Gerald Michael “Jerry” Reed, 81, former owner and publisher of the Hermiston Herald, died Friday morning in Hermiston.

Reed, who bought a minority ownership stake in the paper in 1969, became the sole owner in 1974, building the Herald’s staff, coverage and page count and garnering multiple awards, until selling the paper to Western Communication Inc. of Bend in 1992.

He was a past president of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association and American Newspaper Representatives and was one of the charter members of the Hermiston Development Corporation, which attracted employers and jobs to Hermiston throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Around 1978 Reed brought the Hermiston Herald into a merger with Dick Nafsinger of the Hood River News and Denny Smith of the BlueMountain Eagle Newspaper Company, forming Eagle Newspapers Inc. Reed served as vice president of Eagle Newspapers for a time, and when he sold his interest in the company in 1984 it owned 18 newspapers across the Pacific Northwest.

Smith, a former U.S. congressman, said he considered Reed a friend and enjoyed their time working together.

“He was a good person,” Smith said. “He always worked real hard in whatever community he was in.”

He said Reed had a reputation as a good storyteller and “definitely had a lot of friends in the newspaper industry.”

Reed was an influential figure in Hermiston during significant years of growth. Roe Gardner, former owner of RoeMark’s Men’s and Western Wear, said that during Reed’s years with the Hermiston Herald there was “not much that happened in Hermiston that he didn’t know about.”

“He was one of those guys who wasn’t afraid to go to the city council and ask questions,” Gardner said. “He might have stirred the pot, but he cared very much about Hermiston.”

Gardner said Reed, who was very involved in the advertising side of the paper, gained the trust and respect of many local business owners who chose to advertise in the Herald.

“You couldn’t say no to him, because he knew what he was doing,” Gardner said.

Bill Bighaus, a former sports editor who came to the Hermiston Herald as a reporter in 1976 at the age of 22, called Reed a “towering figure” who was at first quite intimidating to a young reporter.

“You know you have those most unforgettable characters in your life, and Jerry Reed was mine,” Bighaus said.

Once he got over being intimidated, however, Bighaus said he quite enjoyed his years working with Reed and getting to know his family, who all played roles in the Herald at various times (his daughter Shannon Paxton is the office coordinator there currently).

He said he believed the Herald grew so much under Reed in part because Reed saw it as the “scrapbook of Hermiston.” He emphasized community reporting, with no Little League game too small to give parents a photo to cut out of the newspaper and hang on the refrigerator. But his penchant for getting out on the streets and talking to everyone also brought in bigger scoops as well.

“The Herald was really relevant back in those days,” Bighaus said. “We broke a lot of news and Jerry’s guidance had a lot to do with that.”

Reed was born June 15, 1935, in Portland, Oregon. He began his newspaper career in Camas, Washington, and married advertising manager Dolores Thompson Bartlett during his time there. After her death, he later married Penny Harris and is survived by her along with five children and seven grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held on Friday, Nov. 11, at 1 p.m. at Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church, 565 W. Hermiston Ave., in Hermiston.