Former BJ op-ed editor and Kent State faculty retiree Bob Springer and KSU retiree Barbara Hipsman Springer, Bob’s wife, are in Portland, Oregon for several weeks visiting their daughters, Anna and Kyle, who live there. Anna moved from St. Charles, Illinois in 2014 to join her sister.

Bob spent his 35^th wedding anniversary helping Anna move while Barb stayed behind in the Midwest.

Bob and Barb are really cozy in the rental you see. Barb calls it a “very tiny house.”

Writes Bob:

“The kitchen and bath are downstairs, a bedroom up with a queen that more or less takes up all the space. No TV, so we can be forced to get out and hike Mount Tabor Park."

They’ll switch to a different B&B for another 10 days before they head for Arizona. Bob and Barb are quite familiar with the Cactus State since they’ve vacationed there a lot, and for more than just a few weeks at a time.

Barb retired in 2013 after 26 years in Journalism and Mass Communication at Kent State.

Bob came to Kent State in 2008 as an academic adviser after 19 years at the Beacon Journal as a copy editor, reporter and, for his final 14 years, as the Op-ed editor and member of the editorial board. 

He is a Southern Illinois journalism graduate who also worked at the Rocky Mountain News, the Denver Post and the weekly Center (Colorado) Post-Dispatch.