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Robert C. Bassett
Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy
Lawyer and publisher Robert C. Bassett died of Alzheimer's disease on May 2, 2000 in Las Vegas. He was 89.
Bassett, who was born in Sturgeon Bay on March 2, 1911, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, practiced law with Minahan and Bassett in Green Bay from 1935 until entering the United States Navy in 1942.
He was publisher of the Milwaukee Sentinel from 1954-1956 and was a vice-president of Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company before moving to Chicago, where he established his own publishing firm. Bassett Publishing Company printed Chicagoland, a monthly events-listing magazine, and programs for the Chicago Bulls, the Chicago Symphony and Big 10 football teams.
Bassett was a labor negotiator, and two United States Presidents - Democrat Harry Truman and Republican Richard Nixon - appointed him to national boards.
He was the son of Clark and Lillian Bassett. His father founded a drugstore in Green Bay six months after Robert was born.
The younger Bassett was a member of a UW Big Ten championship track team and the university's national championship debating team. He was junior class president and on the editorial board of the Daily Cardinal, the campus newspaper. He received his law degree from Harvard University in 1935. He spent part of World War II in Washington, D.C., where he was head of the Navy labor relations division.
After the war, he became counsel for the Hearst newspaper organization, which then owned the Sentinel, and he became publisher of the Milwaukee daily paper eight years later. In 1956 Schlitz hired him as vice president in charge of labor relations and community activities. Five years later, he left for a publishing job in Chicago and founded his own firm there in 1965. A daughter said he closed the company ten to fifteen years ago.
In 1952 Truman named him to the National Wage Stabilization Board, and in 1971 Nixon appointed him to the national Pay Board. In 1953 he was the United States employer delegate to the International Labor Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
Bassett was on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents from 1958 until he moved to Chicago. He also was a past director of the United States Chamber of Commerce and on the board of the National Small Business Association.
His wife, Mary, died in 1998. He is survived by three daughters, Jane Quinn of Orlando, Florida; Pamela Welter of Las Vegas; and Karen Freeman of Westport, Connecticut.
Burial will be at Arlingtion National Cemetery in June.
The New York Times, New York
June 4, 2000
Robert C. Bassett, 89, Lawyer and Publisher
Robert C. Bassett, a former lawyer, labor negotiator and publisher who represented small-business interests on the councils of two presidential administrations, died on May 2 in Las Vegas, where he lived. He was 89. Mr. Bassett was born in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, on March 2, 1911. He earned a law degree from Harvard and was a founding partner at Minahan and Bassett in Green Bay, Wisconsin. After serving in the Navy as a lieutenant commander in World War II, he moved to Chicago, where he became labor counsel for the Hearst Corporation. In 1954, he became publisher of The Milwaukee Sentinel. Nine years later, he founded the Bassett Publishing Company. Mr. Bassett served on the wage stabilization board in the Truman administration and represented small-business interests on the pay board of the Nixon administration from 1971 to 1973. His third wife, the former Mary Holmes, died two years ago after 51 years of marriage. Mr. Bassett is survived by three daughters, Jane Quinn of Orlando, Florida; Pamela Welter of Las Vegas and Karen Freeman of Westport, Connecticut; seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Green Bay Press-Gazette, Wisconsin
May 5, 2000
Robert C. Bassett
Robert C. Bassett, 89, died on May 2, 2000 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mr. Bassett was a lawyer, labor negotiator, and publisher who lived for many years in Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Born in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, in 1911, Bassett graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1932 and earned a J.D. from Harvard University in 1935. He was admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1935 and the Supreme Court bar in 1942, and was a partner in the firm of Minaham and Bassett in Green Bay, Wisconsin, 1935 to 1946. Bassett served in the Navy during World War II as a Lieutenant Commander, working with the Shipbuilding Commission and the National War Labor Board, stationed in Washington, D.C. In 1946, he became labor counsel for the Hearst Corporation. From 1954 to 1956, he served as publisher of the Milwaukee Sentinel. Except for two years as Vice President of Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company in Milwaukee, Bassett continued in the field of publishing for the remainder of his career. He was the founder in 1965, of Bassett Publishing Company in Chicago, Illinois which produced various publications, such as Chicagoland magazine and programs for the Chicago Bulls, the Chicago Symphony, and the Big 10 football conference. Bassett served as a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin from 1958 to 1961. Additionally, from 1971 to 1973, Bassett served on President Nixon's Pay Board, as a representative of small business. He also served on the board of directors of the National Small Business Association from 1968 to 1973. Mr. Bassett was predeceased by his wife, Mary Holmes Bassett and is survived by three daughters, Jane Quinn, Orlando, Florida; Pamela Welter, Las Vegas, Nevada; and Karen Freeman, Westport, Connecticut. He is also survived by seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Interment will be at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
1920 Federal Census of Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin (7/8 Jan 1920)
Clark Bassett - 38 - M - IA-OH-OH - Head - Retail Merchant - Druggist
Lilly - 36 - F - WI-GM-GM - Wife
Robert - 8 - M - WI-IA-WI - Son
Betty - 6 - F - WI-IA-WI - Daughter
Business Man of the Week
Paper unknown
Clark Bassett
(Picture included)
Clark Bassett, the owner and operator of the Bassett Drug Store in Sturgeon Bay, has been in the drug business for 50 years. Mr. Bassett began his career in the state of Minnesota in 1898. In those days, a druggist had .... and Clark began in Minnesota and rounded out his five years in Sturgeon Bay, being in the employ of H.A. Stiles, in the building now occupied by the Miller Clothing store.
In the year 1903, Mr. Bassett returned to the University of Minnesota, where he completed his studies.
After his graduation, Mr. Bassett opened a drug store in the Waldo Hotel annex and continued on there until 1917. In 1917, the present site of the Bassett Drug store was enacted and his business was transferred to this bulding, which is modern, well equipped, and efficiently staffed. Mr. Bassett has built up a business for himself, second to none in this locality, and his efficiency, his business integrity, and trustworthiness have continued over his many years here, insuring everyone of excellent care, fully executed and reliable service.
When Mr. Bassett first came to Sturgeon Bay, we remember his baseball career, when he played with Mitch LaPlant, Billy Dago, and Arnold Wagener, Billy Arie, Joe Ferris, Jimmy Splashney, Ed Hogan and the other boys of that era. By his pleasant personality and love of sports and fair play, he endeared himself to the general public.
He belonged to the Twenty Club back in the days when baskets were delivered to the poor in the city, back in the days when people were helped by this wonderful organization to get on their feet, when given a helping hand and none knew where it came from.
Mr. Bassett has always been interested in Sturgeon Bay community affairs, and in the welfare of this community and of the entire county. While he may not have been at the head of these moves, he was always behind them heart and soul.
Mrs. Bassett, formerly Lillian Cochem, of this city, has labored at his side throughout the years of their wedded life and contributed in no small measure to his success and that of their fine family. The Bassetts' oldest child, Robert, is very successful in his brilliant career and at the present time is "Labor Relations Counsel" for the Hearst Publications over their entire holdings in the United States.
Two fine daughters, Mary and Betty, share in the honors due to this fine family. They are both married, Mary residing in Honolulu and Betty at Milwaukee.
Mr. Bassett is a Rotarian and is active in its circles. He finds it advisable to curtail his activities somewhat these last few years, but is active in his flourishing business, in church and home life and has the interest of the community at heart, as always.
Over his entire career in Door County, nothing but good has ever been said of Mr. Bassett and his fine family. He is a citizen Sturgeon Bay is proud of and everyone hopes that his career may continue over many more years.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1911 - 2000 (89 years)