Carlton Cole "Carl" Magee (January 5, 1872 – January 31, 1946) was an American
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters.
The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...
and
newspaper publisher
Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
. He also patented the first practical
parking meter
A parking meter is a device used to collect money in exchange for the right to Parking, park a vehicle in a particular place for a limited amount of time. Parking meters can be used by Municipality, municipalities as a tool for enforcing their i ...
. He was born in
Iowa
Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...
. Magee graduated from the Iowa State Normal School, now the
University of Northern Iowa
The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) is a public university in Cedar Falls, Iowa, United States. UNI offers more than 90 majors across five colleges. The fall 2024 total enrollment was 9,283 students.
The university was initially founded in 1 ...
, in 1894. He moved to New Mexico in 1917 with his wife.
Magee founded the ''Magee's Independent'' in 1922, which would change its name to the ''New Mexico State Tribune'' in 1923 and to the ''
Albuquerque Tribune
''The Albuquerque Tribune'' was an afternoon newspaper in Albuquerque, New Mexico, founded in 1922 by Carlton Cole Magee as ''Magee's Independent''. It was published in the afternoon and evening Monday through Saturday.
Scott Ware served as ed ...
'' in 1933. The Tribune closed in 2008. Magee was important in bringing the
Teapot Dome scandal
The Teapot Dome scandal was a political corruption scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Warren G. Harding. It centered on Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall, who had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Do ...
to the fore. When a judge Magee had once accused of corruption knocked him down in a hotel lobby, Magee drew his pistol and fired, accidentally killing a bystander. Magee was acquitted of manslaughter, but moved to
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...
to run the
Oklahoma News.
While editor of the ''Oklahoma News'', Magee joined the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce traffic committee in 1933 and, shortly thereafter, was charged with lessening the escalating traffic congestion in the city's downtown. Local merchants complained that their sales were hurt by low traffic turnover, since parking spaces adjacent to downtown businesses were occupied by the same cars all day. Magee conceived the idea of a coin-operated timer that could be used to increase traffic turnover in busy commercial thoroughfares. He built a crude model and applied for a patent on December 21, 1932. He then sponsored a contest at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College (now
Oklahoma State University
Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...
) to develop a working device. After the contest, Oklahoma A&M Professors
H. G. Thuesen and Gerald Hale agreed to help him develop his model into an operating meter. Magee later partnered with Gerald Hale to form the Magee-Hale Park-O-Meter Company, predecessor to the modern POM, Inc.
The first parking meters were installed in downtown Oklahoma City on July 16, 1935, and charged five cents per hour. Businesses benefited greatly from the decreased parking congestion, but some outraged citizens complained and even initiated legal action in response to installation of the meters. Legal action failed to halt implementation of the meters, however, and the added benefits of revenue generation quickly led other cities to install parking meters of their own.
The earliest Magee-Hale meters were manufactured in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by the MacNick Company. Rockwell International later purchased the company and moved its meter production to
Russellville, Arkansas
Russellville is the county seat of and the largest city in Pope County, Arkansas, United States, with a 2022 estimated population of 29,133. It is home to Arkansas Tech University. Arkansas Nuclear One, Arkansas' only nuclear power plant is nea ...
in 1963. POM, Inc., as constituted today was organized in 1976 to purchase the parking meter production operations from Rockwell, as well as its Russellville plant.
New ownership and production facility expansion occurred at POM in the 1980s, and POM unveiled its patented “Advanced Parking Meter” (APM) in 1992, featuring a choice of battery or solar power, among other improvements. According to its website, the company today “has the largest plant in the world devoted to the manufacturing of digital parking meters.”
Magee switched from
Republican to
Democrat and ran unsuccessfully for the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
in 1924.
He is best known in journalism today for the
E.W. Scripps Company
The E. W. Scripps Company, also known as Scripps, is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglom ...
motto, adopted from
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...
for the ''Albuquerque Tribune'' and which is now carried by all Scripps chain newspapers: “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”
Magee died in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on January 31, 1946.
["Carl C. Magee, Retired Editor, Civic Aid, Dies," ''Daily Oklahoman'', February 1, 1946, 1]
Sources
*https://web.archive.org/web/20080516050845/http://www.ionet.net/~luttrell/history.html
*http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~okoklaho/obit/magee_carl_c.htm
*http://www.inc.com/magazine/20021001/24702.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magee, Carl
1946 deaths
American publishers (people)
1872 births
Upper Iowa University alumni
20th-century American newspaper editors