WINFIELD — Long-time Winfield Courier publisher and newspaper owner Dave Seaton is being remembered as a bold journalist, dedicated community leader and devoted family man.
Seaton 80, died Saturday at William Newton Hospital. His health had been failing and he underwent major heart surgery a year ago, but his death was unexpected.
He had written Saturday’s editorial in the CourierTraveler about the coronavirus.
“My mom, my two sisters and I are truly heartbroken at losing such a supportive and loving husband, father and grandfather,” his son David Allen said. “He was our anchor is so many ways.”
A family business
Dave was the editor and publisher of the Winfield Courier for 29 years, 1978-2009, and remained active as chairman of Winfield Publishing Company until his death.
During his tenure, the company expanded by acquiring the Newark Herald Journal and the Arkansas City Traveler. Dave also helped oversee the merger of the Courier and Traveler in 2016.
The Seaton family has been in the newspaper business for four generations, but Dave did a variety of other work before he came to the Courier.
Dave graduated from high school in Coffeyville, and earned degrees at Harvard University and the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. He and Callie served in the Peace Corps for two years in Brazil building neighborhood schools.
Dave also worked for U.S. Senator Jim Pearson, a Republican from Kansas, in Washington, D.C., and later set up a business in selling farm equipment to Latin America, based in Neodesha.
Members of the Seaton family acquired the Courier in the 1940s, so Dave’s name was already attached to it when he arrived in Winfield in 1978 to join his family’s business.
Marsha Wesseler, director of marketing and sales at the CourierTraveler, worked at the Courier in advertising several years before Dave arrived.
“Dave was very much a news guy,” Wesseler said. “But I remember the first day he walked into the office. He was handsome, with distinguished, premature greying hair, and soft spoken. I grew to respect him very much over the years. He and Lloyd Craig were my mentors, and I value the time I spent working with both of them at the paper.”
Bold advocate
Over Dave’s career he earned a reputation as an editor devoted to the communities the newspaper served.
“He cared about the towns and county, the current events and the history,” said Bob Hartley, a retired newspaper man and Cowley County historian. “It is not enough to say we will miss Dave Seaton. We will miss his humanity. His caring for community. His clear, crisp writing. And above all, his presence.”
Hartley and Dave were among the organizers of the yearly Celebrate Winfield history conference that has morphed into Celebrate Cowley County, held the last Saturday in January.
