Obituary: Charles Kershner

His last post with Reuters was as Midwest bureau chief based in Chicago, but most of his years with Reuters were in New York.

Early in his career Kershner spent five years with UPI. He then joined Dartmouth College where, among other things, he promoted the first educational computer network used by a dozen colleges in the northeast United States.

Kershner’s computer experience was sought out by Reuters and in 1973 he joined the company in New York, where he helped to install the first video-editing computer system for the editorial department in New York and bureaus in Chicago, Washington, and Los Angeles.

As Reuters North American production manager, Kershner also organised  coverage for international events, including meetings of economic summits, International Monetary Fund/World Bank conferences; US presidential conventions, campaigns and elections; and summer and winter Olympic games in Montreal, Lake Placid, and Los Angeles.

From 1980 to 1984 Kershner managed the design, manufacture, and installation in Hong Kong and the United States of System/55, the largest editorial computer system at the time. It was still in use at the time of his death. The system was eventually installed in London, based on his design and functionality.

After leaving Reuters in 1992, Kershner realised a childhood dream when he and his wife Cynthia bought the Clinton Courier, an historic upstate New York weekly newspaper first published in 1846, and turned it into an award-winning publication. Kershner became its president and executive editor, his wife publisher.

The paper was a consistent winner in a range of categories in the New York Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest, and Kershner was recognised for his editorial and photographic work. He also won awards from the National Newspaper Association for his commentary. ■