CONCORD, N.H. – George Wilson, former publisher of the Concord Monitor, has died of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 74.

Wilson died Wednesday in Concord, his family said. In addition to his publishing duties, he was chief executive officer of the family company that also owns the Valley News of Lebanon, the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript of Peterborough, The Recorder of Greenfield, Mass., and the Daily Hampshire Gazette of Northampton, Mass.

Former Monitor editor Mike Pride, who went to work for Wilson in 1977, remembered him as a perfectionist in an imperfect world.

“No matter how rich the news report was on a given day, a typo, a poorly reproduced photograph or an italic headline on a news story could ruin his day,” Pride wrote in a tribute on the Monitor’s website. “I kicked the garbage can in my office more than once after a conversation with George. The flip side was that when I made a real mistake, he helped me get past it without losing confidence or ambition for the paper.”

Wilson’s first newspaper job was with The Washington Post, where he wrote for the women’s section. In 1961, he married Marily Dwight, whose family owned the Monitor, and started selling ads for the paper a year later.

“George Wilson was a true newsman who worked his way up in the industry,” U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said in a statement Thursday. “He recognized the importance of good journalism and the value of supporting and fostering strong, vibrant local newspapers. I will always admire his dedication to covering state government, his journalistic standards, and his commitment to running an independent newsroom.”

Gov. John Lynch said Wilson left a “tremendous legacy.”

“George Wilson was committed to quality local journalism, setting high standards and sticking to his principles,” Lynch said.

Wilson became publisher in 1974 and served on The Washington Post’s board. Post Chairman Donald Graham told the Monitor that Wilson was everything that a community would want in a newspaper publisher.

“George was as smart as they come and was also as principled as they come,” he said.

Wilson retired in 2005.