Longtime newspaperman Bill Cento, who climbed from a cub reporter to managing editor of the St. Paul Dispatch, died this week.
Cento gave more than six decades to journalism, dating back to his days as editor of his college newspaper at St. Louis University in Missouri, where he was born. He went on to work as a reporter, copy editor and editor of national and foreign news before assuming the role of managing editor at the St. Paul Dispatch.
He retired in 1990 as associate editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press after the morning paper’s merger with the evening Dispatch.
Cento, who lived in West St. Paul, died Tuesday at 86.
His friends and colleagues remembered him as a calm, “consummate professional” who treated his staff with steady kindness while always holding them to high expectations, as he did himself.
It was under his leadership that the Dispatch started daily themed feature sections, including a Saturday section that included a popular Pro/Con column by the paper’s beloved columnist, Don Boxmeyer, which detailed both sides of controversial issues, recalled Don Effenberger, a former metro editor for the Pioneer Press.
He also made room for a four-page spread that included expansive context and coverage of Susan Kimberly’s transition from a man to a woman while serving as a St. Paul City Council member in the early 1980s.
Effenberger, who was hired by Cento in the late 1970s, called Cento’s treatment of the story “groundbreaking” and among the most impressive decisions he made as managing editor.
“He was an amazing man. Very calm and low key but very effective,” Effenberger said.
In a 2001 column, Boxmeyer credited Cento with giving him his start as a columnist.
“I’ve always thought of him as one of the most complete, competent and most honorable newspaper editors I’ve ever known,” wrote Boxmeyer, who died in 2008.
Pioneer Press books editor Mary Ann Grossmann recalled that Boxmeyer also used to say Cento was “the kind of editor you’d jump off a cliff for.”
Grossmann agrees.
“He was the last sweet boss I had,” she said. “He was always loyal to his staff; whatever question you had, he was there for you. He was just an all around Christian … the kind of boss everybody cherishes.”
His Catholic faith was deeply important to him, Grossmann added, as was his wife, Vera, who died in 2006 after suffering from dementia.
The couple had no children, and Cento served as her caretaker throughout her illness. The “lifelong writer,” as his obituary states, wrote a book about her illness and death in a book titled “Alone: For All Those Who Grieve.”
It included a collection of poetry and essays.
Of the impact of her diagnosis, he wrote:
“We were married in May, the month of lilies and lilacs. …Our lives were forever spring — flowering, refreshing, fulfilling — until this 42nd May, when a slowly falling curtain of forgetfulness finally separated her from all our shared memories.”
Bob Zyskowski, a retired associate publisher of the Catholic Spirit who crossed paths with Cento when he served on the publication’s news and editorial committee, wrote of the book in a review posted on Amazon:
“It’s a frankness we don’t get from most men, which makes (it) valuable reading for those suffering a loss. But read it just for the beauty of the writing. Few have written about the love in a marriage like this.”
He referred to Cento as a “prize” when asked to share memories of him this week, heaping praise on the stewardship he offered the Catholic Spirit during his time there.
“He wouldn’t let us get away with anything. He was just a journalist heart and soul,” Zyskowski said. “He knew the business so well, knew what was right and demanded and challenged us to be better journalists.”
George Beran, a longtime reporter for the Dispatch and the Pioneer Press, echoed those sentiments.
“Bill was a very careful guy who knew what he wanted to accomplish,” Beran said. “He wasn’t going to get scooped by anybody or let anything develop ahead of him and he did his best to make sure that didn’t happen, and the paper was better for it.”
Funeral services will be held at noon Friday at the Church of St. Joseph in West St. Paul. Visitation at the church begins at 11 a.m. Interment will be at Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights.