MIZELL'S STEWART LATEST JOURNALISM CAROUSEL RIDE: KSU PROFESSIONAL-IN-RESIDENCE

 

                   MIZELL LANDS ANOTHER BIG ROLE

Busy Mizell’s latest: KSU professional-in-residence

Former BJ managing editor Mizell Stewart III has been named Kent State’s School of Media and Journalism professional-in-residence.

Previously, he was the Vice President of News Performance, Talent & Partnerships for Gannett and the USA TODAY Network.

Since his arrival in September, Stewart has begun engaging as a “consultant” to Student Media. Beginning in Spring 2024, Stewart will teach two classes, Media Law and Media Enterprise, within the School of Media and Journalism.

A four-time Pulitzer Prize juror, Stewart helped lead the team at The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss. that won the 2006 Pulitzer Gold Medal in Public Service for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Bowling Green graduate Stewart, later on the Ohio university’s Board of Trustees, also is on the boards of the National Trust for Local News, Public Agenda, the National Press Club Journalism Institute and Journalism Funding Partners and is a member of advisory boards for PBS Frontline and Report for America.

IF YOU WEREN'T THERE YOU MISSED A LEGENDARY GATHERING OF BJ FOLKS

                 SEE HOW MUCH FUN IT IS TO BE AT THE MONTHLY BJ GATHERING? 

                 BILL O'CONNOR, JOAN SALISBURY, JOHN OLESKY

 

                           BJ TRIFECTA: JOHN OLESKY, BILL O'CONNOR, MIKE WILLIAMS

My, oh my, what a GREAT time YOU didn't have!!!

 

If you missed the October BJ Gathering you blew your chance to have a rollicking good time!

 

The revival of the BJ Gathering, held for decades at Papa Joe’s in the Merriman Valley, is at the Missing Falls Brewery, 540 S. Main Street, Akron.

 

Even though I sent email reminders to maybe 30 people the only ones who showed up this time were former BJ features writer Bill O’Connor, former Advertising Department layouts guy Mike Williams (who provides Tower Topics articles to me with the name of the person I tell Mike I’m going to write an article about for this blog), and John Olesky, former Television Editor/assistant State Desk editor, former Managing Editor Scott Bosley’s problem-solver that once included reorganizing desks and seating for everyone in the newsroom, former technology coordinator with Ken Wright in Composing and in other departments to keep the new-fangled computers from overwhelming everyone and John’s Tallmadge condo lady friend, Joan Salisbury, formerly of Glen Burnie, Maryland, a Baltimore suburb.

 

But what a riotous, non-stop laughing time we had!

 

Bill, who visits his wife’s Switzerland when they’re not in their sumptuous Summit County home where they throw parties to rival Perle Mesta (Hostess With the Mostess from the “Call Me Madame” movie), regaled everyone at the table with tales of tumbling merchandise that scared nasty management types.

 

Mike, who the late Johnny Grimm handed layouts with the ads marked in them for Mike to turn over to the newsroom to plunk stories around, had memories of life with his wife and high altitude adventures where she spent years with her first husband.

 

John recalled whirling dervish and newspaper master guru Pat Englehart, the overseer and driving force and #1 reason the BJ won a Pulitizer for its coverage of the 1970 killing of 4 and wounding of  9 Kent State students by the Ohio National Guard for having the temerity to give their opinion opposing the Vietnam War, a mistake people in power made before vamoosing from the country in disgrace.

 

John also told of the late assistant State Desk editor Harry Liggett, who double-checked every fact in a State Desk reporter's story quietly without being noticed, then loudly and with the legendary Liggett gruffiness calling out the reporter’s name and challenging the errors.

 

Harry’s tactics were so legendary that when Harry, after finding holes in one story he was reading, shouted “Cindy!” the woman who wrote the story began bawling as if her family had perished in a home fire because she knew she had been caught not being accurate. 

Neither Harry nor John allowed reporters to stray from the facts because they knew Pat would be on them like a Tasmanian Devil if they were sloppy about enforcing Pat's penchant for accuracy. 

As Bill pointed out at the BJ Gathering, even though the Cleveland Plain Dealer had much larger circulation it was not a pleasant place to work while the BJ was a family ruckus every night, nose to nose disputes and laughing and drinking at the Printer’s Club once we successfully got the latest edition of the BJ rolling on the presses.

