Career newspaper man Larry Fuller — remembered in Hawaii for his years at the helm of The Honolulu Advertiser, the Hawaii Newspaper Agency and Pacific Business News — died Jan. 23 in Sioux Falls, S.D. He was 83.

Fuller’s daughter, Beth Jensen of Sioux Falls, said there were two places in the world that her father loved: Sioux Falls and Honolulu.

“My dad has always been such a chameleon, and has loved two places the most. One of them was Honolulu, Hawaii, and one of them was Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In both places he had such a tremendous respect for the culture and the people and the lifestyle. It was so interesting to see someone who loved Sioux Falls, South Dakota, so deeply, fall so deeply in love with Hono­lulu, Hawaii.”

Honolulu Star-Advertiser “Volcanic Ash” columnist Dave Shapiro was managing editor of the Honolulu Star- Bulletin when Fuller was publisher of the Advertiser and president of the Hawaii Newspaper Agency.

“Larry led the Hawaii Newspaper Agency and later Pacific Business News at a time of change when the internet was first disrupting the news business and revenues were starting to slip,” Shapiro said via email. “I was impressed by (the) energy and open mind with which he embraced the difficult challenges.”

“He had opportunities to climb the corporate ladder in journalism, but preferred local news — serving people who were your neighbors and becoming personally active in many aspects of the community.”

Shapiro described Fuller as a “hands-on guy” outside the newspaper and “proud of the roots he planted with the considerable sweat equity he put into fixing up his house in St. Louis Heights.”

Larry Fuller grew up in Ohio and Michigan. He began his journalism career at the Globe-Gazette in Mason City, Iowa, and then the Minneapolis Star in the 1960s. He then worked as executive editor of the Messenger-Inquirer in Owensboro, Ky., from 1973 to 1977 before moving to Sioux Falls to become executive editor of the Argus Leader and, in 1978, its publisher.

The Argus Leader was an afternoon paper when Fuller arrived. One of his primary responsibilities was transforming it into a morning paper.

“We had a lot of ‘Wake Up With the Argus’ coffee mugs around the house in my childhood,” Jensen said. “He tried so hard to get people to accept that it was going to be a morning newspaper.”

“He always talked a lot about those early days,” she said.

In 1993, Fuller and his wife, Suzanne, came to Hawaii when he became publisher of the Advertiser and president of the Hawaii Newspaper Agency. When he retired — in Hawaii — several years later, it was only briefly.

“He was recruited for Pacific Business News, and he absolutely loved his time there, too,” Jensen said. “He was so proud that he was able to take it from a weekly business newspaper to a multimedia news organization and a business event producer. He loved all those big events celebrating the professionals in Honolulu.”

Jensen said that when her parents moved back to Sioux Falls, it was to be closer to their grandchildren. Her father continued to wear aloha shirts, enjoy Hawaiian music and use basic Hawaiian words in everyday conversation.

“My father always loved ‘Honolulu City Lights,’ and he loved John Keawe,” Jensen said. “When we were there (in 2023), my parents wanted to know where John Keawe was playing. He wasn’t (playing anywhere), so I messaged his Facebook page and said, ‘How much would it cost to have you come perform with my parents?’ It was worth the investment. John and his amazing wife came and did a little concert for my parents at our condo. It was the most spiritual thing ever.”

Fuller is also survived by son Mike Fuller and four grandchildren: Sam and Elise Fuller, and Nicholas and Katie Jensen.

Funeral services and a celebration of life took place in January in Sioux Falls. A scattering of ashes will take place in Hawaii later this year.

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Angela George, USA Today Network, contributed to this article.