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Tampa Bay Times, Florida, 1 January 2000
Albert S. Bass Jr.
Albert S. "Al" Bass Jr., a retired Times production manager, died Friday (Dec. 31, 1999) at home under hospice care. He was 73.
Mr. Bass had battled leukemia for the past six years and was recently in remission, according to his daughter, Nancy Bedy.
He retired in 1981 after 35 years with the Times, the last six as downtown production manager.
Mr. Bass was born in Columbia, Pa. He moved to Florida and graduated from Winter Haven High School. During World War II, he served in the Army as a demolitions specialist in the 11th Airborne Division.
He returned to Florida as a machinist, then opted for a career change. While carrying a Times delivery route in St. Petersburg, he applied for a job as a copy boy at the newspaper. He was hired _ as a sports writer.
Soon he moved to the city desk, became night city editor a couple of nights each week and was promoted to makeup editor, the news department representative in the composing room.
Two months later, when he had been on the staff four years, he was offered the job of composing foreman. He took it.
In the foreman's post, he helped the Times move from the use of Linotype machines and hot lead to paste-up artists and "cold type" produced on paper.
A longtime family friend and former co-worker, John Parker, described Mr. Bass as "a man of very fine character, a great supervisor and a great friend, just a wonderful human being who was always upbeat and had a good attitude."
In his spare time, Mr. Bass kept a garden and grew orchids. He was an avid hunter and fisherman and enjoyed underwater spear fishing.
Being on the water, he once said, proved restful during the days of hot type in the composing room.
"The noise can't be likened to anything else," he said in 1979. "Nearing deadlines, the tempo of activity increased, and so did the cacophony. Saws, material makers, linecasters, proof presses and miter saws made so much noise we had to shout to be heard over them.
"The noise, the shouting, the smell of ink and of oil burning in the machines gave it a very frenetic pace."
The advent of news photo composition _ cold type _ brought quiet to the composing room, he said, although the new system produced pages faster.
Mr. Bass was married in 1948 to the former Joan "Jo" Weil of St. Petersburg.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by three daughters, Becker Courtot and Peri Raveling, both of Tarpon Springs, and Nancy Bedy, Seminole; a son, Spencer, Seminole; and six grandchildren.
The family suggests donations be made to Hospice of the Florida Suncoast or the Leukemia Society.
A wake service will be held at 2 p.m. Jan. 8 at the home of Mrs. Albert S. Bass Jr., 3864 Sunrise Lane, Tarpon Springs.
_ Information from Times files was used in the obituary.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1926 - 1999 (73 years)