Wilfred Charles Bussing

1977

By R.S. Pritchard

Wilfred Charles Bussing was born in Evansville, Indiana on November 8, 1889, the son of Bernard J. and Alice (Doyle) Bussing. He attended public schools in Evansville and upon completion of his education became a salesman for the Evansville Press, where he’d begun his career in the newspaper business as a newspaper carrier in high school.

After a year or so he left Evansville for Terre Haute where he tried his luck for a brief period of time, before returning to Evansville in 1916.

From 1916 to 1918 he was the advertising manager for the Evansville Press. In 1918 until 1926 and again from 1934 to 1936 he was their business manager and in 1936 was selected as president of the paper. He is credited with establishing the Evansville Printing Corporation in 1939, thus bringing both Evansville newspapers into the same fold.

He, like most men identified with print and press, had tried his hand in other parts of the country and differing enterprises. He was an executive for stations in Indianapolis and Baltimore, Maryland during the early days of radio. He worked on the advertising staff of WKBF of Indianapolis, the predecessor of WIRE radio. He also was advertising director for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado from 1925 to 1929.

A dedicated civic leader, he was a trustee for the University of Evansville and St. Meinrad Seminary, chairman of the advertising board for the Little Sisters of the Poor and a leader in his church. In 1965 he was made a Knight of Malta by Cardinal Francis Spellman.

He was married (first) to Katherine Kittinger on January 25, 1915, who died in 1927 leaving two children. He married (second) on March 29, 1929, Lois MacCammon. W.C. Bussing died January 23, 1977.