After all, his uncle was a Fort Dodge icon — an attorney, state senator and a broadcasting pioneer who introduced the first radio and television stations to the city. But a young Ed Breen was a newspaperman at heart and believed he needed to leave the city to pursue that dream.

“I knew I had to get the hell out of town,” Breen said in a 2020 Messenger Spotlight column. “The family name was so prominent. I just wasn’t going to trade on that. Back then, I was too young to know what was going on. All I knew is that I had a family connection to the radio and TV stations, but enjoyed working for the newspaper. I never took any flak from my uncle on it, never heard a word about it.”

Edward E. Breen died Sunday at the age of 82 at his home in Marion, Indiana., where in 1966 he joined the Chronicle-Tribune and served for nearly 30 years as a reporter, photographer and editor. He moved to The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, 60 miles away, as assistant managing editor, a role he held until his retirement in 2009. He continued to live in Marion and commute 60 miles to his job in Fort Wayne.

“Ed was such an important part of our management team,” said Julie Inskeep, president of The Journal Gazette Company. “A consummate journalist and historian who also was great fun to work with. He drove to work daily from Marion to Fort Wayne and I think, in all his 14 years, he only missed one day because of winter weather.”

Said his longtime friend and retired editor of The Journal Gazette, Craig Klugman: “Ed was not only a fine editor, he was also a good person. Sure, he was devoted to journalism. But he was also committed to improving lives in many other ways.

“As it happens, I served with Ed on the board of the Friends of the Lincoln Collection. I saw then how committed he was to preserving the history of Abraham Lincoln in Indiana. His calm demeanor, even when things around him seemed to be falling apart, belied a passion for history and, of course, for news.”

After his retirement, he continued to write for The News-Herald in Marion from 2015 to 2024. His uncle (who died in 1978) would have smiled to see his nephew follow in his footsteps and go into radio as co-host of Good Morning Grant County on WBAT. Breen’s segment, An Ed Breen Moment, became a beloved feature, offering insight, humor, and thoughtful commentary on local life.

In the 2020 Messenger Spotlight, Breen said his uncle did radio commentary at KVFD “every morning for years and years. He continued this on television, where he hosted a program with the same name as his radio commentary, called ‘It Seems to Me.’ Maybe a bit like him, what I am doing is stirring the pot. It’s something that is needed in these communities. There’s little local content on radio anymore.”

Breen left Fort Dodge in 1962, after graduating from St. Edmond High School. He attended Loras College in Dubuque and after two years, one week and one day there (“I’m still on academic probation,” he said then with a laugh), he joined the news staff of the local newspaper, the Telegraph-Herald. He moved on to work briefly at a Wisconsin newspaper before arriving in Indiana.

Breen was the oldest of the three children born to Maurice and Alyce Julander Breen. The family lived in a two-story brick house at 925 Second Ave. S. built in 1910 by his grandfather, Edward J. Breen. His father, Maurice J. Breen, practiced law in Fort Dodge for nearly 50 years and his brother Maurice C. Breen, served as city attorney (he died in 2011). Breen’s sister, Alice Catalfo, is a retired Des Moines teacher who lives in Granger with her husband, Dan. Breen’s father died in 1972 and his mother in 2006.

At. St. Edmond, Breen was editor of the school newspaper, the Tri Crown, and was working as a soda jerk at Donahoe’s sundry store at 11th and Central after classes and on weekends when in the fall of 1960 Messenger Sports Editor Bob Brown came in one Sunday morning to buy out-of-town newspapers.

“He asked if I was interested in working at The Messenger taking high school sports scores and writing brief stories,” Breen said.

Breen was asked if he could type when offered the part-time position. He gulped and assured Messenger editors he could handle it — then raced home that weekend to teach himself three-finger typing before starting his job the following weekend. Breen worked during the sports seasons and then three summers filling in for fulltime newsroom employees on vacation.

Messenger police reporter Helen Strode played a major role in his career choice as a newspaperman. “It was Helen who really attracted me to this. Helen kind of adopted me. She could go around police lines and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world, and I still do. She loved journalism and she infected me with it. She knew more about the police department and the crime world in Fort Dodge than any other living human being.”

Breen’s wife of 60 years, Joanne, is a professional artist who he met in Dubuque. Their daughters are Lisa Breen, who works for a medical laboratory in Indianapolis, and Audrey Shepard, a teacher in Noblesville, Indiana, married to Mike and the parents of two sons, Max, 21, and Liam, 19.

A visitation will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. on Aug. 9 in the narthex of St. Paul’s Catholic Church, 1031 W. Kem Road, Marion, Indiana. The funeral mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. A memorial celebration will immediately follow at McCarthy Hall on the campus of St. Paul Catholic Church and School. In lieu of flowers please direct memorial contributions to St. Paul Catholic Church. Online condolences may be made at www.owenweilertduncan.com