Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 13

Former president of Dardanell Publications (Gateway Newspapers) dies at 79

By Torsten Ove
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

James Stanton Steele, a newspaper advertising salesman who rose to president of Dardanell Publications -- now Gateway Newspapers (Monroeville) -- and later ran his own promotional distribution company, died July 9, 2007, of complications from Alzheimer's disease.

He was 79 and lived in Monroeville with his wife, Evelyn, before entering hospice care at The Cedars of Monroeville.

Mr. Steele was a well-known figure in regional printing and publication circles. His career spanned stints in sales at three Pittsburgh dailies in the 1950s, the top position at Dardanell for nearly 20 years and ownership of Stanton Station Ltd., where his client was the H. J. Heinz Co.

"He was just such a professional person," said his friend, Gus Bondi, 70, of Murrysville, who worked with Mr. Steele at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and then joined him at Dardanell in the 1960s, where he became general manager of Gateway Printing, the printing side of the company.

"I feel so privileged to have met and worked with an individual of his character. He was a giving person. He always had concerns for the people that worked for him in their times of grief or need. He was very conscious of not just taking, but giving."

Since his retirement in the mid-1990s, he was active in the Presbyterian church and enjoyed playing golf at his winter home in Stuart, Fla.

Born in West Virginia, Mr. Steele was raised under strict Christian principles in Whitehall during the depression and graduated from Baldwin High School.

He studied business at the University of Pittsburgh while working at U.S. Steel, but he never earned a degree. A heart murmur kept him out of the Korean War and he went to work, first at U.S. Steel's Union Supply Division and then as an ad salesman and promoter at the former Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, the former Pittsburgh Press and the Post-Gazette.

He and his wife, whom he had met at a dance hall in Brentwood during their high school years, lived in Whitehall while he worked for the newspapers.

The couple raised two children, Curtis and Christine. Curtis, who had moved to California, died of cancer in 1992 at age 33. Christine, 45, lives in Moon with her husband and daughter.

The Steele family moved to Monroeville in the early 1960s, when he took the president's job at Dardanell. He spent nearly two decades there until the company was sold to a British media firm.

He moved on to the presidency of Advo Systems in the 1980s and then created his own firm, Stanton Station, which distributed promotional items for Heinz.

He sold his company in the early 1990s, although he kept working until his retirement. After that, he and his wife spent much of their time in Florida.

Mrs. Steele, a volunteer for Aglow International, a Christian women's ministry, said her husband was a philanthropic man who tried to help people in the Christian tradition.

"Employees came to him," she said. "Every place he worked, employees were like family to him. He was a very light-hearted person who was very much fun to be with."

Mr. Steele was involved in several professional organizations over the years, including the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association and Toastmasters International, a public speaking group.

An elder at three Presbyterian churches, he also devoted a lot of his time to faith-based organizations including Youth Guidance Inc., Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International and the International Christian Embassy to Jerusalem.

Mr. Steele was buried July 12 in Allegheny Memorial Park.

A service was held Saturday, July 14 at 4 p.m. at The Monroeville Assembly of God Church, 4561 Old William Penn Highway.

Contributions may be made to Aglow International, P.O. Box 1749, Edmonds, WA 98020 or Functional Literacy Ministry of Haiti, 1064 Premier St., Pittsburgh 15201.

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