D.C. Balz reports from DC

Here’s the reply I received from my letter to Doug Balz seeking information. The complete letter is posted here despite a slight hint of “Liggett bashing.” Doug, you see, is not aware how much I have mellowed since those old days.

Harry:

Yep, it's me. And I do have a web site that I'll pass on. But imagine my surprise and pleasure when I opened your letter to find that it was, indeed the feared Harry Liggett, the iron man of the desk, the one who had all of us worried about what he would say about our copy. If it got past Harry, that was good enough for me. `

And then today, what am I reading but the book compilation of the NY Times series on race, and there in one of the chapters is the story of Carl Chancellor and Bob Dyer, complete with a quote from Charlene. I tell you, between your letter and the book, I felt as if I was back in Akron. I remember it from the 70s, when the back shop was converting to cold type and we in the newsroom were learning about computers. It seems like yesterday. .

I think that what you're doing is admirable, and I hope you have great success with all the people who have passed through the Beacon newsroom. It's a great place, even if that office in the corner is no longer occupied by the man himself (so what if he paid his trainers more than his reporters). I've fiddled around with web sites, and my wife says I should get rid of AOL, that it's a waste of money and she's probably right, but I haven't done it yet, which is why my URL is douglasb1@aol.com.

A few words about me, and where I've been since leaving Akron....
I went to Miami to work on the magazine with Lary Bloom. I later edited a big project on Castro's 25th anniversary of taking over Cuba. We had a bunch of reporters and a few outside experts, working with us. It looked at Cuba and at Miami. After that I edited the daily feature section for a couple years. Somewhere in there I divorced my first wife, fell in love with someone else (in that order, by the way), got married and, when she got a classy job with Knight Ridder, as the publisher at the Gary, Ind. paper, I went to work for the Chicago Tribune. After awhile I became the editor of the Sunday Arts section. Our music critic was none other than John von Rhein. I later worked on the magazine and was the head of the features copy desk. I retired, can you believe it? in 1998 and moved to Washington to be with my wife, who was now the head of Knight Ridder-Tribune features. Wes Albers works for her. For awhile I did nothing, then took a part time job at a bookstore, and taught beginning reporting for a year at George Washington University. I have two daughters from my first marriage. Sarah, who was born in 1975, lives in Bellingham, Wash. and works for the university there. Annie, who was born in 1978 (both were born in Akron, by the way) lives in San Francisco, works with retarded children, and is getting married in December.

Whew. That's a long graph. It would never have gotten past you. Maybe six graphs, probably seven or eight. This is a daily newspaper. Not a novel.

It was great to get your letter. I hope you're well. About Pat, what can I say? I think of him and those crummy cigars he chewed on. Rum Crooks, they were. I think of his foot on the desk, demanding copy NOW!!!! Your letter brings that all of that back.

Doug

DC Balz
2264 Cathedral Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20008
E-mail: douglasb1@aol.com

[Blogger Note: The cigars were DeNobili]