Dan Alvey, 67, at his Port Aransas home; with his dog, Bud, an 8-year-old black Labrador; on board his boat The Alaskan Adventurer, in Sitka, Alaska.
John Daniel Alvey, 67, died Monday, Dec. 17, in St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington, due to complications from a fall on his beloved boat, The Alaskan Adventurer. Dan was with his wife of 45 years and both his children when he passed.
Known for his business acumen, his humor, and his dog, Bud, Alvey was a devoted publisher, husband, father, grandfather, and son. He and wife Lee Alvey built several thriving businesses over the years, including companies in Marble Falls and Corpus Christi.
Fresh out of college and newly married, Alvey moved to the Highland Lakes in 1974 to take a job as ad salesman for The Highlander newspaper in Marble Falls. In just two years, he became publisher. He was instrumental in building a small-town weekly into the largest, most respected community weekly in Texas. Due to his vision and hard work, the paper was recognized as Best Community Weekly in the state by The Headliners Club in 1984, just as Alvey was stepping down as publisher to expand the company into the printing and magazine business.
Still working for Bill Bray, then-owner of The Highlander, Alvey started a printing plant, Highland Publishing, and Texas Fish and Game, a monthly fishing and hunting magazine.
“When Dan came to The Highlander, we were in the middle of a lot of serious public policy issues,” Bray said. “There was a lot of backlash against the paper from the business community, but Dan got out there and talked to people and convinced them they could not let their anger cloud their judgment about what was good for their business.”
When Alvey came on board The Highlander, the paper was ranked around 450th out of 520 weeklies in the nation in terms of circulation, Bray said. Within about five years of Alvey’s tenure, the paper’s circulation was double that of the second largest in the state. It also became — at the time — the second largest weekly in the nation. The year Alvey took Texas Fish and Game’s circulation statewide, it was recognized as the fastest-growing consumer publication in the nation.
Dan and Lee started Texas Publishing, a Corpus Christi-based company in 1999. Lee served as the first president of the company, which produces the Corpus Christi Business Directory, formerly known as the Corpus Christi Area-Wide Phone Book. The Blue Book is now published in conjunction with a dynamic, interactive website — a combination that puts a business directory in everyone’s purse and back pocket.
Alvey spent the last five years of his life building a business plan to save the phone book industry by bringing it into the digital age. Over that time, he also created Corpus Christi Business News, Corpus Christi Living magazine, 101 Fun Things to do in Corpus Christi magazine, 101CorpusChristi.com, and CCBizNews.com as well as multiple special-issue magazines published throughout the year.
In a news story published two years ago, Alvey was asked about his vision for Corpus Christi Business News, which publishes features on local small businesses each month.
“We want to let our readers know who their neighbors are and why they are doing business,” he said. “It’s all geared to promoting local business owners — the people who are committed to this community and are working to help it grow and prosper.”
Bob Hotchkin, sales manager for Texas Publishing, has been in the phone book business for 22 years, the last four with Alvey.
“To my knowledge, there is not any other publisher that does what we do,” Hotchkin said. “By starting the Business News, the Living (magazine), and the websites, Dan expanded the opportunities for our advertisers.”
He called Alvey’s business plan “visionary.”
“He was always thinking of ways to help our business clients attract more customers,” Hotchkin said. “What he created here has a synergy that works.”
For Alvey, business was about more than making money. He connected what he did with his community and his faith. He founded his companies, Victory Media, Texas Publishing, and Picayune Digital Press, on two verses from Galatians. Paul tells the Galatians in verse 5:6 that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. In Galatians 6:10, Paul says, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people …”
“He believed your faith should always be reflected in what you did and in how you loved people,” said the Rev. Jackie English, a longtime friend from Marble Falls. “That was his foundation.”
That solid underpinning of community support and giving spirit is what drives the success of all his publications. The company also produces 101 Fun Things to Do in the Highland Lakes magazine, the Picayune Area-Wide Phone Book, DailyTrib.com, 101HighlandLakes.com, and KBEY 103.9 FM Radio Picayune.
Alvey was a sportsman and an avid boater. He kept two boats at his Port Aransas home until moving one of them to Alaska two years ago. His love of boats was only surpassed by his love of family, especially his granddaughters, Morgan and Natalie. The middle school and elementary school girls referred to Alvey as “Poppy,” a loving grandfather who bragged about them constantly, showing everyone he met pictures of them on his phone. His face never failed to light up into a brilliant smile when he saw them. Those granddaughters brought him great happiness, even more so than his constant companion, Bud, an 8-year-old black Labrador he raised from a puppy.
Alvey’s love of boats and fishing was closely related to his late father, Jay. Dan bought The Alaskan Adventurer so he could take his dad deep sea fishing in his father’s later years. After Jay passed in 1998, Dan kept The Adventurer for his son, Nick. In the last few years, they turned it into a charter business in Alaska, which Alvey was moving to a new mooring in Tacoma when he had his accident.
A man of deep faith, Alvey was known to give Bibles to friends, which he would inscribe with a note and Philippians 4: 6-7. Since he almost always gave the New Living Translation Life Application Study Bible, the passage reads:
6 Don’t worry about anything: instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. 7 If you do this you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Jesus Christ.
Alvey was born June 17, 1951, in Lubbock, Texas. He graduated from Permian High School in Odessa and earned a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from North Texas State University in Denton. He married Merri Lee Keith on Dec. 29, 1973.
Alvey is survived by his mother, Charlene Alvey of Marble Falls; wife, Lee Alvey of Marble Falls; daughter, Amber Weems (Jon) of Marble Falls; son, Nick Alvey of Seattle; brother, Patrick Alvey (Linda) of Tyler; granddaughters, Morgan Weems and Natalie Weems of Marble Falls; niece, Allison Coates (Clayton) of Camarillo, California; and nephew, Wade Caldwell (Missi) of Bullard. He also has five great-nieces and one great-nephew.
He was preceded in death by his father, John Wesley “Jay” Alvey.
A funeral service is 2 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21, at First United Methodist Church of Marble Falls, 1101 Bluebonnet Drive.
In lieu of flowers, send remembrances to St. Frederick’s Mission Outreach, P.O. Box 812, Marble Falls, TX 78654.
