Wednesday 1 April 2009

Intell class

This is how you say farewell to colleagues who become Sun Media layoff casualties:

From the leaner, redesigned Belleville Intelligencer:

Absent friends not forgotten

Posted By Bill Glisky
U
pdated 11 hours ago

As has been reported in other media and recently noted by a letter writer on these pages, these are not the happiest of days around The Intelligencer newsroom.

We, like too many other industries in these tough economic times, have had to cut staff. The cuts have not been easy; in many ways they have, in fact been extremely painful.

We are, by many standards, a fairly small operation here in the newsroom, one too-often filled with high stress and high intensity as we deal with deadlines and much too often the pressure of delving into people's lives on the worst days of their lives.

All of which naturally brings us close. So when one of us leaves, we lose not just a coworker, but a part of our working family.

In the last week or so, we have had to say good-bye to three members of that family.

Henry Bury, Barry Ellsworth and Ron Hiuser, individually and together, embodied much of what is best about small city journalism generally and The Intelligencer in particular.

Bury had been a stalwart of The Intell pages since 1976 and if you have been involved in any charitable group or event or run a business of any kind in this area in the last 30 years, odds are you have seen Henry around at some point or another.

While some reporters live for the thrill of the "big" story or the sensational tale, Bury cared about all his stories the same, from the smallest fundraiser to the biggest business success.

As one of my colleagues noted Monday, "The newsroom seems so weird without Henry here."

Amen to that.

The same can be said about Barry Ellsworth. If you have any interest in health care you have read Barry's expert coverage of all issues health related, and if you are interest in your neighbourhood you have likely read his interviews with local people run in the Saturday paper under the catchline Neighbours.

Whether listening to someone's life story or chasing down what people need to know about their public health system, Ellsworth was a "pro's pro": careful with the facts and dogged in the pursuit of them, he was also respectful, kind and decent to everyone whose path he crossed.

Ron Hiuser wore many hats in his 32 plus years at The Intell, most recently handling our Life pages, Comment pages and all our extra Saturday pages.

In the process he dealt with many of our columnists and those who share their stories with us in many ways. If you had an event coming up or wanted to share with people one that had already happened, you likely have communicated with Ron.

While Hiuser's name rarely in recent years appeared on the front page, or anywhere else, he helped make it possible for us to put out newspapers every day.

While others among us shared the spotlight, Ron did the things that enable that light to shine more brightly for all our readers.

In the end, all three men left before their time in order to allow younger people to stay for more of their own time. It was an act of graciousness, decency and unselfishness that was entirely in character for all of them.

True professionals, true gentlemen, we will miss them all. We were unquestionably better with them here than we will be without them.

End of posting.

1 comment:

  1. Absolutely fitting tribute to those guys.

    ReplyDelete