingly to me most of the time) structured the framework for me to execute my ideas. When the chips were down, he never had a cross word and I never once saw him angry or frustrated. I only witnessed his unwavering strength and steadiness.”

Retirement

Even after 50 years, McGlamery admits he would like to keep working to help the Herald and all Morris newspaper properties navigate the very different and difficult business environment the print industry is in today than it was when he started in 1975.

“We have a whole lot of challenges,” McGlamery said. “Unfortunately, I am dealing with some health challenges of my own that won’t allow me to continue in a job I have loved for 50 years.”

And Charles Morris will miss his friend and right-hand man, too.

“What a wonderful journey and a wonderful situation it has been for both of us,” he said. “Joe has been particularly invaluable to me in helping me grow the company, find opportunities for the company and to lead so many of those efforts himself.

“What a great success we’ve had and how much fun we’ve had. We’re the luckiest people in the world to have gone through this together. I don’t think Joe and I disagreed on just about anything. And through all this, which is unusual in business relationships, he and I became good friends. He and I just understand each other.”

McGlamery said he leaves the Herald a fulfilled and humble man.

“The Herald and this work have always provided me with ample opportunities for forward-looking hope and backward-looking pride, and I’m so grateful for that,” he said.

“I thank everyone for 50 years of love, devotion and hard work. I hope you’ve enjoyed these 50 years as much as I have. Thank you one and all.”