Ray Dyer, a third generation publisher of the El Reno Tribune, is the new president of the Oklahoma Press Association.

Dyer was appointed by the OPA Board of Directors to serve from January 1, 2019, through June 30, 2019, and will then be nominated for membership consideration and election for his scheduled year of 2019-2020.

Dyer succeeds Brian Blansett, publisher of the Tri-County Herald, as president. Blansett will serve as past president for six months.

Other members of the OPA Board are treasurer Jeff Shultz, Garvin County News Star; and directors Mike Strain, Tulsa World; John Denny Montgomery, The Purcell Register; Mark Millsap, The Norman Transcript; Zonelle Rainbolt, The Cordell Beacon; Don Mecoy, The Oklahoman; and Shauna Belyeu, The Eufaula Indian Journal.

Dyer was born in 1957 in El Reno and other than working at the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith, Ark., and the McAlester News Capital & Democrat he has spent his life working at the family-owned Tribune.

The son of Pat Dyer and the late Jack Dyer, he follows in the footsteps of his grandfather, Ray J. Dyer, his father Jack and brother Sean Dyer in serving as board president for OPA.

Ray Dyer has two children, daughter Aliki Patricia Dyer, a nursing student at Redlands Community College, and son Jackson Emmanuel Dyer, who is studying audio and video production at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Ray Dyer started working at the age of 12 throwing the then Daily Tribune. By his freshmen year in high school he was working in the production and pressroom of the paper.

After graduating high school in 1975, he attended the University of Oklahoma and later Oklahoma State University before taking a job as a reporter in Fort Smith. He would later work as a sports writer at the McAlester newspaper before returning to El Reno.

After his father's death in 1981, he teamed with his aunt Kay Dyer and brother Sean to continue operating the Tribune. In the early '90s, the Dyers decided to take the paper to twice a week and focus on local coverage.

A member of the Oklahoma City Gridiron Club for more than a decade, Dyer was named in 2010 to the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame.

A member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in El Reno, Dyer also served for 12 years as editor of the Sooner Catholic, the newspaper for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.

As OPA president, Dyer said he hopes to help push the importance of Oklahoma newspapers to the "communities we serve, as well as our state."

"I think we in the newspaper industry have an obligation to hold our government leaders and our institutions accountable; at the same time we need to hold ourselves accountable. Oklahoma, in my opinion, is in need of tremendous reforms. I believe Oklahoma newspapers should be leading the charge in calling for many of these reforms.

"If we will do this, I believe the people of our great state will take notice and they will benefit. If they benefit, we will benefit."

Dyer said he looks forward to working with fellow board members and OPA Executive Director Mark Thomas.

"I think we all owe Brian Blansett a round of applause for staying on the job for an extra six months," Dyer said.

Blansett served the extra time following Ted Streuli's resignation as president in July upon accepting a job outside the newspaper industry. The Board voted for Blansett to resume the role of president until December 31 when then Vice President Dyer would complete the unexpired term.