Former Inter Lake Editor Cecil, 74, dies

George Wallace Cecil, executive editor of the Daily Inter Lake from the late 1970s to 1980, died Sunday in Kalispell after a six-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 74.

Cecil had a long and accomplished career in journalism as both a reporter and editor. He had been employed at the Coeur d’Alene Press as executive editor from the late 1960s to early ’70s and then worked in the same position at the Elizabeth Daily Journal in Elizabeth, N.J., prior to coming to the Inter Lake.

All three papers were owned by the Hagadone Corporation at the time.

His widow, Darlene, recalled in a phone interview Tuesday how CEO Duane Hagadone asked George, along with other managers in the company, to return to the Elizabeth Daily Journal during a union strike that started soon after he’d left that paper. He helped to keep the paper running for a year until the union dissolved.

Cecil was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He served four years in the U.S. Navy until 1959, as an aviation electrician’s mate working on aircraft carriers and later graduated from the University of Florida in 1967 with a bachelor of science degree in journalism. He was the recipient of the Elmer J. Emig Award, the highest award given to a senior in the School of Journalism. He was also a member of the Sigma Delta Chi Honorary Journalism Fraternity.

He met Darlene, his second wife, in Kalispell in 1980 while she was working at the Inter Lake as the business editor. They married the following year and moved to Florida, where he went to work for the Fort Lauderdale News. He retired in the late ’90s after a stint as executive editor of the Naples Daily News.

Darlene had owned an advertising agency at that time and, after retiring, Cecil worked for the agency for several years until it was sold and they returned to Kalispell, and the valley he loved, in July 2002.

Darlene recounted her husband’s steadfast humanitarianism with stories of how he stopped to give a homeless person his coat two winters ago after seeing him wearing just a thin blanket, and how he not only had cut down a tree that needed to come down for a neighbor, but then sawed it all into rounds for her. An animal lover, Cecil once missed his return flight from the Flathead to Florida so that he could try to find a dog’s owner after he and Darlene had found the dog in the Many Lakes area. George put up posters in the area, and owner and dog were reunited.

Cecil served on numerous boards here and in Florida, including United Way and the Montana Wilderness Association. He was particularly committed to environmental causes.

Cecil was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease six years ago, the same disease that his father had suffered from until his death.

“It’s such a devastating disease,” his wife said. “George had such an intellect. Here was a man that could answer any question about anything in the world. He read three papers every morning and was a brilliant writer.

“The last six months he would get up in the mornings and didn’t know who I was. I would then show him our wedding pictures and he would write down my name. But it got to the point where he couldn’t finish writing all of the letters. He lost the ability to speak. He couldn’t read anymore because the words were jumbled, and he could no longer manage email to correspond with all of his friends.”

Since June, Cecil had resided and was cared for at Renaissance Senior Care in Kalispell. He was also under the compassionate care of Frontier Hospice at the time of his death, Darlene said.

He is also survived by three children and four grandchildren.