By Kurt Wagner |
With great sadness I heard about the passing of the man who started County News Online as a fundraiser program to help to empower Darke County Youth. As long as I know Bob, he was dedicated to help the kids in Darke County.
I met Bob in 2009, when he ran for Darke County Commissioner (wow, that long ago, I can’t believe it…). I created and maintained his campaign-website and we stayed in close contact after the election.
Just a few weeks after the election Bob approached me with a suggestion. He wanted to start a Media website and suggested that we partner up. He wanted me to create and maintain the website, just as I did with his campaign website and he wanted to do the writing and editing.
At that time, Bob was also involved in the group “Senior Scribes”. The Scribes were responsible for a weekly page in the Daily Advocate. The group also established a scholarship fund that benefitted many Darke County students finance their college degrees in fields related to communications.
So, having this dedication to help the kids, Bob decided to discard the original plan of a media website as a for profit business and decided to instead start a non-profit media website as a fundraiser to raise money for scholarships. This eventually led to founding the non-profit organization “Empowering Darke County Youth” – with County News Online as the fundraiser arm.
The concept stayed the same, just not as a business: I created and maintained the website, Bob did the writing and editing – and he did a great job! County News Online got a lot of attention and recognition thanks to Bob’s talents, skills and experience in this industry. Bob was able to run and grow CNO for many years and CNO became a great source of information for people in Darke County as well as a great way to support “Empowering Darke County Youth” with much needed funds.
Unfortunately, a couple of ears ago, just about a year after we relaunched the website in its current design and optimized for all screen sizes, health issues limited Bob’s abilities to run CNO the way he used to run it and eventually he resigned which led the Board of Empowering Darke County Youth to the decision to take CNO off the net, due to the fact that the Board didn’t have anybody available to take over Bob’s role in CNO.
But “Bob’s child” was too good to be put to rest and so I suggested that I continue running the website instead of just take it off the net – and here we are today, still running. Yes, I made some changes, added categories to win more visitors, but it’s still Bob’s child. Bob laid the groundwork and created the name recognition over all these years and I can’t thank Bob enough for that (this strong foundation made it easier for me to continue his work….).
My heartfelt sympathy and sincere condolences go out to Bob’s family.
Rest in Peace, Bob! And keep an eye from heaven on your “child”….