One Powell, WY native not only left his mark on the Wyoming newspaper industry, but also the University of Wyoming.
Davis Bonner reads through one of the last issues of the Branding Iron while he was an editor for the newspaper. Photo: David Demic
At the age of 15, Dave Bonner started working as a sportswriter at the Powell Tribune, a local Powell newspaper. By the time he was a high school senior, Dave Bonner was a member of the “10,000 Inches Club,” an honor reserved for those who had written more than 10,000 inches of news articles.
In 1963, the recent UW graduate became the publisher and part-owner of the Powell Tribune. He invested 1.5 percent into the newspaper, which cost him $1,500, and then bought the paper outright in 1964, he said.
This month, Dave Bonner’s grandson and current Branding Iron Features Editor Davis Bonner, will be the most recent UW graduate of the Bonner family, continuing a family legacy of both being UW graduates and editors at the Branding Iron newspaper.
Dave Bonner attended UW from 1958 until 1962 and worked on the Branding Iron staff the entire time. He started working at the Branding Iron because journalism students used to be required to take a freshman course, which required writing weekly articles for the newspaper, he said.
The editor during Dave Bonner’s freshman year would put up assignments on a bulletin board and then publicly critique the students’ articles. Dave Bonner said the critiques were “caustic” and “object of horror” for students.
After becoming the sports editor for a couple years, Dave Bonner entered the position of editor-in-chief during the university’s 75th anniversary.
The controversial issues during his time may seem familiar to current students, including parking issues and battling student senate over allowing federal aid for students, he said. At the time, Dave Bonner was against providing federal aid to students, feeling that it would give the government more power in the university, he said.
About 25 years later, Dave Bonner’s son, Brad Bonner, followed in his father’s footsteps and became the sports editor and then editor-in-chief.
Brad Bonner recalled that in the 1980s, writers had to handwrite their stories and then submit them for the task of laying the paper out by hand, at a time before the task had been computerized.
In order to cover one particularly rare UW football game, Brad Bonner got to travel to Australia. However, there was no way of quickly sending stories back to Wyoming, forcing him to write his stories and then wake up around 5 a.m. in Australia to dictate the stories over the phone to a BI staff member on campus, he said.
One year, Brad Bonner was sitting in the office, when the building started shaking and the windows rattling. He said it took him a minute to figure out what was happening, but then realized it was something quite rare for Wyoming, an earthquake.
After graduating, Brad Bonner worked for former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, before realizing he needed a higher income job and safer place for his wife and newborn son, Davis Bonner. So, he returned to UW to attend law school.
Dave Bonner echoed his son’s sentiment. “We are not a well-paid profession,” he said. But, he added, “We work hard for community, state and nation.”
Davis Bonner began working for the Branding Iron in 2010. Instead of taking the same route as his father and grandfather, Davis Bonner worked as the features editor for the newspaper.
Davis Bonner said working at the Branding Iron provided several opportunities to discover more about the Laramie community, the chance to interview UW President Tom Buchanan or find stories such as the one he wrote about a local eyeglass shop specializing in vintage frames.
Both Brad Bonner and his son agree that Dave Bonner is the most serious and professional journalist among the three generations.
Dave Bonner recently sold the Powell Tribune to his children, but remains the publisher for the paper.
As for the future of the newspaper business, Dave Bonner said that he “cannot conceive of the day that people don’t look forward to a newspaper on their doorstep.”
And perhaps 25 years from now a fourth-generation Bonner may be an editor for the BI.
