Frederick A. (Fred) Karst

Frederick A. (Fred) Karst, 87, a journalist and writer, died early Sunday (Dec. 18) morning.

Mr. Karst, who lived in Culver, had been an editorial writer and a member of the editorial board of the South Bend Tribune and, more recently, publisher of the Culver Citizen.

He joined the Tribune as a copy editor in 1966 and was named to the editorial department post in 1971, when he also became the Tribune’s travel editor. He served in both positions until 1989, the year in which he and his wife, Judith, a former Tribune reporter, purchased the Citizen. During the years he worked at the Tribune, the paper added an op-ed page, which Karst designed and continued to edit. In 1989, he chose early retirement and sold his stock in Schurz Communications Inc., then parent company of the Tribune.

Until the Karsts sold the Culver paper in 1998, he was the president of Citizen Publications Inc., as well as publisher of the Citizen. From 1991 to 1995 they also published the Marshall County LIFE, a free weekly paper that circulated to households throughout the county and adjoining areas, with an office in Plymouth. While the Karsts owned the Citizen, they also operated the Culver Satellite Parcel Service, located at the Citizen office in downtown Culver in one of his buildings on Main Street.

He became an enthusiastic supporter of the community and its people.

He had been a director of the Hoosier State Press Association, president of the Midwest Travel Writers Association and a member of the South Bend Press Club.

He was a charter member of the Michiana Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists/Sigma Delta Chi.

He had also been vice chairman of the Better Business Bureau of Michiana after serving as a member of the advisory board and secretary.

He resided east of Lake Maxinkuckee, on a farm the Karsts called Maxinkuckee Hills, having moved there from their first farm near North Liberty. He was drawn to both farms not only for their agricultural potential but also for their natural features, including their forests and wetlands, which provided protection for birds and other wildlife.

Born Feb. 6, 1935, in Evanston, Ill., he was the only child of F. Arthur Karst, M.D., and Mildred (Consoer) Karst. His early years were spent in Park Ridge, Ill. As a schoolboy, he planted his first of many gardens as a World War II Victory Garden. Later he co-authored a checklist of birds that could be seen in northeastern Illinois. He was a graduate of Maine Township High School.

On Sept. 20, 1969, he married Judith Kay Lowery, who survives. Also surviving are their four sons, George L. Karst, Michigan City; Edward F. Karst, Los Angeles; James P. Karst, New Orleans; and David G. Karst, Manistee, Mich.; three grandsons, Casey, Christopher and John Karst, New Orleans; two granddaughters, Theodora and Zoe Karst, Michigan City; and several cousins.

In later years, he lamented the loss of his canine friend, Buddy, a Labrador retriever, and he admired the descendants of Helga, a prize Simmental cow who had lived out her days on the Karst farm.

He received degrees in liberal arts (A.B.) and biological sciences (S.B.) from the University of Chicago, where he became a member of the fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta. He also obtained an A.B. degree in German language and literature from Indiana University at South Bend.

His commitment to journalism began as a University of Chicago student, when he was a news editor of the college newspaper, the Chicago Maroon, in a period when he also served as an elected member of the student government and as head usher at the university’s Rockefeller Chapel.

He also became a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago, where he added to his knowledge of journalism on the streets of the city and burnished his news writing on the rewrite desk.

He later worked as a reporter for the Logansport, Ind., Press, covering the courthouse along with other assignments, and later as city editor of the Morris, Ill., Daily Herald, where he also wrote a column providing commentary on local affairs.

He had been a correspondent for the Indianapolis News and for the Times of Northwest Indiana, Munster.

While serving with the Tribune, he turned down an invitation to apply for a position with a university.

He was a member of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Plymouth, where he had been a lay reader. He had written for the Beacon (former diocesan publication) and contributed letters to the editor in the Living Church magazine. During nearly two decades at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, LaPorte, he had been a member of the vestry, youth committee chairman and secretary of the men’s club. He had been a member of the cathedral chapter at the Cathedral Church of St. James, South Bend.

He had been a member of the National Guard in Indiana and Illinois and served on active duty in the Army at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and Fort Ord, Calif. He had been an infantry soldier and, in the Indiana National Guard, had also been an information specialist.

