When he was 10 he and his family moved to Fairborn in 1945, and his father Wilbur Carl subscribed to the Dayton Daily News. Eugene almost immediately began delivering the paper.
As a paper boy, Eugene started with just over 30 customers plus the Sunday edition. By the time he finished, he was delivering more than 115 daily papers and 130 on Sunday, he said, crediting his success to aggressively checking other routes to see where he could gain new customers.
“We used to go out and pick our papers up and see who could get finished the quickest without making too many mistakes. We added a little competition into it,” Eugene said.
His wife, Sue Carl of Trotwood, said her family also received the paper as long as she can remember. The couple became subscribers on their own when they were married in 1957.
The pair’s son Hal Carl, now 61, would go on to deliver for a Fairborn newspaper at 11 before delivering for former Cox paper Dayton Journal Herald when the family moved to West Carrollton.
To finish the 120th year of the Dayton Daily News this month we are featuring stories of some of our lifelong subscribers. Read them all at DaytonDailyNews.com
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