When former BJ copy editor Art Cullison was asked for an update on his life, he phoned former BJ copy editor Tim Hayes and asked Tim to pass along this information (typing, Art told Tim, “is a chore” nowadays):
Retired copy editor (and assistant state editor and TV, movie and night club reviewer) Art Cullison and his bride of 67 years, Helen Louise, have been living for the past three years in an assisted living community in Erlanger, Ky., near their son Dick. Art uses a walker to get around and says reading is difficult. Still, he keeps up with the Beacon online, reading the headlines and checking the obits. He retired from the BJ in 1985 after 36 years.
Helen Louise, a retired Copley High teacher, suffers from Alzheimer's, but she joins Art in reading the paper and watching the news on television. Art says she still recognizes him and always has a smile for him.
H.L. was active in the League of Women Voters in Akron, having served as president and organizing and moderating candidates' nights.
The Cullisons were avid bridge players, but Art hasn't been able to find a game since moving. He plays cribbage with his grandson, and says he can't wait until April when baseball season begins. Also in April, Art will turn 90. Helen Louise will be 89 in June.
Their address is
3900 Riggs Avenue
Longhouse Room 204
Erlanger, KY 41018
Telephone: 859-342-4018
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Art would appreciate hearing from former co-workers, by phone or by U.S. mail or by email at alcullison@insightbb.com
A January 28, 2008 BJ Alums blog report, based on Mark Price’s BJ story, recalled League of Women Voters president Helen’s 1962 task as moderator of Akron’s 1st Neighborhood Forum. On the panel were Levi L. Smith, director of the Institute for Civic Education at the University of Akron; Mayor Edward O. Erickson, Paul Belcher, chairman of the mayor’s financial task force, and Neal Heintz, city finance director.
See the BJ Alums blog story and photo.
Art was a ferocious defender of grammar and the English language. When Art and the late Hal Fry were on the BJ copy desk they might have formed the most learned pair west of the New York Times.
Personal Note: Once when I was Television Editor at the BJ, Art came over to my desk and opened with, “You sure talk funny.” Then he stopped dead in his vocal tracks when he realized that, yes, as a man with a cleft palate, I do “talk funny.” Eventually, Art recovered enough to make his point in a different way: Write stories so that you’re talking to the reader, not caught up in esoteric rules inflicted upon you during journalism school. I passed that idea along to reporters for decades in a slightly different manner: Write as if you are talking to your neighbor over the backyard fence. Don’t try to be a Hemingway or a Shakespeare. Make it easy for the reader to understand the story you’re telling, and the information easy to comprehend without a barrier of writing obfuscating (Art will love that word).
Art has his sense of humor, too. A June 09, 2007 BJ Alums blog article by Tom Moore reveals that:
Publisher Ben Maidenburg had forgotten his ID. When Ben came though the door, the guard asked him for his ID. Ben told him he'd forgotten it, but he assured the fellow that he worked there. The guard was not satisfied. He took Ben into the office and sitting at the old horse-shoe copy desk was copy editor Art Cullison.
“You know this fellow?” the guard asked.
Art looked at Ben and said with a straight face: “Never saw him before in my life!”
Ben had to go downstairs in the parking garage and come up through the lobby. But he did have a sense of humor, so Art didn't get the can.
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Art was a regular at the monthly gathering of BJ alums at Papa Joe’s restaurant on Akron-Peninsula Road at Portage Trail Extension as late as April 2007 till he and Helen moved to Erlanger, Kentucky three years ago. (Retirees and former BJ staffers meet there at 1 p.m. the second Wednesday of every month.}
At the Nov. 8, 2006, Papa Joe’s lunch laughfest, Art brought wife Helen because they were celebrating their 64th wedding anniversary that day.
A Nov. 4, 2005 BJ Alums article had a 1974 photo of Art and Helen enjoying a double celebration: Art’s induction into the BJ 25-Year Club on their 32nd wedding anniversary.
Click on the headline to see photos of Art and Helen Cullison.
Remember, to contact Art, it’s
3900 Riggs Avenue
Longhouse Room 204
Erlanger, KY 41018
Telephone: 859-342-4018
Email: alcullison@insightbb.com
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