Bill Fletcher, president and general manager of the Rocky Mountain News during one of its biggest growth periods, died at his Denver home Friday morning. He was 81.
Death was attributed to natural causes, said his son, John Fletcher of Denver.
Bill Fletcher started at the News as a dispatch driver for the advertising department in 1952 and quickly became an advertising salesman and then personnel director, vice president and business manager and president/general manager, which he was named in 1984. He retired in 1993.
During Fletcher’s tenure, the News’ circulation rose from more than 199,000 to more than 353,000, according to a story in the News. Fletcher also enlarged the News building at 400 W. Colfax Ave. The News closed last year, and its former site is now home to the new Denver Justice Center.
“He was a compassionate, forward-looking guy,” said Vern Mallinen, who was advertising director under Fletcher. “He took the News to a position of competitive dominance in the 1980s,” said Mallinen, now circulation marketing director for The Denver Post.
A friend from boyhood, Mark Allen, remembers Fletcher as “Fly Fletcher” but doesn’t know how Fletcher got the nickname.
“I knew him from kindergarten. We went to the same church and were both camp counselors and worked at a dude ranch together. He was a sincere, honest, decent guy,” said Allen, of Barre, Mass.
John Fletcher said his dad was always generous. During the Gulf War in the early 1990s, John Fletcher’s cousin, Sheryl Shea, was living at Camp Pendleton, Calif., while her husband, Rob Shea, was in Saudi Arabia with the Army.
Knowing that the woman and her children would be alone on Christmas, Bill Fletcher paid their way to fly to the East Coast where her family lived.
Bill Fletcher “knew everyone at the News and cared about the people and the News,” said his longtime secretary, Jody Boogren of Golden.
“His door was always open to anyone who wanted to talk to him,” said Boogren, who had planned to have lunch with Fletcher this week.
William W. Fletcher was born in Boston on Nov. 17, 1928, and graduated from Watertown, Mass., High School.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio.
He was in the Army serving in the occupation forces in Japan after World War II.
He married Sue Somerville on March 21, 1951. They moved to Denver in 1952.
In addition to his wife and his son, he is survived by three grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
