Print shop owner served decade on Maumee council

9/25/2007

John L. Stout, the former owner of printing shops in Toledo and Maumee who was a Maumee city councilman for 10 years, died Sunday in the Cleveland Clinic. He was 74.

Mr. Stout died after experimental surgery for carotid artery disease, which had caused a stroke, relatives said.

In 1968, he and two partners founded Printers Three Inc. in Toledo, basing the company first on Stickney Avenue and moving to South St. Clair Street in 1975.

By then, Mr. Stout was the firm's president, and he kept the Printers Three name after buying out his initial business partners, said Janet Stout, his wife of 54 years.

The company was one of the first in the area to install a four-color printing press - a machine imported from Germany that Mr. Stout personally received at Toledo Express Airport, recalled a daughter, Kimberly Boardman.

Printers Three won several awards for some specially commissioned Ansel Adams photography prints it produced, Ms. Boardman said, and made limited-edition prints of Elvis Presley and the first moon landing.

Mrs. Stout said her husband also quietly did charity work, offering print jobs at cost to such organizations as the Cherry Street Mission.

"He was a very quiet and humble man. Love of the Lord came first, and love of his family," she said.

In 1990, Mr. Stout moved his business to Maumee and renamed it John Stout & Associates. He remained active in the business until 2005, when his health began to decline, his wife said.

Mr. Stout was elected to Maumee city council in 1967 and re-elected four times.

During his time in office, Maumee council laid the legislative groundwork, primarily by redrawing the city's zoning maps, for development of the vast Arrowhead Park industrial park and the relocation of St. Luke's Hospital to the city.

Family and business commitments prompted Mr. Stout not to seek re-election in 1977, his wife said.

Born in Ottawa, Ohio, Mr. Stout played football at the University of Toledo, which he attended for two years before joining the Army. He was stationed in Germany during the Korean War.

After his military discharge, he began an apprenticeship at a local print shop that marked the start of his printing career.

Surviving are his wife, the former Janet Raitz; daughters, Eileen Tolson, Pamela Walker, Kimberly Boardman, and Gretchen Schiller; sons, John and Derek; brother, Richard; sister, Thelma Sautter; 17 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

The body will be in the Maison-Dardenne-Walker Funeral Home, 501 Conant St., Maumee, after 2 p.m. tomorrow. Services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday in St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Maumee. The family suggests tributes to Cherry Street Mission or the Maumee High School drama club.