Remembering a colleague
So one of the best things about working in the news business is the crazy and interesting people you meet. Some of them are people you interview, but a lot of them are people you work with in the newroom.
I got an email from a former co-worker yesterday letting me know someone we worked with in Norwich died. Tony Whyte was one of those great newspaper characters. He'd worked everywhere, knew everything. He spoke much better Spanish than I did (not saying much) and he and this other guy Chuck would gossip with me in Spanish, because we were the only ones who knew the language. I didn't work with him very long - he left Norwich for the Danbury News Times soon after I started working there, but he was one of the first people I met. He had organized a team from the newsroom to help new people move - I think they were the RATs (relocation assistance team or something like that - and he and a bunch of my new co-workers showed up at my apartment on moving day. We had gotten there a few hours earlier than we expected so I was pretty much unpacked, but it was nice to meet some people before having to start my first job right out of college in a new state away from my family. Strangely, I was just thinking about him the other day before I heard the news.
I just found his obit and found a few more interesting things: He was a U.S. Army veteran, serving in the Caribbean, Korea and Japan; he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1970 for a series on China; he served at newspapers in Puerto Rico, Oregon, Washington and Connecticut, including the Norwich Bulletin and, most recently, The News-Times for the past seven years; he also served in the editorial departments of two television stations, one in Puerto Rico and the other in Portland, Ore.; he was bilingual in English and Spanish and was conversational in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Russian.
They just don't make them like this anymore.
I got an email from a former co-worker yesterday letting me know someone we worked with in Norwich died. Tony Whyte was one of those great newspaper characters. He'd worked everywhere, knew everything. He spoke much better Spanish than I did (not saying much) and he and this other guy Chuck would gossip with me in Spanish, because we were the only ones who knew the language. I didn't work with him very long - he left Norwich for the Danbury News Times soon after I started working there, but he was one of the first people I met. He had organized a team from the newsroom to help new people move - I think they were the RATs (relocation assistance team or something like that - and he and a bunch of my new co-workers showed up at my apartment on moving day. We had gotten there a few hours earlier than we expected so I was pretty much unpacked, but it was nice to meet some people before having to start my first job right out of college in a new state away from my family. Strangely, I was just thinking about him the other day before I heard the news.
I just found his obit and found a few more interesting things: He was a U.S. Army veteran, serving in the Caribbean, Korea and Japan; he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1970 for a series on China; he served at newspapers in Puerto Rico, Oregon, Washington and Connecticut, including the Norwich Bulletin and, most recently, The News-Times for the past seven years; he also served in the editorial departments of two television stations, one in Puerto Rico and the other in Portland, Ore.; he was bilingual in English and Spanish and was conversational in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Russian.
They just don't make them like this anymore.
posted by Robin at Friday, January 27, 2006
2 Comments:
How cool to have someone remember you like you did! He sounds like he was an awesome person...thanks for sharing
Tony Whyte was my step-dad in the 70's. I saw that he died. I have wondered how he was and what he was like since I last saw him. If you could give me some info on what he was like when you knew him, that would be great. He was married to my mother when he worked at the newspaper and television station in Portland,OR.
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