Manthey, Dolores (1918-2010) and Marvin Bauer

https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/gen_oh/24/ [16076]

Biographical Information: Dolores Manthey was born on October 4, 1916, in Avon, Minnesota. She and her husband Richard were married on February 22, 1941, and the couple subsequently went into the printing industry together. Dolores became CEO of the Sentinel Printing Company sometime during the early 1950s (the same time that Marvin Bauer joined the company as an assistant general manager), a role that Dolores (formerly chairman of the board) later filled after her husband’s death, until 1986. Dolores passed away on January 14, 2010 at the age of 93, survived by four children, eight grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

Transcript Summary: In an interview conducted on June 21, 1978, Dolores Manthey and Marvin Bauer discussed some of the history of and day-to-day work involved with their business, the Sentinel Printing Company, of which Dolores served as the CEO (a role previously filled by her late husband Richard) while Marvin worked as an assistant general manager. Dolores and Marvin both expressed pride in their work, noting their positive local reputation among the people of St. Cloud and their satisfaction with enabling customers to observe the printing of their materials firsthand. However, the two also noted a number of difficulties that came with their line of work, including competition with other local newspapers, specifically, the St. Cloud Times, rising costs of materials like paper, and even general economic difficulties like inflation, which they credited with decreasing the purchasing power of their customers over time.

Interview conducted by John LeDoux and Mark Stone