Dodge Morgan, the former owner of the Maine Times and Casco Bay Weekly, has died at the age of 78.

Morgan owned the now-defunct Maine Times from 1985 to 1997, a period during which the paper hosted AAN’s 1987 Annual Convention in Portland, Maine. The Casco Bay Weekly closed its doors in Nov. 2002, eight months after Morgan had fired the paper’s entire editorial staff in an ugly episode that included allegations that “one of the fired staff had peed on [some] files.”

A Richard Branson-esque figure, Morgan was also notable for being the first American to sail solo around the world, a feat recounted by the New York Times in his obituary:

Aboard the 60-foot sloop American Promise, Mr. Morgan slipped into the port of St. George, Bermuda, at 1:31 p.m. on April 11, 1986, completing the 27,000-mile circumnavigation in 150 days 1 hour 6 minutes. He had sailed out of Bermuda on Nov. 12, 1985. The voyage — often through roiling seas and occasionally past icebergs — shattered the previous record of 292 days set by a British sailor, Chay Blyth, in 1971.

A flotilla of small boats, a throng of well-wishers and a bagpiper welcomed Mr. Morgan to shore that day. His wife, Manny, and his two children handed him a cheeseburger and a bag of popcorn.