David Kranz, 72, considered the “dean of South Dakota political journalists,†died June 23, 2018, at Jenkins Living Center in Watertown.
The 1968 journalism and political science graduate was tabbed as a Distinguished Alumnus in 2008.
Kranz, who was born Nov. 3, 1945, in Watertown and raised on a farm south of Kranzburg, began his professional journalism career at the Austin (Minnesota) Daily Herald and served as managing editor of the Mitchell Republic from 1976 to 1983, when he began a 27-year career at the state’s flagship, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
A tribute published in the Watertown Public-Opinion stated, “He was a master at using the phone to get crucial information that no other media had. In an ode to ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ when a major story broke, he’d often stand on his chair, with his necktie wrapped around his head, yelling, “Fly! Fly! Fly!†to reporters scrambling to get out on the street to chase it down.
“David retired in 2010 due to early onset dementia and moved home to Watertown. To underscore how much journalism meant to him, he walked around the house for weeks, scribbling on a notepad and claiming he was writing a story for the day’s deadline.
“On a lighter note, it may have been one of the few times in his career that he used a notebook. He was notorious for taking notes on napkins, envelopes or his hand.â€
He is survived by a brother and two sisters.
Memorials may be made to the David Kranz-Argus Leader Media Journalism Scholarship, South Dakota Community Foundation, P.O. Box 296, Pierre, S.D., 57501.
