Death of a newspaperman: PD's Don Bean

By Grant Segall
PARMA -- Unfortunately, this obituary isn't just another of Don Bean's pranks.

The long-time Plain Dealer scribe, who phoned in tycoon Cyrus Eaton's death under deadline in 1967, 12 years too soon, died Sunday at MetroHealth Medical Center from pneumonia. He was 82.

As Bean often shouted, "It really happened."

In a free-wheeling field, "Beaner" led the way. He convinced rookie reporters to go interview the mother of the unknown soldier and cover a convention of black governors when there were none. He persuaded editors to run a fictional story about "Johnny Pot," supposedly the Johnny Appleseed of marijuana.

When Bean wasn't funny, he was passionate. Short, stocky and loud, he climbed onto chairs at meetings and exhorted colleagues as president of the Cleveland Newspaper Guild and as a trustee of Church in the V.

During a strike, he stood up to a charge by mounted police. He also pressed charges in vain against a member of a rival union who supposedly struck him in the head from behind.

But Bean didn't just inspire stories. He wrote them. Colleagues say that beneath the commotion was a great reporter and mentor.

"He had sources all over the place and got all the information the rest of us couldn't get," said Tom Gaumer, a retired reporter and editor.

Bean covered the Hough and Glenville riots and Dr. Sam Sheppard's murder trial. He persuaded George Steinbrenner, who ran American Ship Building Co. before the Yankees, to release the names of three workers killed in an explosion. He said he pressed a suburban police chief so hard for information, the chief lunged across the desk and grabbed Bean's throat.

He could be sensitive, too. "This guy felt for the people he wrote about," said long-time colleague Jack Hagan.

Bean was inducted to the Press Club of Cleveland's Journalism Hall of Fame.

He once played Santa Claus on downtown streets. The rest of the year, he felt like Santa's favorite.

"There wasn't a day that I didn't want to go to work," he recently wrote.

A pro to the end, Bean wrote up material for his obit. He said he was one of five boys raised in Northfield. He graduated from what's now Nordonia Hills High School in 1946 and served in the U.S. Air Force off the Bering Strait. He graduated from Kent State University in 1954.

He worked for the Cleveland News, Cleveland Press, wire services and radio stations. He lost a race for Parma city council in 1959.

In 1961, Bean joined the PD. He variously worked as assistant city editor and covered features, courts, cops, City Hall, general assignment, obits and more.

While working at a southwest suburban bureau, the long-time Parma resident swung by the downtown office in a Stroh's T-shirt, Bermuda shorts and white socks.

Working nights for years, Bean was the rare father in the 1960s at his three children's school events and on their field trips, including a three-day tour of Washington, D.C.

Bean wrote a PD magazine piece in 1983 about giving up liquor. He'd been one of many hard-drinking reporters and driven a company car into wet cement.

In 1980, he checked into Edwin Shaw Hospital for four weeks of treatment for alcoholism. He said he never had another drink. But other habits died hard. After checking out, he bought a carton of pop, called the city desk and bragged about downing a six-pack.

Bean retired in 1994. He golfed, hiked, wrote a history of his church and gave several gallons of blood over the years.One of the most popular Bean stories has him pushing the publisher out of a first-story window.

"Wish I had," Bean said last year. "Great story."

Donald Lee Bean

1928-2010

Survivors: Wife, the former Olga Fedorovich; children, Nadine M. Bean of West Chester, Pa., Matthew M. of Wickenburg, Ariz, and Scott A. of Parma; six granddaughters and a great-granddaughter.

Funeral: 11 a.m. Saturday, Church in the Valley, 2241 Everett Road, Boston Township.

Arrangements: Mallchok Funeral Home