KURT GUSTAV JOSEPH FRANCK

Kurt Franck, vice president of newspaper operations for Block Communications Inc., owners of the Blade of Toledo and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, died March 15, at Hospice of Northwest Ohio in Perrysburg. He was 67.

Mr. Franck joined the Blade as managing editor in 2000. In 2009, he was promoted to executive editor, then general manager, and ultimately became president/ general manager. In 2018, he assumed the title of vice president of newspaper operations for Block Communications Inc.

He was born in Newark, Ohio. He attended the Kiski School in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, then went to Bethany College in Bethany, West Virginia, where he majored in communications and was a competitive swimmer.

Kurt worked for United Press International in Columbus, Atlanta, Birmingham, Orlando and Miami. He covered numerous launches at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and became UPI’s Florida editor and its Miami bureau chief. He worked for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale for 17 years, most recently as deputy managing editor/executive news editor before moving back to Ohio with his family in 2000.

He was one of the several key editors who oversaw the Tiger Force series that led to the Blade’s first and only Pulitzer Prize in 2004, then served as a judge for the Pulitzer Prize for the award’s investigative and local news categories.

Outside of work, Mr. Franck enjoyed spending time with his family and friends, watching the Ohio State Buckeyes and Toledo Walleye hockey. He is survived by his wife, Lynn, and their children, Kurt and Sophia.

Plans are being made for a Celebration of Life at a later date.