Brookville native and long-time co-owner of Whitewater Publications,  Art Feller, passed away peacefully at 97 on Wednesday, June 7. His passion for life, his love for his family and community, and his tenure at Whitewater Publications made Art a beloved and well-known member of the community. Art's son Jay portrayed that sentiment when he spoke of his father.

"My dad’s strongest influence on me was his love of family," Jay said. "He never missed any activity I ever participated in with sports and band. He taught me my work ethic that has allowed me to outperform my peers throughout my career which allowed me to be very successful in the business world. Dad always said to never take the easy way out. Outwork everyone you go up against. I remembered that my whole life."

Beyond his career at the newspaper, as mentioned above, Art was well-known for his involvement in the community. No matter what position or title Art held, it was the little things he was doing behind the scenes that made such a huge impact. For example, he served as a Franklin County Township Trustee for several years. During this time, he coordinated the cleaning of all the outlying county cemeteries. He received a 50-year member plaque from the American Legion in Brookville. He initiated the installation of the basketball court at Cliff and Tenth Street in Brookville to simply give the kids a chance to learn basketball.

Art modeled the work ethic he wanted for his children in all he did, including his career at Whitewater Publications. He began his career at the newspaper as a linotype operator, and in 1975, he went on to become a co-owner of the newspaper. His family shared, "his great sense of humor and 'never met a stranger' personality was perfect for his occupation."

When Whitewater Publications took on the management and publishing of the Liberty Herald, Art took the lead until his retirement. Although Art retired from the newspaper before I became a part of it, I knew who he was because his impact here remains. I rarely remember a time I discussed the newspaper's history, and Art's name didn't come up. Even some of Art's children can share memories of their dad at the newspaper as many of them were employed there throughout the years. Several of our current employees had the privilege of working with Art and shared their laughter and camaraderie with Art.

Current Whitewater Publications Co-owner Brian Noah met Art when he was 14 and reminisced about his time with Art.

“Art "Boogie" Feller, was one of the four faces on the Mt. Rushmore of local media in the Whitewater Valley. Along with Gary "General" Wolf, Howard "Prez" Johnson and Don "Scoop" Sintz," they were Whitewater Publications. Did everyone have a nickname prior to 1980?

When I first met Art, I had heard a lot about him. Basketball coach, baseball coach and a guy that took care of two Union County newspapers. I was impressed. Doubt very seriously if that was reciprocated initially. Art, walking into a business that he owned only to find out his next roll of film was going to beprocessed by a 14yr-old. The fate of that week's Liberty Herald and the four events that roll of film contained was riding on me not screwing things up. I still remember the look on his face and his fun nervous laugh when he asked me if I knew what I was doing. Then I think it hit him, how busy he was, and that he didn't have time to worry about it and he left just as quickly as he came. That roll of film turned out well and the paper was out on time, but that doesn't mean I didn't mess up down the road. Art always took more photos than anyone else there and instead of printing contact sheets(little proofs of every negative frame) he wanted all frames printed at a 4 x 5 size. He said he couldn't see the small contact sheets and it was hard to identify all of the people in the photos. He came back the next day and all were printed and ready for him. He put them in his briefcase(brain bag) and out the door he went. After about six months I was feeling pretty confident and thought I would start saving the company money. Because this added a large amount of hours to my time to print each frame and the amount of excess paper being used, I decided to give him contact sheets and a magnifying glass instead. I'm probably lucky I was a kid or that might have been my last week at the PUB. That following week I switched back to the way Art wanted things done and all was well after that. I tell you this story because I found out years later the real reason why Art had me print these out full size. He loved the community and the people in it. Those photos were given out to the people they were meaningful to as he made his rounds each week.

Fast forward 30+ years later when we purchased Whitewater Publications and all its entities in 2019. This included a couple other buildings, one being the old Popper’s Clothing Building. Now home to The Daily Scoop(named in honor of Don Sintz), the build-out of The Daily Scoop was extensive and we were in the basement many times where we found Art's brain bag along with other memories which are now displayed in our newsroom at the PUB. Then it came time to put finishing touches on TDS and make it pretty and feel like home for everyone in the community who entered. My wife who didn't grow up here or know more than a handful of people in town grabbed a box of old photos from our archives and randomly picked out 12 photos to be made into canvas prints to hang in TDS. After they were printed, I looked through them and one caught my eye. An old White Sox Baseball Team photo. In the back row stood Art proudly as the coach. Of all the thousands of photos that could have been selected, what are the odds that Art would find his way to continue hanging out here on earth with Scoop in these buildings? Now they reunite and talk about the old days for eternity."