My Career
A few months after leaving college, I was hired in September 1984 at the Peoria Journal Star, one of Illinois' biggest papers. For the next three years, I learned the ropes from experienced reporters and helpful editors. I also met my future wife, Marie, in a local pub. Marie's career in TV news soon took us to Kansas City and then to Dallas.
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After two years at The Blue Springs Examiner in the Kansas City suburbs, I managed to get hired at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Unfortunately, I was fired one year later because of a personality conflict with my bureau chief. But the next four years at the Dallas Business Journal presented an exciting chance to learn business news and to experience Big D.
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Marie and I got married, started a family, and decided to return to the Midwest. I joined the Rockford Register Star for six years that yielded my favorite award -- Illinois investigative reporter of the year in 1997. We then headed north to Wisconsin, where I joined the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, one of the Midwest's biggest newspapers.
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I would have been content to spend the rest of my career in Milwaukee. But the explosion of the internet brought seismic changes to the newspaper business. Newspaper owners struggled to keep up. After nearly 10 years, I was laid off in 2009 in an economic downsizing. I headed north to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, where I covered City Hall and other big news for six years. Then came another layoff.
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After a brief stop at the Shawano Leader west of Green Bay, I turned back southward. I became editor of the Lake Geneva Regional News, a weekly paper in the tourist mecca of Lake Geneva, not far from Chicago. When the paper was sold, the new owners made me a reporter at their daily Racine Journal Times. Four years later, I was laid off again in another downsizing.
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It was September 2024 -- the same month I was celebrating 40 years as a professional newspaper reporter. Reaching that milestone brought a sense of satisfaction. And finality.
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It was a job I enjoyed every day. I couldn't wait to get to work each morning. I loved telling strangers what I did for a living. Most of all, I never stopped feeling excited to be the one person in the room who was there to tell the story.
