Retired Col. Charles “Chuck” Conner, Jr., of the Ohio National Guard, who in civilian life was a longtime advertising services manager at The Blade, died Monday at Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center. He was 95.

The family did not report the cause of death.

Allan Block, CEO of Block Communications Inc., the parent company of The Blade and Buckeye Broadband, said Colonel Conner and his late wife, Charlotte Conner, “were wonderful people.”

“[They] were a Blade couple,” Mr. Block said. “He ran ad services, and [she] ran the phone room in the classified department. And they were each excellent. ... This was a golden couple of The Blade; Blade people at the best.”

Colonel Conner, a proud Toledo native, retired from The Blade on Jan. 1, 1992, after 45 years of service, most recently as manager of advertising services, the position to which he was promoted in 1973 from assistant classified manager. He was the highest-ranked National Guard officer to work at The Blade.

He retired from the Ohio National Guard in 1983 as commander of the 371st Corps Support Group after 36 years of military service, including 30 years as a commissioned officer. Mrs. Conner told The Blade in 1966 that her husband was “proud of being in the Guard.”

John Robinson Block, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Blade, said Colonel Conner was a dedicated Blade employee and a patriot.

“I admired my friend Chuck Conner,” Mr. Block said. “He was dedicated to his family, to defending the United States, to Toledo, and to The Blade. He maintained military fitness all his life, and he was a kind and natural leader.”

At the newspaper, Colonel Conner rose through the ranks from a clerk, the position to which he was hired in February, 1947, right out of high school. He specialized in automotive accounts in the classified advertising department and worked in the advertising services department as a senior clerk before he was named assistant classified manager in 1971.

Dave Georgia, a former co-worker who took over The Blade’s advertising services when Colonel Conner retired from the paper, said he enjoyed working with him.

“He was quite an individual,” Mr. Georgia said. “He had that military mindset, and he was very precise at what we did in advertising services, focusing our efforts on keeping the paper tight because of the printing costs. And he watched that like a hawk.”

In the military, Colonel Conner served in a variety of positions after he enlisted as a private in the National Guard in Toledo in 1947, including three years of active Army duty during the Korean War.

In 1950, he was discharged from the National Guard and the next year joined the U.S. Army, where he later graduated from an infantry officer training school at Fort Benning, Ga., and then trained soldiers for the Korean War until he was discharged in 1953 with the rank of first lieutenant.

He later received a Legion of Merit Medal from the Army for his work.

In 1954, he re-enlisted in the Guard to serve with the 37th Infantry Division in Bowling Green. Later that year, he was appointed commanding officer of the 136th Military Police Company and was promoted to captain in 1959.

In 1965, he was appointed assistant provost marshal of the 37th Infantry Division and was promoted to major in the Military Police Corps.

He was later promoted to lieutenant colonel in the state Guard’s military police in 1972 and was appointed provost marshal of the 37th Infantry Division.

In 1978, he became commander of the 371st Corps Support Group of the Ohio National Guard, the largest of three such groups in the state at the time, and later that year was promoted to full colonel.

At the time he retired in 1983 as commander of the support group, based in Kettering, Ohio, he oversaw 1,850 personnel in 19 units in 15 major Ohio cities.

If called to active duty, the group would have been responsible for the logistical support for an entire Army corps, providing all the vehicles, ammunition, maintenance, repairs, clothing, housing, food, fuel, and other supplies for some 100,000 troops.

Before assuming command of the support group, Mr. Conner led National Guard military police units and frequently was called for duty in directing activities throughout Ohio at the sites of tornadoes, floods, and blizzards, as well as other scenes of trouble, such as prison riots and civil disturbances.

Over the years, his command and specialized military training included courses such as Army schools on chemical warfare and on national defense, including against nuclear and biological weapons.

In 1991, Colonel Conner was inducted into the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame. He was also a Woodward High School Hall of Fame inductee.

Born Nov. 15, 1929, in Toledo to Charles and Dora Conner, he graduated from Woodward High in January, 1947, and a month later was hired by The Blade.

Later that year, he also joined the Ohio National Guard, influenced by some of his co-workers.

By November, 1951, he rose to the rank of technical sergeant (a position now called sergeant first class). The following March, he was drafted into the Army, from which he was released in October, 1953, before rejoining the National Guard in 1954.

In 1962, he married the former Charlotte Izaguierre, a 1951 Sylvania Burnham High School graduate, who at the time was a Blade employee in the advertisement department responsible for ads that came in. They raised four children together. She died in 2011 at age 78.

In his free time, Colonel Conner liked to be with family and friends. He also liked to eat out, particularly at Rudy’s Hot Dog restaurants.

He also enjoyed boating, restoring classic cars, and traveling with his wife throughout the world to places like the Far East, the Mediterranean, Europe, and South America. 

Family members said “his most prized possessions” were a 1953 Packard Caribbean convertible, which took him five years to restore, and a 1955 17-foot Chris-Craft ski boat.

The Conners also liked to winter at their condo in Satellite Beach, Fla.

Colonel Conner was a longtime member of the Washington Township Board of Zoning Appeals.

He was also a member of Ohio National Guard Association, the American Legion, and Retired Military Officers Association.

His other memberships included the Old Newsboys Goodfellows Association, River View Yacht Club, Veteran Motor Car Club of America, and the Raggedies, the surviving members of a group of scruffy boys and young men who were raised in the north end of town in the early 20th century.

Surviving are his daughters, Deidre Conner and Wendy Conner; sons, Greg Conner and Jeffrey Conner; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Walker Funeral Home, Sylvania Township.

Funeral services will begin at 11 a.m. Monday at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church.

The family suggests tributes to the church.

First Published January 26, 2025, 5:00 a.m.