LONGTIME editor Charles Wilson recently retired after leading the editorial efforts for Bulk Transporter and Refrigerated Transporter for more than 30 years.
Wilson, 69, who graduated from Kansas with a journalism degree in 1978, joined the publication group, which includes Trailer/Body Builders and then was owned by the Tunnell family, in 1981, and replaced John Conley as editor of Bulk Transporter in 1989, when Conley left to join National Tank Truck Carriers (NTTC) as vice president.
“This is a bittersweet moment,” said Reggie Lawrence, executive vice president for Endeavor Business Media, which today publishes the three trade magazines. “The Tunnell family hired Chuck in 1981 … (and) he has been a credible and consistent player in the (tank truck) industry throughout his career.
“It has been a privilege to work alongside Chuck in the market for so many years.”
Wilson grew up in a military family and served in the US Army from 1970 to 1973 before graduating from Kansas. His first job in the news business was as a photographer with the Casper Star-Tribune in 1974, and he entered the trade publication world in 1979 with Processed Prepared Foods magazine in Chicago IL.
The connections that he made there helped him land with Tunnell Publications in Houston TX. He worked on all three Houston titles before focusing his efforts on the Bulk and Refrigerated Transporter magazines as managing editor from 1984 to 1989, when he succeeded Conley as the editor of Bulk Transporter.
“We didn’t miss a beat,” said Conley, who served as NTTC president from 2006 to 2013 after 12 years as Bulk’s editor. “Chuck had been doing cover stories, and he had gone to many of the meetings, so he knew the people in the industry very well.”
Wilson’s first assignment as editor was a cover story featuring Alaska West Express that included a ride-along trucking trip over the infamous ice road to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. And his commitment to expanding Bulk and Refrigerated coverage to include a global audience took him all over the world, including Mexico, England, Germany—one year after the Berlin wall came down—Belgium, Japan, China, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Columbia, Argentina and Venezuela.
“He was always ready to go somewhere, and in doing that he broadened the scope of the magazine beyond what it would have been had we kept solely focused on the US and Canada,” Conley said. “That was a real asset over time.”
Wilson said his goal always was to be “as far out in front of issues as we could be.” He covered the fight over wet lines on petroleum tankers, the introduction of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, security concerns in the wake of the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the impact of the Gulf War on refrigerated carriers in the Middle East, and the establishment of the Montreal Protocol, a treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances.
“I had a lot of people in the industry who would make suggestions and really show me how to improve the coverage from the magazine,” Wilson said. “That was critical. I really could not have been successful without the help of a whole lot of people.”
Conley says they helped because Wilson’s thorough, always-professional coverage inspired their confidence in him. “In the trade magazine world, you have to build a confidence level with your industry that you don’t have to build if you’re a general reporter going out and covering crime and politics,” he said. “The person you call and ask, ‘Can I do a story on your fleet?’ doesn’t have to say yes. If they don’t have confidence in you, you’re not going to get the cooperation.”
And Dan Furth, who succeeded Conley as NTTC’s fourth president, says Wilson helped the people in the tightly knit tank truck community as much as they helped him, providing in-depth coverage for a small but very specialized segment of the overall trucking industry. “He’s a great guy,” Furth said. “He’s certainly a friend to the industry, dedicated to the industry and the magazine, and really good at asking questions.”
Wilson’s aptitude for asking questions stemmed from his desire to learn new things, and his passion for the tank truck and associated industries—and ensured Bulk Transporter readers always were well-informed.
“With every story I did, I wanted to learn something new, something that I didn’t know before,” he said. “And on the fleet profiles, I wanted them to be a positive reflection of the industry, talking about excellence, and what people did to make their businesses better.
“Safety has always been a primary focus for us. I’m really an advocate of the distracted driving program that NTTC has done, and the training programs they did for tank rollover. Those were great.”
Most importantly, Wilson always focused on telling the stories of the tank truck carriers who make up the magazine’s primary audience, while also expanding coverage of tank containers, intermodal activities and storage terminals. “He featured carriers every issue, and they like that,” Furth said. “They like to see what the competitor’s doing, they like to see what their own company is doing, and it’s a great unifier to have good public relations out there for your company.”
Now that Wilson’s retired, he plans to spend more time with family, including his 1-year-old granddaughter, Astrid, who he enjoys spoiling, and pursuing his passions, which include traveling, hiking and photography. And don’t be surprised if he still shows up at the occasional NTTC meeting, where Furth says he’s always welcome.
“I’m very happy where I am now,” Wilson said. “I don’t have any regrets. I had a good career. I had a good time, I got to see a lot of the world and do a lot of different things, and met a lot of really great people in the industry.”
