Tributes to Dave Hess
Abe Zaidan,
former BJ political columnist and Washington Post correspondent, leads off some
heart-warming tributes to the late Dave Hess, who served the BJ and
Knight-Ridder as Washington Bureau correspondent and chief:
To his
sources and friends Dave Hess was a superb reporter. That was his widely
respected professional side, a generous, thoughtful human being who loved his
work and spent the necessary time to clarify what seemed to be a bureaucratic
riddle to others. But to those of us who enjoyed his anecdotal side, too, he
was an awful poker player. Just awful.
 |
| Abe Zaidan |
That’s
how I want to remember Dave, who died this week, because as a colleague closer
to him than a brother for decades, our smokey head to head gambling at the
Columbus Press Club and wherever else has left us the stories that we have
repeated to those who didn’t know him beyond his bylines.
As we
gathered after hours to shuffle the cards, he was a determined man of caustic
wit who seldom walked away from the table a winner. He lost in ways that
betrayed his studied logic and journalistic insight during his newsroom hours.
To the others who wearily felt that 2 a.m. was a good time to round off the
game, he ranted that we were all “candy asses” and insisted that we stick
around until his luck changed. Alas, the club manager told us that he had to
turn out the lights, so we gave in to Dave’s threats and marched to the
Southern Hotel , a ragtag handful of reporters who wanted to rent a room to
continue the games. Sorry, the night clerk told us. No luggage, no rentals.
House rules.
We
finally persuaded Dave to get off his soap box before he woke up all of the
guests.
When I
became the editor of a new liberal magazine in Columbus (In Darkest Ohio, the
New Republic headlined a story I had written for it) it was my great fortune
that he came aboard the tiny staff to do some of the finest journalism the city
had ever seen.
His
mind sped through complicated budgets from the Statehouse to nail the slightest
trace of deception in dollars and cents. With incredible concentration he could
pass through pages of official documents that were only meant to muddy the
official report. Oh, there were times as his editor that I had to strip out
some libelous references in his reports to the stiffs at the Statehouse ,
telling him that you couldn’t refer to a state senator as a “lying son-of-a
bitch”.
“Well,
he is!” Dave replied indignantly, knowing full well that his crisp description
would never make it in print. But it was fun.
And
that was the life blood of what an association with Dave was all about. Unlike
today’s buttoned down hometown dailies, with reporters who prefer tennis and
cheese and crackers to after-hours labors, those of us who worked 18-hour days
in and around the statehouse pressroom enjoyed collegiality and the competition
of out-doing each other before we all went to lunch together..
Dave
Hess was one of the few from that crowd who was the last man standing for his
profession, never once complaining about the long hours and skimpy pay. Up from
the hollows of West Virginia, Dave viscerally asserted his pride in his life as
a journalist writing furiously as an Ohio government reporter even though he
had a master’s degree in Latin American politics!
We
lost our jobs at the magazine that lost its angel when Murray Lincoln, the
liberal founder of Nationwide Insurance, died. Dave arrived at the Beacon
Journal shortly after Ben Maidenburg - a very conservative editor, hired me.
Old School Ben, like Knight, didn’t mind adding a couple of liberal Democrats
to the staff.
Indeed,
in my first interview with Ben, we had an argument and he labeled me a
“socialist”. I figured that killed any chance of me working at the BJ, even though
he had excessively described my views. Next day, he hired me saying how much he
enjoyed working with somebody who could argue so well. It didn’t take long for
the bosses to recognize Dave’s talent and eventually send him to the Washington
Bureau. The Potomac media so respected his talent that they elected him
President of the National Press Club.
When
the club asked me to write a satirical profIle of Dave for its in-house tribute
to him, I wrote that he was a “beady-eyed hillbilly” who somehow found his way
to the top. It broke Dave up.
Dave
stayed in close touch and for the first four of five years of my blog, you
could find his searing comments about the white collar crowd of pretenders on
Capitol Hill. Nobody knew Gov. Kasich as well as Dave when Kasich was in
Congress. And it often showed.
And
with the passing of John Knight and decline of the hometown papers , you can
only wonder how Dave, the pure pro, would react to seeing the front page of the
paper in these troubled times with a big story across the top, of a new
amusement park roller coaster. His coverage of Donald Trump would have been
choice reading.
I’m
sorry that so much of the above is personal. But the loss of Dave Hess won’t be
forgotten by me in any other way.
Tom Moore, once in charge of BJ makeup
and goddammits, chimed in:
 |
| Tom Moore |
I'm sorry to hear about Dave. I've known him
since 1952 when he was a part-timer on the Bluefield Daily Telegraph (in West Virginia and the birthplace of John S.
Knight), where his dad, Wink, was city editor.
And when the magazine he and Abe worked on
folded, I ran into Wink on a visit to Columbus. He hoped to keep Dave at least
in the state and asked me about the Beacon Journal.
I knew we were always looking for good people
and said I'd ask Maidenburg. I suggested to Ben that Abe and Dave would be good
additions to the staff.
After they were hired, Dave slept in my
basement for a week until he found lodging. And Abe has done him good with his
tribute.
 |
| Marv Katz |
Marv
Katz, who included the Beacon Journal in his 40-year career and lives in
Hendersonville, North Carolina, added:
Sorry to read about Dave's death. He was one
of a kind. Great tribute, Abe.
Dan Moldea, of Akron, a crime reporter
for 42 years, wrote:
Deepest sympathy, Abe. . . . Like you, Dave
Hess was a great reporter.
 |
| Bill Hershey |
Former BJ Columbus Burea whiz Bill Hershey, who
lives in Columbus, wrote:
Dave was a contributor to the Kent State coverage by Beacon Journal
staff that won a Pulitzer in 1971. Dave also received awards and praise for his
coverage of the Firestone 500 problems -- great example of digging and consumer
reporting.
