About 40-50 people turned out last Friday afternoon for Larry Froelich's retirement reception in the board room of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader.Larry's son, Eric, a sophomore at the University of Kentucky, and his wife Suzanne were in attendance along with Larry's older son, Mark, who drove down from Detroit for the occasion.
Froelich’s newsroom colleagues gave him a good-natured "roasting" for his gruff military-style leadership as news editor for the last 16 years but they also acknowledged the mentoring he has provided a number of copy and design editors and reporters over the years. They presented him with a iPod Nano, a gift certificate to a local Italian restaurant, a full-color front-page mockup of his foibles and idiosyncracies, including pretending to be hard of hearing at critical moments and loudly cursing the television whenever his beloved Browns or Indians screwed up. He also received a poster-size character illustration drawn by H-L artist Chris Ware that was signed by members of the newsroom..
A number of news and copy editors appeared at the reception in Larry's standard attire: tweed sport jacket, Polo shirt, khaki slacks and tennis shoes. Monday, Oct. 31, was actually his last day of work, and just as he has every workday, he ended in the Pressroom, where he was given the honor of throwing the switch to send papers to the loading docks.
Froelich began his career with Knight in 1967 at the Akron Beacon Journal as a police reporter, moved on to the Detroit Free Press in early 1981 where he eventually became assistant news editor before finally landing in Lexington in the fall of 1989. After a short break he's been asked to return to the Herald-Leader on a part-time basis to work primarily as the night slot on the copy desk. His other plans include traveling abroad with Suzanne and taking advantage of the Donovan Scholars program at UK which enables retirees to audit classes at the university free of charge.
Eventually the Froelichs plan to move to Detroit where they have grandchildren and many colleagues from their Freep days.
Good grief, Larry. First you retire and the next thing we know the top shareholder wants to sell the whole damn KRI conglomerate. Congratulations on your retirement.
ReplyDeleteCongrats Larry.Thought you had left the country.Good to know you are OK.
ReplyDeleteJim mullen
Oh, so YOU'RE Larry Froelich.
ReplyDeleteOh, so YOU'RE Larry Froelich. I thought you were Bill Hershey till Rover's master shaved and cut his hair. I followed your career when you left the BJ to become part of Scott Bosley's "Akron Mafia" at the Free Press.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your retirement. I hope you enjoy it as much as the rest of us do.