At the Culver Citizen, he said his goal was fair and accurate coverage of local news and providing a forum for readers who wished to be heard. He cited the nonpartisan policy of the paper’s founders and said he was trying to maintain a continuity with the paper’s traditional style, as much as was compatible with contemporary newspaper design, which involved the first use of modern computers i n getting out the paper.

He wrote most of the weekly editorials that appeared in the Citizen. The paper’s editorials at the time frequently addressed local issues like the continued cleanup of Lake Maxinkuckee, keeping the public library downtown and the establishment of historic districts in Culver and on the East Shore.

In 1994, the Karsts presided over the celebration of the centennial of the paper’s founding, with three previous publishers participating.

Early in his career, he had received recognition for his work with an illustrated article in Pageant magazine in 1959, describing his role as a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago.

The Hoosier State Press Association recognized him with two first-place awards, in statewide competition, for distinguished editorial writing and for best news photograph.

He received two of the Midwest Travel Writers Association’s Mark Twain Awards. He was also named the 1986 Mark Twain Travel Writer of the Year by the MTWA and received the association’s Crystal Award for the length of time he spent in professional travel writing.

After the sale of the Citizen, he continued to work as a freelance writer, contributing frequently to Outdoor Indiana, the Culver Academies’ alumni magazine and other publications.

During two summers while a student at the University of Chicago, he was employed by the U.S. Forest Service in white pine blister rust control, based in the St. Joe National Forest in northern Idaho, and, when needed, fighting a forest fire.

He enjoyed observing flora and fauna in their natural settings. Among his lifetime concerns were stewardship of natural environments and protection of threatened species. He supported humane treatment of animals. Some of his freelance writing was related to his enjoyment of nature and his academic background in the natural sciences, as was his interest in farming.

Local history and rural history were among his interests. Subjects included in his research were the displacement of Native Americans, the Underground Railroad, 19th century communitarian groups and the settlement of “plain people” in Indiana. He wrote and published a history of Potato Creek State Park.

He carried out research related to a 19th century African-American settlement (now called the Huggart Settlement) he had learned about east of Potato Creek State Park and wrote about it in the Indiana Magazine of History.

He had been vice president of the Antiquarian and Historical Society of Culver and was chairman of the society’s Museum Committee while the group planned a history museum and research center first located in space made available through the expansion of the Culver-Union Township Public Library. He had edited the society’s newsletter. In 2019, he was named a director emeritus of the society, in recognition of his service. He had also served on the board of the Wythougan Valley Preservation Council and on the board of the Prill School Museum Association.

He was active in the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, having held various positions, including two terms as camp commander of David D. Porter Camp 116, Valparaiso.

He was a member of the Plymouth Rotary Club, a Paul Harris Fellow and had been a longtime board member.

He had been a member of the Culver Lions Club and had served as club president. He had been active in the Second Century Committee in Culver.

He was a life member of the American Simmental Association, a member of the Indiana Farm Bureau and had been a 4-H leader.

A life member of the University of Chicago and Indiana University alumni associations, he was also a senior member of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, a life member of the Fort Wilkins Natural History Association in Copper Harbor, Mich., a member of the National Audubon Society, the Nature Conservancy, the Indiana Native Plant Society, the Culver Club of Culver and an associate member of the Lake Maxinkuckee Association. He was a past president of the Summit Club of South Bend and the Plymouth Country Club.

He wrote short fiction and poetry and had participated in the Michiana Writers Workshop in South Bend. He had been a certified literacy tutor.

He researched his family history and was a member of the Chicago Genealogical Society.

He occasionally exercised skills he had acquired in German and, to a lesser extent, Italian, and he appreciated the literature of both languages. He studied Latin in high school and college, and he picked up bits of Hawaiian during the Karsts’ frequent visits to the islands.

Besides swimming and boating on Lake Maxinkuckee, he enjoyed hiking, horseback riding, skiing, canoeing, snorkeling, golf and judo.

He had traveled through many parts of the world. Yet the region in which he and Judith chose to live, particularly their farm, the lake and the fields and forests that surround it, especially the hills of the Maxinkuckee Moraine, held a special place in his heart.

There will be a requiem Mass on Dec. 29 at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Plymouth. Two of his sons will play organ music at the Mass. Burial will be later that day at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago