Former Sun circulation exec Sandness dies

Tuesday, Dec. 7, 1999 | 10:29 a.m.

At age 10, John Sandness delivered the Chicago Sun Times and Chicago Tribune door-to-door.

When he got a little older, he had a knack for getting people together who had mutual things to trade or sell, for which he would proudly collect a $5 commission.

It was little wonder that Sandness would combine his love for newspapers and his keen ability to work well with others to forge a career in newspaper circulation that would last nearly a half century.

Sandness, a longtime Las Vegas Sun circulation route manager who utilized newsboys in small neighborhoods at a time when other route bosses opted for adult delivery drivers to blanket larger areas, died Saturday at his home. He was 65.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 36 years will be 5 p.m. today at the First Christian Church, 101 S. Rancho Drive.

Sandness worked for the Sun from 1963 until 1990, when it was a morning newspaper. When the Sun entered into the joint operating agreement with the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 1990, the papers' circulation departments merged under the control of the Review-Journal.

Sandness' job for the last nine years was to deliver the afternoon Sun to newsracks, a position he held until October when he left because of health problems.

"He was such a good, loyal and dedicated worker," Sun Publisher Barbara Greenspun said. "John gave everything of himself to doing a good job.

"It was tough years ago because we often were late getting off the press and he would have to rush the papers to the newsboys so they could get them delivered on time to our readers and not be late for school."

Lynn Silva, a Sun receptionist, worked with Sandness in circulation in the late 1970s and '80s, and remembered him as, "a sweet, pleasant, warm and friendly man."

"The kids who worked for John absolutely adored him," Silva said. "He would have contests for them and award them prizes."

Rex Taylor, production manager for the Sun, said Sandness visited the Sun offices a week ago and told Taylor he had accepted that his poor health would not allow him to return to work and that he would have to start enjoying his retirement.

"He never had a bad word for anybody," Taylor said. "John was such a gentle soul."

Bob Sandness, a writer and former editor of the Sun's sister publication Showbiz magazine, said his brother loved working with children and taught them through their newspaper routes how to handle money and be responsible.

"John would set standards for the kids to reach, then take them to the mountains or ocean for short vacations as a reward for their accomplishments," Bob said. "John would help anyone he met. That was his gift to the world."

Born July 17, 1934, in Northern Hospital in Chicago, Sandness was the eldest of two sons of Ruben "Bob" Sandness and the former Joyce Wells.

Ruben was an employee of Kraft Cheese, today Kraft Foods, and Joyce operated Joyce's Hosiery on North Avenue. The family lived in a two-bedroom home behind her shop.

After World War II, the family moved to Oregon and settled on a small farm in Tigard, where they raised chickens and sold their annual strawberry crop to Birds Eye Foods.

John graduated from Beaverton High School and attended Portland State College.

As a young man, he was in a truck accident that caused an eye problem and a minor speech impediment, both of which were permanent.

In the 1950s Sandness began his newspaper career with the Portland Journal in the circulation department and from there went to the San Francisco Examiner, where he was a route specialist in charge of carriers throughout California.

In 1963 Sandness left the Examiner to take the circulation route manager job at the Sun because he had visited Las Vegas several times and wanted to settle here.

Sandness was a longtime member of the Las Vegas Jazz Club.

Sandness' first wife, Marilyn, died in April 1968, following a miscarriage caused by a liver disease. He married twice after that but had no children.

In his spare time, Sandness enjoyed trips to his favorite place, Red Rock Canyon. Per Sandness' wishes, his ashes will be scattered over Red Rock, Bob Sandness said.