‘You couldn’t ask for a better colleague:’ Former Review-Journal GM dies

Allan Fleming, who helped steer business operations at Nevada’s largest news outlet for close to 15 years, died Friday.

Fleming, 74, worked at the Las Vegas Review-Journal from 1990 until 2010. In 1995, he became the newspaper’s general manager, serving as second-in-command to publisher Sherman Frederick.

“You couldn’t ask for a better colleague,” Frederick said. “He was always looking to better the task at hand. He wasn’t trying to make himself look good or make somebody else look bad.”

Frederick and others close to Fleming said he was a gentleman who was a friend to all his colleagues.

His wife, Monica Fleming, described him as debonair but approachable. The couple took their first cruise this year to Portugal and Spain; Fleming rarely left the boat because he befriended the onboard band.

The two met while they both worked at the Review-Journal, which Allan Fleming joined after leaving his native Maryland. They started dating in 1997 and got married a year later. Allan Fleming also had two sons, Damian and Shawn Fleming.

Monica Fleming recalled her husband baking sourdough bread from scratch during the holidays. He was fond of music, travel and taking walks in the backyard of their Las Vegas home.

“Allan was a great guy,” Monica Fleming said. “He loved his sons and their wives and his grandkids. He loved me.”

Allan Fleming found his job at the Review-Journal through a newspaper advertisement. He joined the company as a promotion manager at age 41, before becoming general manager about five years later.

Although he only worked on the newspaper’s business side, Fleming was well regarded throughout the company. Former editor Thomas Mitchell said he treated people in every department of the Review-Journal with equal respect, from the newsroom to circulation and production.

Fleming also cared deeply about the newspaper’s role serving Las Vegas. He left the outlet in 2010, following a change in ownership.

“The newspaper is about involvement with the rest of the community. You want to do things to make things better for people,” Mitchell said. “That’s one of the things that Allan hoped for, to make the community all a little better by doing what our job is.”

Monica Fleming said she plans on holding a celebration of life for her husband in spring next year.

Contact Mark Credico at mcredico@reviewjournal.com.