Post of the day -- HBP
Because our archives are cranky and because some of you don't go back that far, we elevate a comment from Roy Reed of Hogeye, reporter and UA journalism prof: on the death of Hugh B. Patterson Jr., former Arkansas Gazette publisher: He wrote the NY Times obituary, which appeared Wednesday.
I could make a case that the eight best years of my life were spent working for J. N. Heiskell, Harry Ashmore, Bill Shelton, and Hugh Patterson. Hugh paid my salary and that would have been enough, but he did more. He sat in his office downstairs and endured the certain knowledge that up above him, on the third floor, were a couple of dozen of the crankiest editors and the most arrogant reporters ever assembled in an American newsroom. He put up with us because now and then one of us would find a story that made him proud, or some Allbright or Owens or Whitworth or Portis or some kid who was there today and gone tomorrow would strike off a sentence that would make him smile. That's all he required. In my opinion, that's a definition of a good publisher.
Comments
I was living outside the state during the time of the Great Newspaper War, mourning its progress on my annual visits. The day the Old Lady died marked a decline in the quality of life in Arkansas. The decline continues.
Posted by: widj | May 31, 2006 08:02 AM
Amen, widj.
Posted by: jb | May 31, 2006 08:22 AM
Paul Greenberg wrote an elegant and gentlemanly editorial on the death of Hugh B. Patterson Jr. Thanks to him and, as always, to Roy, Max, Ernie, Paul and all the others who have been so kind and who remind all of us who were there how fun and fulfilling it was to work at the Gazette during the Golden Years. Thanks even to those who have made negative and hurtful comments -- they serve to remind us all of what HBP and his colleagues went through in 1957 and, indeed, for most of their careers at the Gazette.
Posted by: Carrick Patterson | May 31, 2006 08:43 AM
I'd like all our blog friends to hear a good story about HBP and his railroad car.
Posted by: Quapaw | May 31, 2006 11:16 AM
I once worked for a certain news organization that leased office space in the Gazette building. Although I never worked with Mr. Patterson, I bumped into him often, along with many other Gazette editors and reporters. That was the brightest group of journalists I have ever encountered, and I've seen a few.
I was an avid reader of the Gazette, even subscribing to the Sunday edition when I lived out of state (it wouldn't arrive until Wednesday or so). That was a Golden Era for journalism in this state, and I miss it.
My sincere condolences and respects to the Patterson family, one of Arkansas' treasures.
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