RV Media Founder Dies

If you read Trailer Life or Motorhome magazines, or are a member of the Good Sam Club, chances are Art Rouse had a hand in your RV life. Art bought the little industry produced Trailer Life magazine in 1958, seeing what he felt was a surge of interest in the recreational trailer industry. "For two years," Rouse recalled, "it cost me every cent I had." But Art's tenacity brought him great rewards: Within 10 years TL's circulation blossomed, and Art started buying out his competitors. At that decade mark, he founded Motorhome magazine. He and his little family business bought up a newly formed RVer's group--the Good Sam Club.

If the 'rest is history,' then Art Rouse leaves a big mark in it. The TL family got bigger, and eventually became the 'children' of Affinity Group, Inc, a major player--should we say the major player--in the RV publishing industry. Along the way Art endeared himself to RVers by writing a down-home column in his first RV magazine. He lived the lifestyle that he wrote about, keeping a motorhome in action up to the time of his death, last Friday, at the age of 89.

Photo courtesy Affinity Group, Inc.