Saturday, January 22, 2005
Ron Kuhne’s version of ‘God willing’
This is part of an e-mail from Ron Kuhne of Fort Wayne, IN, giving his side of the “God willing: story:
I was working on the city desk. Had a nasty headcold, felt really punchy and should probably have called in sick. My jobs that day included the routine weather blurb. I knocked that out early on and just for shits and giggles added that "God willing" thing after: the standard "The sun will rise at xxx a.m. tomorrow." I figured Giles would get a chuckle out of it (I believe it was he who was working as city editor) and edit it out after chewing me out. Well, he didn't cut it, neither did the copy editor, nor the slotter. The linotype operator faithfully copied it and that's how it ended up in the paper.
I was aghast when first edition came up and it was still there. Bill Schlemmer wanted to fire me, but I think Ben Maidenberg (sp?) talked him out of it -- probably out of concern about a possible union dispute. But after that incident, I felt the handwriting on the wall and took the job on the Connecticut paper a year or so later.
Blog Note: We found Kuhne, now retired in Fort Wayne, in hopes of getting the real story on the “God willing” incident. But, alas, time may have clouded part of his recollection of the story. He says he believes Bob Giles was acting city editor at the time while Dan Warner says he was and that he fired and rehired Kuhne. See the December Archives for a piece Dec 17 by Charlies Buffum: “A story About a story” which mentions the incident and the January archives for a Jan 5 post “Dan was there for God willing” which this blogger believes was probably the correct story. What say ye, Bob Giles?
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2 comments:
Oh, my. Your email brought a chuckle at the memory of the "God willing"
story, although it didn't seem funny at the time. I am not as clear on
the date. Having it would remind me who was what in the city desk
hierarchy at the time. I was city editor from June '66 to sometime in
1968. I don't recall the details of the firing and re-hiring, but I
thought it was a good thing that Ron stayed at the paper.
Cheers and best wishes.
Bob Giles
Comment by Dan Warner:
I don't remember the date, and I may have been wrong
about being City Editor at the time.
I just remember I was sitting in the City Editor's
seat (I( may have been an assistant, tho I was never
an assistant to Bob as I recall)with Ron sitting on
the other side of the police radio and that
semi-switchboard we had, when Schlemmer came charging
out of his office and was all over me.
I also remember vividly the call from Maidenburg and
his chuckling at the item. I don't think, as Ron
suspects, it was a union matter. Ben really thought it
was funny. I didn't think it as funny as Ben did, but
remember thinking Schlemmer was overreacting.
Schlemmer was right, of course. Deliberately damaging
the integrity of the paper clearly was a firing
offense, union or not.
dan
ps. I was a bit arrogant at the time; thinking
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