Davis Kennedy, whose Gazette newspapers covered communities in Montgomery, Frederick and Carroll counties before he sold the chain to The Washington Post, died on Christmas. He was 87.

He also owned the weekly Current newspapers, which covered Northwest Washington, D.C.

Family and colleagues called him a pioneer for his newspapers’ hyperlocal focus — and his commitment to charging nothing for the news.

“He just believed in the potential of community journalism,” Bruce Kennedy, his son, told The Banner.

Kennedy — who preferred to be addressed as “Mr. Kennedy” — was perhaps best known for his papers’ comprehensive voter guides, which included candidate interviews legendary for their length and detail.

“When Davis interviewed you, you needed to be prepared,” Bruce Adams, a Montgomery County Council member from 1986 to 1994, said in a statement.

Adams, who founded Bethesda Big Train, the summer collegiate baseball team, said Montgomery County was better informed when Kennedy ran the Gazette papers.

A family business

Running newspapers was a family affair for the Kennedys.

Bruce Kennedy said he often spent Saturday mornings with his father at Rotary Club breakfasts, political fundraisers or city council events.

Kennedy also said his father would regularly take his children “tubing.”

“We would load newspaper tubes in the car, and stakes and brackets, and we’d go to areas where The Gazette was expanding circulation,” Bruce Kennedy said.

Just about every other week during some stretches, the family would go door to door offering to install the tube boxes in front of people’s homes.

Kennedy kick-started his journalism career at the Sun newspapers, now The Baltimore Sun. After several years, he left and began purchasing local papers in the region.

Kennedy bought The Gaithersburg Gazette in 1979 and created distinct, localized editions for several municipalities in Montgomery County.

Gary Socha, who worked for Kennedy in business and advertising roles for about four decades, said the publisher worked seven days a week. He often attended nighttime community meetings to keep an eye out for potential news.

Socha also said Kennedy was someone who cared deeply about the people who worked for him.

“I feel very fortunate that when [former owner] John Panagos told us that he sold the paper, and the new guy was coming in in the morning — in 1979 — that it turned out to be him,” he said of Kennedy.

End of an era

The Gazette stopped publishing in 2015 after nearly 60 years. The closure followed several years of financial decline, at a time when the advertising revenue that had long sustained local newspapers shifted to massive internet companies.

Shortly after selling The Gazette, Kennedy purchased the Current newspapers in D.C. He oversaw the papers for about 25 years before they filed for bankruptcy in 2019, according to a report from The Washington Post Magazine.

Kennedy had seven grandchildren and enjoyed roughhousing with his grandsons and dancing the Viennese waltz with his granddaughters, his son said.

At the time of his death, Kennedy had his presents for his grandchildren for the next several years stored under his bed.

He lived at a retirement community in Northwest D.C. at the end of his life.Kennedy was born Aug. 21, 1938, in Elkins, West Virginia, to Bruce and John Kennedy, according to an online obituary.

His family moved to Charleston, West Virginia, then Washington, D.C., and later to La Jolla, California. As a child in southern California, he frequently visited the San Diego Zoo, often enough that zookeepers let him help feed the animals and lock up enclosures.

As a teenager, Kennedy accompanied his father, a journalist, on a trip to Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe, where he interviewed another teen about their support for then-Prime Minister Joseph Stalin.

After attending Harvard College, Kennedy joined the U.S. Army, and as an officer in the early 1960s he was part of the force sent to defend Berlin after the construction of the Berlin Wall.

Kennedy’s parents and three of his siblings preceded him in death.

In addition to his son Bruce and sister Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, he is survived by his former wife, Heningham George Kennedy, son Scott Kennedy, daughter Hen Kennedy and seven grandchildren.

Kennedy’s family will host a funeral service at 11 a.m. on Jan. 24 at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral, where he was an active member.

A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to Heningham George Kennedy as Davis Kennedy's wife. She and Davis were divorced.