9/17/2011:
Oliver Borlaug, who built a significant publishing empire in central North Dakota, began his newspaper career in Steele at the Kidder County News in 1939, moving to the Steele Ozone in 1941. After a stint in the Air Force in World War II, he found himself back in the newspaper profession, but this time in Valley City. He had not planned on a career in journalism, but the pressman’s ink must have flowed in his veins, for he soon joined the crew of the Daily News in Minot. But it was on this day in 1953 that the Steele Ozone announced that their former Printers Devil, meaning apprentice, had purchased an interest in the Washburn Leader, a position that would consume him for the next thirty-two years.
Dakota Datebook written by Jim Davis
Sources:
The Steele Ozone September 17, 1953
The Leader-News November 16, 1995
Who’s Who in North Dakota 1958