Login | April 24, 2024
Former Legal News owner passes away
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: November 30, 2016
He spent much of his life working in the legal newspaper industry, carrying on a tradition begun by his father, but on Nov. 2 Charles A. Beringer Jr. passed away after a brief illness.
He was 92.
“Charlie was a good brother,” said his brother John Beringer. “There were seven of us and he was the one who got involved in our father’s newspaper business.”
“Dad worked very hard,” said his son Robert Beringer. “He was an intensely private person and he did not like calling attention to himself. He went to work every day. He put his three sons through school and gave us some good advice.”
Born in Dayton on Nov. 12, 1923 to parents Kathryn Loftus Beringer and Charles A. Beringer Sr., he was the second oldest of their seven children.
Shortly after graduating from Buchtel High School in 1943, Beringer was drafted and served in the U.S. Army during the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign of World War II. He was stationed on the islands of Oahu and Saipan and received a Bronze Service Star for his valor.
“When my brother was in Saipan, he was on line to get on a troop ship going to Okinawa,” said John. “Okinawa was one of the bloodiest campaigns in the Pacific.
“While on line he was asked to stay in Saipan and take charge of the Japanese prisoners,” he said. “I’ve always thought that my mom’s prayers got him off that troop ship line.”
Beringer returned to Akron after his military service. He attended Kent State University, graduating in 1950 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.
He married Rita McGinnis. They had three sons, Charles III, Robert and Daniel.
“They officially met after the war at a wedding,” said Daniel Beringer.
Beringer and McGinnis lived near one another as children and had gone to St. Sebastian Parish School, but did not really know one another. “They were a few grades apart but attended at the same time,” said Daniel.
Beringer’s wife passed away in 1990 and his son Charles III died in 2011.
John said his brother took over the family’s legal newspaper business in the early ‘50s serving as the publisher of the Akron Legal News and similar papers in Dayton, Youngstown and Ravenna, Ohio and in Buffalo, New York.
Charles A. Beringer Sr., who worked as a journalist in Dayton for around 10 years, founded the papers beginning with Dayton’s “Daily Court Reporter” in 1917.
In 1921, he moved to Akron and started the Akron Legal News.
While the Akron Legal News was not the first legal publication in the city, it was the first to be designated by the courts as the official law journal of Summit County. Beringer Sr. also founded the “Daily Legal News” in Youngstown in 1925 as the official law journal of Mahoning County and the “Buffalo Daily Law Journal” in 1929, which was Erie County’s official voice of the courts.
“I think Charlie took over the papers from our dad because he was the one with the inclination and ability to do it,” said John. “He had a lot of interest in technical matters and he was an expert Linotype operator. The Linotype machine was invented in the late 1800s and it was the workhorse of all newspapers.
“It was a hot lead metal typesetting system used to set type for newspapers and it was not an easy trade to come by,” said John. “My brother went to trade school in Indiana to learn how to use the machine. Anyone who knew how to use this machine was highly valued in the newspaper business.”
His brother said Beringer Jr. put together a hobbyist computer in the late ‘50s using a Heathkit to assemble the various pieces. “He was an early user and advocate of computers,” said John.
“Dad had a big room in the basement and each night after dinner he would go down there and tinker with different electronic devices,” said Robert, a freelance journalist who lives in Jacksonville, Florida and writes for national boating, sailing and motorcycle magazines. “He designed and built radar and sonar devices.”
In the early ‘90s, Beringer sold the Akron Legal News to the Akron Bar Association.
Terrence J. Steel, a partner at Cowden Humphrey, was president-elect of the bar association at the time.
“I first got to know Charlie during the negotiations for the sale,” said Steel. “He retired and we hired John Burleson to be the publisher, but I still saw Charlie at our Christmas parties.
“What I remember about Charlie was that he loved to tinker with things by taking them apart and putting them back together,” said Steel, who served as Akron Bar President from 1992 to 1993. “He was a quiet, extremely intelligent, practical man who was well liked. He respected other people’s opinions and I enjoyed chatting with him. I would say I even learned a few things from him during the sale of the paper. It was not hard to reach an agreement for the sale of the paper. We got a deal that was good for both parties.”
Retired Brouse McDowell attorney Jerry Whitmer often did business with Beringer. “I published many legal notices in the Akron Legal News while he was in charge.
“Everyone knew who Charlie was and he was very involved in many organizations,” said Whitmer, who represented the Akron Bar Association in its purchase of the Akron Legal News. “Charlie was an absolute gentleman at all times.”
Former Akron Legal News publisher John Burleson got to know Beringer in 1992. “I met him after he sold the paper to the Akron Bar Association,” said Burleson, retired senior vice president at Law Bulletin Publishing Company, which owns the legal newspapers in Akron, Portage and Mahoning counties.
“Charles really had a passion for what he did,” said Burleson. “He started selling off the family business because he was ready to retire. He was a nice guy. He always answered any questions that I asked him.”
“Unlike my grandfather, my dad never wrote much of anything,” said Robert. “He did love the outdoors. He loved to travel, hike, fish and hunt. He had a cabin in Story, Wyoming and anyone who visited dad had to go on a hike.
“He also enjoyed sailing his boat on the Portage Lakes. Dad sent all three of his sons to Falcon Camp in Carrollton and got us all hooked on sailing.”
His brother John said Beringer was a licensed pilot, who flew planes in Alaska and the Virgin Islands. Beringer also had a passion for motorcycles, owning a classic Indian Motorcycle in high school.
John said they were business partners in two companies, Skin Divers Supply of Ohio and Akron Oxygen and Hospital Supply.
“The arrangement worked out successfully,” John said.
Beringer belonged to a number of professional and local organizations, including the VFW, the American Court and Commercial Newspapers (a professional trade organization of newspapers that report on court and business news), the Optimist Club, Akron City Club and Portage Country Club.
“My father loved Akron,” said Robert. “He lived in the same zip code his entire life except for the time he spent overseas during the war.
“He is the oldest living Beringer by far. He died days shy of his 93rd birthday.”
Beringer was laid to rest on Nov. 7 at Holy Cross Cemetery in Akron.
He’s survived by sons Robert and Daniel; siblings John, Kathleen Buehrle and Marjorie Dettling; grandchildren Karson, Chessie and Rona and many friends.
Beringer was preceded in death by his mother Kathryn Loftus Beringer; father Charles A. Beringer Sr.; his wife Rita McGinnis; siblings William, James and Jane Crawford and his son Charles III.