Let me refresh your memory.
I started working at the Devils Lake Journal in October of 2003 answering an ad that they needed a reporter to write stories and cover events in the community.
I figured I could do that. This was my hometown, I knew the community, and I’d been an English teacher, I could write, what more would I need?
The editor at the time was Gordon Weixel and Kathy Svidal was the publisher. I remember I brought with me some writing I’d done in college, a review of Kushner’s “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” and copies of a newletter I’d published the almost 20 years I’d been a campus minister at Minot State and later Dickinson State universities for the Diocese of Bismarck.
I interviewed with both of them and the next day they hired me.
I learned so much those first couple of years, and I can honestly say I was still learning the day I retired 17 years later on November 2, 2020. By then I had been promoted to be the editor and for a number of months had the unusual experience of even doing the whole paper all by myself. Now THAT was a lot of work! My days often started at 4 or 5 a.m. and lasted until long into the night, sometimes as late as midnight.
Working with a former editor (Tommy Wells) who had moved back to Alaska, we even managed to cover most local sports, as well. Wells never stepped foot in ND at that time, but he had a gift of writing what I came to call “sports-ese” – it’s not quite English-teacher fare – and I would take photos at games and he would write up the stories from the stats I would e-mail him. It was as if he was in the gym with us! Now that’s talent!
When I retired I was 68 years old and oh, so ready!
Two years later, in November of 2022, when Kathy Svidal called me and told me she and her business partners at Champion Media had purchased the Devils Lake Journal from the previous owners – USA Today/Gannett, what I affectionately had called “our benevolent overlords” -and that they wanted my help making the newspaper a local newspaper again.
Thanks to the pandemic I was retired for nearly two whole years and well rested but I was glad to get back to work. While retired I read more than 50 books and watched way more TV than was good for me, so I was ready to get back to work doing something I truly enjoyed. But somewhere along the line, I got the impression that it was to be a full time job for only about six months, or so, until they could find someone to replace me and then I could go part time if I wanted to or write as an occasional contributor or be a stringer – whatever.
Those early months were rather tough for us, but we managed to get the paper back to focusing on Devils Lake, the Lake Region, surrounding communities and local North Dakota News.
I’m proud of the Devils Lake Journal and how we have covered hometown news and events throughout the years.
The last couple of years have been the best of them all. First we welcomed Mojo, Joe Hill, originally from the Los Angeles, California area and college in Oregon, he was right out of college and eager to make his place as a sports reporter. Hasn’t he done a magnificent job?
Then we added Noah Clooten, a junior in high school, who is going places in the world of photography and videography, mark my words! What a delightful young man he was to work with and now that he has graduated from high school and moved on to the “real world”, we miss him so much! Thankfully he found us another high school student who shows promise in the area of photography, too. Cameron Carlson is only a 9th grader and has developed a good eye. His pictures are almost as good as Noah’s were. We are grateful for his help and look forward to his expanding talents as he covers the sports and events throughout the community as Noah did so well for us.
Next came Andrew Benjamin from New York City. A card carrying actor who needed a job while the actor’s strike, etc., was on. He had a degree in journalism, so he applied to several places and chose Devils Lake to live and work at the DLJ for the next almost two years as a reporter. He is one of the most unique and energetic young men I have ever known! He left us this spring, headed back to NYC, his aging father and continuing to pursue acting as a profession. Rumor has it, he intends to send us a story for the Devils Lake Journal every now and then, too. He is currently working on a story with former Devils Lake resident Rhonda Rousey, of wrestling and MMA fame. Who knows, he may even decide to come back to DL to live in the future, you just never know!
Working with Mojo, Andrew and Noah was, in my estimation, the BEST team I have ever worked with! We had so much fun and enjoyed working together so much – it really was nearly perfect!
My only wish was that I could take a week off now and then, maybe go visit my pals in Minot or friends in Minnesota, take a train trip, maybe, or just a “staycation” here at home.
Now, my wish has finally come true, we have found someone to take my place and although it took longer than we thought, he’s finally here – Mark Robinson is now the editor of the Devils Lake Journal. And I can step back – pass the torch to a new editor.
If I’d painted a picture of the person who’d be my replacement, it would have been Mark. I just met the guy last Thursday as we picked him up at the Devils Lake Regional Airport and I’m already calling him “my other brother from another mother!” (sorry Daryl — my 83-year-old biological brother who lives in the L.A. area)
I’m SO glad Mark is here and I have no intentions of running off on him. He’s going to need a teeny bit of training but the guy’s got talent and can he write! I am impressed already after only five days!
So, I’m not going anywhere! But, I do intend eventually to go half time – work maybe 20 hours a week or even less – but will continue to write for the newspaper and to attend whatever events around the region I can, taking pictures and doing human interest stories. For now, I am calling myself “the retiring editor” – so can you! Please, welcome him to the DLJ and the community as you have me all these years! God bless you all!