John also revealed, as Scott Bosley's problem-solver, that Scott told John, in rearranging desks and personnel locations, to "make sure you have at least 3 walls around Fran (Murphey, the columnist with the bib overalls and papers on her desk that were piled so high they touched the ceiling) and that one of the walls is placed so that visitors who get off the (third floor) elevator (to the newsroom) can't see Fran" with her calamity-inviting pile of paper.

Remarkably, if you asked Fran for some information she would reach into the 6-foot mountain of papers and pull the exact information you needed from about 3.7 feet above the desktop.

If you don’t want to miss out on a fun time AGAIN, much like the ones we had across the street from the 44 E. Exchange Street BJ at the Printer’s Club (OK, bar) after we had put out another product, show up at the Missing Falls Brewery, 540 S. Main Street, Akron on the third Thursday of every month – November 16 next month – or stay home where you will hear the uproarish laughter from people who cared about and enjoyed being with such a magnificently talented group.

Bears never enjoyed bear-hugging as much as we did at the BJ. I loved working at 44 E. Exchange Street so much that I ran to work every night.

So, show up or miss the fun the third Thursday of every month at the Missing Falls Brewery where BJ folks pick a spot almost out the door and away from the rooms with raucous bars that prevented us from hearing each other’s tales and laughing and having a warm, warm feeling in our hearts!

CATCHING UP WITH MARK DAWIDZIAK, DAVID BIANCULLI, DON ROSENBERG, JANIS FROELICH, BILL O'CONNOR, BOB SPRINGER, BOB DYER & MIKE WILLIAMS

 

                        MARK DAWIDZIAK, RICH HELDENFELS, DAVID BIANCULLI, DON ROSENBERG & JANE SNOW AT LONG-AGO BJ GATHERING AT PRIMO'S DELI ON VERNON ODOM BOULEVARD IN AKRON IN 2012

Mark Dawidziak reunion with David Bianculli and Don Rosenberg

 

Plus news about Janis Froelich, Mike Williams, Bob Springer & Bill O’Connor

 

Former BJ occupants at 44 E. Exchange Street are having a reunion in New Jersey.

 

Mark Dawidziak, my TV critic when I was Television Editor at the BJ, who has Edgar Allan Poe talks scheduled in the Philadelphia-Baltimore area, is spending a few days with David Bianculli, also my TV critic during my Television Editor years at Ol’ Blue Walls, and Don Rosenberg, classical music critic at the BJ.

 

Mark’s response to my email inviting him to the 6:30 p.m. Thursday, October 19 monthly BJ Gathering at the Missing Falls Brewery, 540 S. Main Street, Akron:

 

“Writing this from David’s home in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, outside of Philadelphia. Tonight we head for the Abingdon library north of Baltimore. Tomorrow, Baltimore. Give everyone my best. I’ll do my best to make next month’s gathering.”

 

Janis Froelich, in the BJ Features Department at one time, sends her regrets from sunny Florida:

 

“Since colder weather is coming, I probably won't be in Ohio anytime soon. But I do have a high school reunion in August 2024 (don't ask what year). And I usually come in the spring. So I'll keep this BJ monthly event in mind.

 

“I now teach a writing class at Eckerd College near my island home of Tierra Verde. I love seeing all forms of writing so I'm keeping involved.

 

“Thanks for all you do, John for BJ Alums.”

Tierra Verde is a fantastic 667-acre island near the entrance to Tampa Bay and its population of 3,721 is connected by bridges of the Pinellas Byway to St. Petersburg and St. Pete Beach (with its fantastic pier where I’ve seen swarms of fish come close to the pier to get grab fish hooked and still struggling).

 

Very upscale, too. Average family income on Tierra Verde is more than $100,000.

 

The 15 original islands are now the present six areas of Tierra Verde: Monte Cristo, Entrada, Pinellas Bayway, Sands Point, East Shore (Bayview) and West Shore (Oceanview).

Bob Dyer, Ohio Columnist of the Year more times than I can count, replied to my invitation:

"Thanks, but I'm in Mexico. Have fun!"

iOle!

Katie Byard, one of the BJers who revived the BJ Gatherings, replied:

"Jimmy (Carney) and I won't be to make it this month. Familia birthday party. Stay safe, everyone."

Katie and Jim are wife and husband and both were reporters at the BJ.

Betty Lin-Fisher, who attended the September BJ Gathering, posted:

"Sorry I won't make it this month to the Gathering. A high school friend from Chicago is doing a quick and last-minute college visit to Kent State and staying at our house. Hope to see you next month!"

