DAVENPORT, Iowa — Has legendary Quad-City Times columnist Bill Wundram written his last column for the newspaper?
Multiple sources – including current and former Times employees – say the columnist, who started at the Davenport Daily-Times in 1944 as a general assignment reporter, penned his last column on Sunday, April 29.
Wundram, who is 93, said he couldn’t say a lot about his current job situation.
“My status is iffy,” he said on Tuesday, May 1.
It is believed Wundram is the longest-serving columnist in Iowa newspaper history. He started writing a column 35 years ago, and for 25 of those years, wrote it seven days a week.
“My life has been entirely at the Times,” Wundram said. “It’s all I’ve ever known. Now, to be retired, is disheartening.”
Times Executive Editor Matt Christensen did not return a call seeking comment on Wundram’s employment status with the newspaper.
In 2006, a statue of Wundram was added to the Bix Plaza located on the tip of the Quad-City Times’ downtown Davenport property. It is located next to a statue of jazz hero Bix Beiderbecke. According to the Times story on July 25, 2006, it was added to the plaza by Quad-City Times Bix 7 race officials. In addition, in 2004, the city of Davenport renamed a portion of 3rd Street near the Times building “Wundram Way” to honor the longtime columnist.” At the time, then-Davenport Mayor Charlie Brooke called Wundram “a treasure of the Quad-Cities and a lifetime honorary mayor of the city of Davenport.”
Watch here: Chris Minor interviews Bill Wundram in 2010
