Friday, July 08, 2005
Donn F. Gaynor news obit
Newsman Donn F. Gaynor dies of lung cancer at age 78
Retired journalist known for putting together accurate, well-written articles
By Marilyn Miller
Beacon Journal staff writer
Colleagues describe retired Akron Beacon Journal copy editor and reporter Donn F. Gaynor as soft-spoken and easygoing, but a great newspaperman.
``He was a journeyman's journeyman in the business. We won't see his caliber again,'' said copy editor Charles Montague, who worked by Mr. Gaynor's side. ``His work was well-written and well-researched and he always managed to put things in perspective for the reader.''
Mr. Gaynor died Wednesday of lung cancer. He was 78.
Born in Indianapolis, he loved the outdoors and taking day trips. His family said he would often throw his fishing gear into the car and venture out from his Firestone Park home.
Mr. Gaynor was known for putting together accurate and well-written articles in a short time.
Montague still remembers one of Mr. Gaynor's best lead paragraphs because it was concise and to the point: ``The car went three miles the wrong way on the East Expressway before the inevitable happened.''
Ironically, Mr. Gaynor was at work the day a similar story would be written about his own family.
In April 1974, Mr. Gaynor received a call from his wife telling him his 2-year-old granddaughter had fallen, so she and their daughter were taking the child to the doctor.
Then 1 ½ hours later, he received another call telling him there had been a car accident and he needed to go to Barberton Citizens Hospital. He recalled what happened next to a reporter: ``She was dead -- they were all dead when I got there.''
The crash claimed his wife, Paula, his oldest daughter, Patricia Wines, and his granddaughter, Cynthia. Mrs. Gaynor apparently lost control of her car and swerved into the path of a truck.
The accident that claimed three generations of family members was less than two miles from their home.
``It was devastating for all of us, and despite his personal suffering, Dad pulled us all through it,'' said daughter Pam Ruff of Norton. ``He was never the same after the accident. He remained faithful to Mom. He never dated and he never took off his wedding ring.''
Ruff said her father was a lovable, caring person.
``He cared for everyone else, but never wanted anyone to fuss over him,'' she said.
On July 9, 2001, he lost his only son, Donn Michael, when he suffered an apparent heart attack while riding a motorcycle.
He is survived by two daughters.
A self-taught newsman, Mr. Gaynor attended Butler University in Indianapolis.
He worked for the Mansfield News Journal for 10 years before joining the Akron Beacon Journal in 1966. He was a reporter, assistant city editor, city editor then copy editor until retiring in 1993.
An aviation buff, he was in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1945 to 1947, then worked for Lake Central Airlines and Chicago and Southern Airlines as a baggage handler and operations agent.
``We used to go out to the Akron Fulton Airport and watch the small planes take off and land,'' Ruff said. ``He also taught us all how to drive, grandchildren, too, in the airport parking lot there.''
He started out as a police and fire reporter at the Mansfield newspaper.
``He used to listen to the police scanner and hop in the car and take us with him while he chased down the story or followed fire trucks,'' Ruff said.
As a copy editor, he still listened to his police scanner and would call the news desk to report breaking news.
He was also known to crack jokes and his humor often showed through the headlines he wrote. He used to joke about how he always had to defend his double-N Donn, saying it was his only distinction.
When he learned the late Donn F. Eisele was appointed an astronaut in 1968, Mr. Gaynor wrote a piece for the newspaper.
``Being a double-N Donn is a darn nuisance,'' he wrote. ``I see that Gov. Jim Rhodes welcomed you to your hometown, Columbus, after your record-setting flight in Apollo 7, with a letter addressed to Don (one-N-only). I know how it hurts.''
He wrote that he was named with two N's either because he was born during a tornado or the result of a breeze that shook his mother's hand when she signed the birth certificate.
``Later, when I noticed that I wasn't like the other kids, namewise, I asked Mom, `How come I got two N's in my name?' '' the story went on. ``She told me she read it on the side of a boxcar in a passing freight train.
``She never offered any other explanation. I didn't, until that time, even know that Mother read boxcars. You should read my mail. Usually it is addressed to Don or Donald, seldom Donn.
``I have gotten mail addressed to Dawn, Down, Dinn, Dunn and, on at least two occasions, Damn Gaynor -- of course, those two might have been intentional.''
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or 800-777-7232 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com
Gaynor Services
Calling hours for Donn F. Gaynor will be 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Newcomer Funeral Home, 131 N. Canton Road, Akron. Services will be at 1 p.m. Monday at the funeral home, with burial in Greenlawn Cemetery. The family suggests donations be made to the American Cancer Society.
[Akron Beacon Journal, Akron, OH, Friday, July 8, 2005, page B6, col. 3]
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3 comments:
Donn Gaynor had one of the best sense of humor I think I’’ve ever seen. Almost a smile and a quip……easy going..and this must have been a trait that saw him through some big, big potholes in the road. And Donn was one of a vanishing breed——a true newsman who worked at a craft he loved……not because he had a bunch of initials after his name. And he could write rings around those degree folks. Donn was a reporter, a rewrite man and a copyeditor..who excelled in all those jobs. Because he loved the profession. And he rose to meet any challenge and situation that came along.
One Saturday night he was my late man on the copydesk. The first papers had come up from the pressroom and we were checking for errors. Only Donn and I were left on the desk. On the other side of the room, a new man was riding the city desk. My phone rang. It was publisher Ben Maidenburg. And he wanted to know: "Who the hell is that person on the city desk! I just talked to him, The Rev. Billington died and he asked me ‘‘who’’s he’’". I explained the fellow was new and wasn’’t up on some of the more prominent folks I told Ben the situation would be handled.
I turned to Donn and told him that the reverend had passed on. Donn immediately picked up the, dialed the reverend’’s home and talked to the son. He got the information and wrote the story while I cleared a space on page one. I went to the morgue to look for a mug——hoping I’’d find a head shot engraving which we usually kept. But at the time, engraving was changing from a heavy metal to a thinner one and the guy running the morgue at that time had thrown the old engravings away, even though they could be used by adjusting the thickness of the base used in makeup. Of course engraving had been gone for sometime, so we couldn’’t have a new one made.
And then Donn remembered: "He runs a mug shot with his ad on the Saturday church page." The composing room folks found the ad, cut the mug shot out and we caught most of the run that night with a photo and a story, thanks to a great professional.
And on the lighter side, Donn would joking flirt with some of the ladies. A new young girl was hired for the morgue. Donn was looking up something in the files and joking with her. He asked her: "Where have you been all my life?" She replied: "Well, I wasn’’t born for most of it!" That was our friend and colleague…… And too few of people like him are still around.
---------Tom Moore
Our prayers and condolences to the family. He was a great newspaperman.
Donn was a wonderful newsman with a great sense of humor and an infectious laugh. I joined the BJ about a year after Donn and he bailed me out of trouble any number of occasions as I tried to shed my military habits and sort my way through a cop beat that had been worked by John Larabee and the legendary Bill Berger. Donn knew what questions to ask when I didn't and where and how to check the material I was collecting. And he and Bandy could work a story on the phone better than anyone I've ever known, especially when the deadline was on top of you. I hope Heaven enjoys your wit, old friend, as much as we did. They broke the mold when you retired.
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