George N. Gill, BA’57, LHD’94, former publisher of the (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal, died April 10, 2010, in Louisville. Gill, 75, led the newspaper during its sale by the longtime owners, the Bingham family, to Gannett Newspapers.

Gill started at the paper in 1960 as a copy editor. He worked as a reporter and city editor, and was managing editor from 1966 to 1974. He then moved to the business side of the paper and became general manager and eventually president of all Bingham newspapers. When Bingham sold to Gannett in 1986, Gill was named publisher and president of the Courier-Journal. He retired in 1993.

As chair of Greater Louisville Economic Development Partnership, Gill was credited with bringing together business and government to improve the local economy. He was chairman of the board for the American Printing House for the Blind, president of the Louisville Rotary Club and campaign chairman for the United Way in Louisville. In addition to his honorary doctorate from IU, he received an honorary doctorate from Spalding University and was a member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.

Gill and his wife, Kay (Baldwin) Gill, BA’57, met at IU, where both studied journalism as winners of Ernie Pyle Scholarships and both served as editors of the Indiana Daily Student. In 2008, they donated Gill’s papers from the Courier-Journal to the School of Journalism. The papers are kept in the Lilly Library. In 1984 Gill received the Indiana University Distinguished Alumni Service Award, the university’s highest alumni honor.