Lunch bunch remembers Fred Bochert

Former printer Fred Bochert's death at age 92 was one of many topics discussed at the monthly Papa \Joe's restaurant lunch today. Donovan Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Newsroom retiree Tom Moore, who spent a lot of time in Composing room, recalls Fred as being the

copy-cutter -- his obituary described his role as supervising in the Composing Room. For those who don't remember hot type, that means Fred took a long story, which a reporter had typed on paper and an editor had edited on that same paper, and cut it up into several pieces. That way the story would be finished much faster than if only one typesetter set the entire story. Then the segments of the story would be put together on a galley, a tray that held the type.

It's a long way from today's story typed by a reporter on his computer and goes through editors, headline-writer and a page layout artist before it shows up on a finished page.

As for Tom, he was wearing his new glasses after cataract surgery on his left eye. He also had a new camera to show off, which takes a single panarama photo as Tom scanned the other BJ folks at the table.

For the third straight month seven people showed up for the lunch. In addition to Tom Moore, attendees were engraving's Pat Dougherty, printers Joe Catalano, Cal Deshong, Carl Nelson, Gene McClellan and newsroom retiree John Olesky.

If you want to attend, be at Papa Joe's on Akron-Peninsula Road and Portage Trail Extension at 1 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month.

Click on the headline to see photos of the July attendees, including Tom's panarama photo.