SALEM, Ohio –Wayne Thomas Darling, who lived nearly his entire life with the ink of Farm and Dairy running through his veins, died suddenly at his Florida home Jan. 8, 2005.
At the time of his death, he was chairman of Lyle Printing & Publishing, the publisher and parent company of Farm and Dairy newspaper,
Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 15, at the First Presbyterian Church in Salem.
Mr. Darling was born Sept. 7, 1932, in Wooster, Ohio, the son of James Thomas and Laura (Glenn) Darling. He was a resident of Salem, Ohio, since 1939.
Prior to his retirement in 1997, Mr. Darling was president and CEO of the publishing company and was publisher of Farm and Dairy.
Air Force journalist
A 1950 graduate of Salem High School, he sold advertising for Farm and Dairy for nearly two years before entering the U.S. Air Force. During his four-year service, he was stationed in Germany and France. In the Air Force, Mr. Darling was a historian and public relations officer. At Orly Field outside of Paris, his job was to edit and publish the base newspaper.
Farm and Dairy
Following his Air Force service, Mr. Darling rejoined Farm and Dairy. He became president of Lyle Printing in 1957 at age 25 and after his father’s sudden death in 1958, Mr. Darling became publisher.
During his tenure, Farm and Dairy grew in both size and circulation. Paid subscriptions have grown from about 6,500 to more than 33,000 and the paper grew from an average of 50 pages to 140 pages each week.
Mr. Darling also directed technology changes at the newspaper, including expanded offset presses and the composition conversion from the older Linotype and Varityper typesetting methods into a computerized composition department and modern press facility.
Community involvement
An active community member, Mr. Darling is a past board chairman of the Better Business Bureau of Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties, and past president of the Salem Shade Tree Commission.
A board member of the Salem Community Foundation, he was also a member of the Salem Golf Club, Salem Rotary Club, the Salem Elks Lodge #305, and the Independent Hose Company.
Mr. Darling was a member of the National Newspaper Association and the Inland Press Association. In 1991, he received the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation’s Agricultural Communicator Award.
Additionally, he was in the International Men’s Club of Naples (Fla.), the Naples Press Club and the Classic Car Club of Naples.
Car enthusiast
An avid antique car collector, Mr. Darling was a member of the Northern Ohio Chapter of the Classic Car Club of America and the Naples-Marco Island Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America. His 1922 Cadillac was “driven” by the actor portraying Babe Ruth in the made-for-television movie, The Babe Ruth Story, which aired in 1991. Wayne and his wife, Sally, often participated with their old cars in road tours hosted by one of their car clubs.
Wayne is well known for his love of history and, in his travels around the country, he would often unexpectedly stop to read a roadside historical marker.
He is survived by his wife, Sally (Miskimins) Darling, whom he married Jan. 19, 1960; and two sons, Thomas Wayne Darling and Scot Miskimins Darling, both of Salem.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions be sent to the Salem Community Foundation, 713 E. State St., Salem, OH 44460; or the Salem Alumni Association, 328 E. State St., Salem, OH 44460.
