Ex-World executive Gary Montague remembered for his contributions to the paper, community
I was saddened to read about the passing of Gary Montague, who worked for The Wenatchee World for 40 years and retired as its classified advertising manager in 1997.
Gary was a true gentleman who was deeply involved in the Allied Arts effort to promote and encourage the arts in the valley. After retiring from The World, he went on to serve as a Chelan County Public Utility District Commissioner.
Our records show that Gary started work at the newspaper on June 14, 1957 as a classified salesperson by then-manager Fagan Leonard. Montague went on to succeed Leonard as the manager of that department.
Gary was one of several leader at the newspaper who were active in civic affairs, something that my father Wilfred felt was an important part of the business.
I recall that Gary always had a huge stack of papers on his desk. He was meticulously organized and when asked to produce a particular document, he could immediately find it in the stack. We had our fair share of practical jokers at The World and I remember that once in a while on payday, somebody (probably controller Jack Watkins) would slip Gary’s paycheck somewhere in the middle of the pile of papers and make him hunt for it.
He was one of the characters who made it fun to work at the newspapers.
