David W. Stevick
David W. Stevick (1887-1935) was born to William Henry Stevick and Jennie (Getter) Stevick in Hutchinson, Kansas. He spent his childhood and early adult life living in Bloomington, Il, where he got his first newspaper job at The Bloomington Bulletin. By the time he was 28, he had moved up the ranks of The Bulletin and was ready to move on. Seeing an opportunity in Champaign-Urbana, he moved to Champaign and became joint, and then sole owner of The Champaign Daily News.
After merging The Champaign Daily Gazette with The Champaign Daily News to create The News-Gazette, David updated equipment and expanded facilities. By 1928, The News-Gazette subscribed to all three major news sources, the Associated Press, the United Press, and International News Service.
Things were going well at The News-Gazette, so in 1927, Stevick bought The Texarkana Gazette-News. Stevick would split his time between the two papers until he sold the Texarkana paper in 1933 and returned to Champaign full-time with his family.
An active member of the community, David frequently wrote editorials regarding issues he was passionate about. In The News-Gazette, it was said that David “enthusiastically promoted civic causes, and sharply criticized activities which he felt were not in the public interest.” An editorial slogan that he used frequently was “Be a Booster... And a Builder.” David worked closely with his wife Helen, and trained his daughter Marajen on all aspects of the paper before his death. He even wrote into his will that Marajen was to work at the paper for twenty years. Outside of the paper, David was involved in a campaign to bring hard roads to the county, getting the new Champaign city building and hospital constructed, and helping fundraise for many worthy social causes. David passed his passion for the outdoors down to Marajen, instilling in her the importance of taking care of nature.