A Tribute to a Local Printer
by Bennett Holzworth, (1 comments)
William B. Vaughan, 1922-2005
The man that taught me letterpress died of a stroke last week. I’ve known him less than a year, but I will surely miss him. It is sad to see all of the knowledge that he had go away with him, but I am glad I learned what I could from him. He seemed happy to pass it on. Printers like Bill have seen and adapted to possible career ending changes time after time. His father printed a local newspaper and and at one point so did Bill. He saw all the changes from hand-set letterpress all the way to today’s digital technology. He lived through the depression and hardly ever threw anything of value away. I think that is why he still had all of his letterpress equipment. He didn’t do all that much letterpress anymore, but I’m sure he loved seeing the type trays and those beautiful old presses on a daily basis. He even had a working linotype machine. When I was talking to him about being a printer and the long hours and weekends he spent in the shop he replied, “I’ve never had a reason to complain.” He worked in the print shop until his death at 82. I don’t think he would have had it any other way.
When I would stop in to show Bill my newest letterpress work, he would ask me if I could read backwards and upside down yet. I still haven’t programmed that into my head. Beyond teaching some punk kid how to print, Bill was kind and generous. He would cut a stack of paper when I needed, or cast a line of type for me without expecting anything in return. He would talk about the good old days when printers helped each other out. They would loan each other ink or paper or whatever else they needed. They shared. He wasn’t happy to see newer and bigger printers who seemed to live in a vacuum. We as designers can learn a great deal from this. We should help out those with less experience and share our knowledge and resources with our closest competitors.
Bill was from an era where a printer had to be of Renaissance stock. He had to be able to spell, hyphenate correctly, do quick and accurate math and be able to problem solve on a daily basis. He would have to be an expert typesetter and a great salesmen. He was an integral part of his local community. To compare these local printers to Gutenberg or Franklin would not be a stretch. Every time we lose a printer like Bill, we lose a piece of history. BIll could regale tales of flying a C-47 in WWII, to countless entertaining everyday stories of a printer. One great story he shared was of a close friend who dropped a tabloid sized unlocked tray of type (a solid day of two of work) for the classified section for the Omaha B Newspaper. This friend of his left the pied type on the floor and never returned to that job.
If you have any desire to learn letterpress or learn some other “dying art”, don’t hesitate to search out those who made their living from it. Hopefully you will be able to find someone as interesting and friendly as Bill Vaughan. The experience Bill shared I could never gain from a history book. Don’t hesitate, opportunities like these won’t be around too much longer.
Old printers never die, they just lose their impression. Bill Vaughan
Comments (1)
TJ said:
Well written.
I never met this man, but I’ve met a few old salts like him in the northern Illinois and sourthern Wisconsin area, and have nothing but respect for them and the profession. These guys had to be so mental flexible to continue to adapt to the changing print technology of their day, it makes me feel guilty to gripe about simple OS upgrades.
Posted on March 9, 2005