Community leader, former Chronicle publisher, David Arthurs dies at age 92
Back when twin sisters Sandra “Sam” Himmel and Linda Van Allen were in high school, their dad called David Arthurs.
Arthurs and the girls’ dad, Walt Connors, were Inverness business partners and friends, and Connors told him, “The girls need a job.”
“Suddenly, we were employed by the Chronicle, stuffing papers once a week,” Van Allen said Tuesday. “We’d go in at 4:30 in the morning – that was our step into the working world.”
Himmel remembers that there was a group of kids from the school who all worked there at the office in Inverness near the Historic Courthouse.
“I remember one time when the big machines broke down in the middle of the night and the papers weren’t ready, so we couldn’t stuff them,” she said. “Then during the day, David called the school to see if we could all come in and stuff papers so they could be delivered.
“So, they dismissed us, and off we went,” she said. “We have so many memories of David. He was a good friend of mine, and a good friend of our family, forever.”
David S. Arthurs Sr., the man from Atchison, Kansas, Chronicle Publisher Emeritus, owner of Accent Travel in Inverness, mentor to many and an encourager to all, died Aug. 8 at age 92.
Before Arthurs came to Citrus County in 1964, he worked as a publishing supervisor of the John H. Perry newspapers in Delray and Palatka.
After leaving the newspapers, he moved to Ocala from Palm Beach, and worked at an AM radio station.
A friend suggested he check out Citrus County.
He would tell people that he didn’t intend to buy a newspaper; what he really wanted was a radio station.
So, he went to the newspaper office in Inverness to inquire about radio stations and talked to the Chronicle owner at the time, who was also the mayor of St. Petersburg, and who was also making the application for the radio station Arthurs was interested in.