MARIETTA - Alec Tregone, of Marietta, who died Tuesday at age 96, served as the first editor of the Marietta Journal when the newspaper changed from a weekly to daily publication in the 1930s.

A Monroe native and son of Greek immigrants, Tregone came to work for the Journal after graduating from the University of Georgia School of Journalism in 1935.

"He was my first editor," recalled MDJ Associate Editor Bill Kinney, 85, who began working for the Journal while still a Marietta High School student.

"He was a nice, kind fellow. He didn't beat up on you. He'd take your copy and work on it, tell you what was wrong," Kinney said.

In those days, the Journal, then located by Marietta Square at the corner of Anderson and Winter streets, was a four page, 10-cent publication that ran five days a week. Paperboys earned a penny per newspaper for delivering the Journal by bicycle.

"I came in the afternoon and tried to write anything they gave me," Kinney said. "I also sort of cleaned up the desks and the office. We would call me an environmental specialist today, but I was an office boy."

Mayor Steve Tumlin said Tregone was a family friend, particularly close to his late father and uncle. The last time he had lunch with Tregone, the newspaperman told him of what it was like to watch movie stars turn out for the Atlanta premiere of "Gone with the Wind" in the 1930s.

"He was always a good resource for me because he knew an older Marietta. He moved away from Marietta for a while and chose to come back, which made him, to me, even more special," Tumlin said.

Tregone married Madge Schilling of Marietta in 1940, and by year's end the couple moved to Rome, where he served as city editor of the Rome News-Tribune. After work assignments in Rome and Gadsden, Ala., he joined the Navy as a commissioned officer, serving as a communications officer in the Southwest Pacific. Tregone served in New Guinea, the Philippine Islands and aboard the Australian cruiser "Hobart" as the American liaison officer handling fleet communications.

Following his service in World War II, he worked as a speechwriter in Washington D.C. for Southern Railway President E.E. Norris. The majority of his career was spent in Washington, Atlanta and Winston-Salem, N.C., serving with the Veteran's Administration in various management positions. He and his wife moved back to Marietta in 1978.

Kinney said he and Tregone enjoyed reminiscing at the Marietta Rotary Club.

"I still called him boss," Kinney said. "We talked about what happened back in the old days. Marietta was just a village then."

Tregone enjoyed golf during his retirement, receiving publicity at age 70 for acing two holes in a single round of golf. All total, he had four aces in his 20 years of touring the links.

"He was just a delightful fellow," Tumlin said. "He had a zest for life and people, and he was just a true gentleman."

Tregone attended St. James Episcopal Church in Marietta. The Rev. C. Wallace Marsh, associate rector, said when he transferred here from Albany last year, Tregone already knew all about him.

"He was a good reporter. He had done his research," Marsh said.

Betty Hall, wife of retired Kennestone Hospital radiologist Dr. Max Hall, who also knew Tregone through St. James Episcopal Church, said she loved the stories he would tell.

"He had a wonderful personality and was so interesting on so many subjects. When I would visit, he would tell lots of stories of old Marietta," Hall said.

Hall spoke of Tregone's outgoing personality.

"He never really saw a stranger, which is so welcoming to anyone that he met, and to the people he knew. He was just a real gentleman. I just loved that man," she said.

Tregone's nephew, Bill Hare, a real estate counselor who lives in Vinings, also spoke of Tregone's love of friendship.

"To me, he was a really good example of how being friendly with people and knowing and remembering what they cared about, and being empathetic and genuinely interested in people's lives creates a really good friendship," Hare said.

Tregone is survived by his wife, Madge, his daughters, Susan Johnson, of Atlanta, and Claire Tregone, of Marietta, and his nieces, Rena Sartain, of Atlanta, and Catherine Hare, of Alexandria, Va.

The family will receive friends from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday at Mayes Ward-Dobbins Funeral Home in Marietta. Private services will be conducted.