Ted Schneider aka Ann Hill & Tom Moore

BJ reunion re-stokes the legend of Ann Hill

BJ newsroom retiree Tom Moore, who’s a conductor on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad when he isn’t spending his autumns in Fort Myers, Florida helping former BJ sports editor Tom Giffen run the Roy Hobbs Baseball World Series for old guys who can’t give up the game, had a BJ reunion on the tracks.

Ted Schneider, former BJ photographer and line drawer, popped onto the train.

Tom said they had a good conversation about their fun days at the BJ.

Ted’s main claim to fame was looking up Ann Hill, the famous BJ job applicant who left in disgust because “I didn’t come here to do shit work,” in California and telling her about how she had become a legend in BJ lore.

He tried to entice Ann to return to the annual BJ Christmas parties that featured a reading of the Ann Hill letter for three decades, and read it herself on the 25^th anniversary of the writing of the scathing memo, but she declined.

Ted has done the Ann Hill letter in nun habit and in rap style and is the most memorable Ann Hill letter performer.

Ann Hill was an Ohio State University magna cum laude graduate with a masters in journalism/PR who came to the Beacon for a one-day tryout. 

After wading through enough work to bog down Woodward and Bernstein, the last straw was being sent to cover a Canton sewers meeting.

The only thing Ann wrote was her memo to Managing Editor Bob Giles complaining of the Army-like discipline and "shitwork" and reminding B.G. that she was a superstar at OSU.

And thus the legend began.

Ann's biography says that she was a feature writer and investigative reporter with the Dayton Daily News and other daily newspapers and founded her first marketing and public relations agency, Hill & Zoog, in Columbus in 1978, primarily as a political consultant for Ohio politicians.

Ann went to California and started the Ann Hill Communications company in 1985 in San Rafael. She is the principal owner.

As he has for years, after the readings of the Ann Hill letter former State Desk assistant editor John Olesky stands up in reference to the Canton sewers assignment and exclaimed: "Englehart made me do it!"

That would be another legend, the late Patrick T. Englehart of Mogadore, who was State Desk Editor when Ann Hill strolled into and stormed out of the Beacon Journal.

Maybe what made Ann – and Ted in his skits while reading her letter – strike such a chord is that we all wished we had done that.

Ted’s daughter Tanya lives in Oregon, Renee in Wooster, Stacy in Florida and Ted III in Akron. Rose, Erik, Rick, Jess O. Dore, David and Stacy fit into the family fabric, too.