{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.ricketts.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ricketts-honors-the-life-and-legacy-of-john-gottschalk/", "Ricketts Honors the Life and Legacy of John Gottschalk", "2024-12-17", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "Senate", "NE", "Pete Ricketts", "R000618", "www.ricketts.senate.gov", "ricketts", "https://www.ricketts.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/?jsf=jet-engine:press-list&pagenum=", "scraper", "December 17, 2024\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) spoke on the Senate floor to honor the life and legacy of John Gottschalk, the former chairman and CEO of the Omaha-World Herald, who passed away last month.\n\n\u201cJohn and his wife, Carmen, were extraordinary people,\u201d Ricketts said. \u201cJohn led the Omaha World-Herald into the digital age and also spearheaded a number of the efforts to increase the technology. And it spread throughout the state of Nebraska, different communities. He made the Omaha World-Herald a standard for how a newspaper should be run. He himself was known for his integrity and his courage. He was never shy about being direct with a budding politician, to let that politician know when he believed that politician might have erred. And he was one of those people that cared about the community.\u201d\n\nTRANSCRIPT:\n\nSenator Ricketts: \u201cMr. President, I rise today to honor a great Nebraskan and a great American\u2014John Edmund Gottschalk.\n\n\u201cJohn Gottschalk was born in Omaha in 1943, and grew up in a small town in Nebraska called Rushville.\n\n\u201cHe was a Boy Scout, and he went on to attend the University of Nebraska, majoring in political science and journalism.\n\n\u201cHis father started the Sheridan County Star, and John worked there as well, getting his break into journalism and the newspaper business.\n\n\u201cIn 1972, John bought the Sidney Telegraph in Sidney, Nebraska, and became mayor of the town of Sidney.\n\n\u201cAnd then in 1975, he joined the Omaha World-Herald as an assistant to the president.\n\n\u201cHe eventually worked his way up to become the publisher and CEO in 1989, and he remained that until 2009.\n\n\u201cJohn and his wife, Carmen, were extraordinary people.\n\n\u201cJohn led the Omaha World-Herald into the digital age and also spearheaded a number of the efforts to increase the technology. And it spread throughout the state of Nebraska, different communities.\n\n\u201cHe made the Omaha World-Herald a standard for how a newspaper should be run.\n\n\u201cHe himself was known for his integrity and his courage.\n\n\u201cHe was never shy about being direct with a budding politician, to let that politician know when he believed that politician might have erred.\n\n\u201cAnd he was one of those people that cared about the community.\n\n\u201cAs I mentioned, he was a Boy Scout.\n\n\u201cHe served as chairman of our local Mid-America Council of Boy Scouts, but also became national president of the Boy Scouts of America.\n\n\u201cHe served as chairman for the Board of Governors for the USO.\n\n\u201cHe cared about our veterans, wanted to make sure we were serving them.\n\n\u201cHe cared about our military people.\n\n\u201cHe also cared about the arts.\n\n\u201cHe was chairman of the Omaha Performing Arts Center.\n\n\u201cHe and his wife, Carmen, cared about people.\n\n\u201cTogether, they fostered more than 100 infants awaiting adoption.\n\n\u201cJohn was an outdoorsman and a conservationist.\n\n\u201cHe really was one of those people we would describe as a renaissance man.\n\n\u201cRunning a fantastic business, giving back to the community, he was the kind of American that built this country.\n\n\u201cJohn passed away last month, leaving a legacy that is having a lasting imprint on our community of Omaha, the state of Nebraska, and indeed our entire country.\n\n\u201cI greatly admire John Gottschalk for the kind of man he was, the example he set for the rest of us.\n\n\u201cHe will be greatly missed, and I will miss him greatly.\n\n\u201cThank you, Mr. President.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.ricketts.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ricketts-honors-the-life-and-legacy-of-john-gottschalk/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7240499146282673, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}