Monday, 16 May 2005
Glenn Jay Sedam Sr., former publisher of the Bay City Daily Tribune and president of Texas Press Association in 1974-75, died May 2, 2005, at Matagorda General Hospital.
Sedam was born on Aug. 19, 1916, in Monongahela, Pa. He began his newspaper career in 1936 in the advertising department of his hometown paper, the Monongahela Daily Republican. Subsequent promotions led him to work for the McKeesport (Pa.) Daily News, Pittsburgh (Pa.) Press, Wilmington (N.C.) Post, Clarksburg (W.Va.) Exponent and Telegram, and Gadsden (Ala.) Times before becoming vice president of Southern Newspapers Inc.
On March 26, 1958, Sedam and Southern Newspapers purchased The Daily Tribune. Sedam’s first edition as publisher was May 1, 1958. He retired on Dec. 1, 1981.
Sedam was a graduate of Duquesne (Pa.) University’s School of Advertising and Journalism. He also served as president of Texas Gulf Coast Press Association.
Area promotion and community service were hallmarks of his tenure as publisher in Bay City. Special editions promoting business, industry and civic functions featured the Boy Scouts, Typical Brides, Rice Festival, Little League, Fat Stock Show and Future Farmers of America.
In January 1963 he introduced the annual Chamber of Commerce Progress edition. The Tribune also editorially promoted city and county projects, including the new courthouse.
The Daily Tribune won numerous awards while under Sedam’s leadership, the most notable was TPA’s general excellence award in June 1968 for outstanding daily newspaper under 25,000.
Sedam was a lifetime member of TPA and affiliated with other state and national newspaper organizations.
Sedam was an active church and community leader. He was an elder and chairman of the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Bay City and served in district, state and international offices of the church organization. He was international president of the Christian Men’s Fellowship when he moved to Bay City in 1958 and was pastor of Charles Street Christian Church in Shinston, W.Va., for eight years.
In Bay City, he was president of United Way for two years, chairman of the Salvation Army for five years, president of the Matagorda Council for Retarded Citizens for two years, chairman of the Parks and Recreation Board for five years, and president of the Matagorda County Community Concert Association for 10 years.
Sedam was a past member of the Bay City Chamber of Commerce board of directors and served on both the Bay City Home Rule Charter Commission and the Industrial Foundation Board.
He was a board member of the local Red Cross and Little League and served as a member of Texas Christian University’s and of University of Texas School of Communication’s advisory boards.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 48 years, Dorothy Gillingham Sedam; his wife of 17 years, Nora Lee Cox Sedam; his eldest son Glenn Jay Sedam Jr.; his parents, Ica Dora and Earl Jay Sedam; and siblings, Erma Jane Sedam McCully, Dorothy Sedam Comin, and James Earl Sedam.
He is survived by his daughters, Linda Sedam McCulloch of Williamsport, Pa., and Dr. Cynthia Sedam of Fort Worth; his son Tommy Sedam Sr. and wife Jodie of Brownwood; and daughter-in-law Charlotte Sedam of Warrenton, Va.; nine grandchildren; four great grandchildren; and many stepchildren, step-grandchildren and step-great grandchildren.