Longtime Ohio journalist Pershing Rohrer dies

RAVENNA, Ohio (AP) — Pershing Rohrer’s award-winning newspaper career covered nearly 80 years and didn’t end until shortly before he died this week in northeastern Ohio at age 96.

Rohrer worked in the sports department at the Record-Courier in Portage County for 63 years, with his last content published Sunday. He died Monday, the newspaper said.

He had retired as sports editor after 37 years in 1989 but remained on staff and helped coordinate his weekly golf and bowling page that ran every Sunday.

Born in Cumberland, Md., he began his newspaper career after high school in 1936 with the Cumberland Times-News. He was hired by the Evening Record, which would later become the Record-Courier, in 1952.

Record-Courier Publisher David Dix called him “a true professional and wonderful person.”