As for Thursday’s monthly BJ gathering at the Missing Falls Brewery, former Librarian Diane Lynch will be there. Diane joined David and Beth Hertz at a 2019 BJ reunion.

Mike Williams, a 1971 summer intern at the BJ, told me he plans to attend.

 

Mike responded to my email:

 

“I certainly share the pain over the new technologies they (current BJ employees at the Main Street relocation from 44 E. Exchange Street) had to endure.”

 

So do I, Mike. People like me, Dawidziak, Bianculli, Rosenberg, Froelich had a much better environment, with owner John S. Knight in his corner office after he flew from his Miami Herald office to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby the first Saturday in May treating everyone from the janitor to the BJ carriers to management like family.

 

I enjoyed the BJ so much that I ran to work every day. Few grumpies in the newsroom. And so much talent. And support, financial and back-patting, from JSK and upper management.

 

And I got the extra bonus of starting out as assistant State Desk editor under the late Pat Englehart, a whirling dervish that drove management crazy but instilled loyalty in his underlings. With Harry Liggett at my side the State Desk editors and reporters would push and demand excellence and respect for the BJ readers that produced a superior product with helping hands from management.

 

Those, indeed, were “the good ol’ days” of my 42-year newspaper career in West Virginia, Florida, Montana and Ohio, particularly my 26 years at Ol’ Blue Walls (somebody got the idea to pain EVERY wall in the multi-story building “Beacon Blue”).

From former BJ op ed editor Bob Springer has a prior commitment:

 

“Hey, John. Sorry, I have something else going Thursday night in Kent.”

 

Bob and Barbara Hipsman Spring were married September 1, 1979. I had to get my calculator out to figure out that’s FORTY FOUR years of wedded bliss.

 

Bob Springer’s father studied accounting at Chicago Loyola. His classmate was Bob Newhart, the famous comedian!!!

 

Barbara retired after 26 years teaching journalism at Kent State. Bob also spent time on the KSU faculty.

 

Bob and Barbara live in Fort Myers, Florida. 

Bill O’Connor, former BJ super features writer who still lives not all that many miles from 44 E. Exchange Street and throws upscale fun parties from time to time, told me “I will try to make it (to the monthly BJ gatherings) when I can.”

 

The host with the most would be sure to brighten the gathering, as he does when he throws parties at his upscale home.

HOPE TO SEE YOU AT THE REVIVAL OF THE MONTHLY BJ GATHERING OF RETIREES AND EMPLOYEES AT 6:30 P.M. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19

 

Monthly BJ Gathering 6:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 19

 

The revival of Monthly BJ Gatherings are in the Missing Falls Brewery, 540 S. Main Street, Akron on the third Thursday of every month.

 

That means you can join BJ retirees and current employees at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, October 19.

 

The BJ Monthly Gatherings were revived after it died out years ago after decades of BJ retirees and current employees meeting and chatting at Papa Joe’s in the Merriman Valley.

 

September’s BJ Gathering not far from new BJ newsroom high up in the former Goodrich Rubber building, also on Main Street, drew

Jim Carney and wife Katie Byard, retired reporters; Dave Scott, BJ regional issues reporter and deputy Business Editor before the April 2014 BJ buyouts exodus; Rich Heldenfels, TV critic when John Olesky was TV Editor at the 44 E. Exchange Street site of the BJ; Betty Lin-Fisher, BJ consumer reporter now doing the same job at USA Today while still living in Summit County; and John Olesky and his lady friend Joan Salisbury who moved into his Tallmadge condo from Glen Burnie, Maryland.

 

Dave Scott and wife Jane Gaab Scott live in Copley. 

 

Rich still lives in Mogadore. Mark Dawidziak was my first TV critic, then David Bianculli, finally Rich during my 12 years in that position of my 26 years with the BJ, starting as assistant State Desk editor under Nobil cigar-smoking dynamo the late Pat Englehart, best editor I ever worked under in my 42-year newspaper career, and alongside the late Harry Liggett, also assistant State Desk editor who created this blog which I inherited when Harry turned it over to me before he passed away.

 

Kimberly Barth and Katie Byard revived the monthly BJ gathering for BJ retirees and current employes.

 

If you plan to attend, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com or Kimberly Barth, Katie Byard or John Olesky on their Facebook pages.

 

Free admission. Everyone pays for their own dinner and drinks.

 

Everyone had fun chatting about the good ol’ days at the BJ when John Shively Knight was in his corner office at 44 E. Exchange Street after he flew from his Miami Herald office to the Kentucky Derby horse race in Louisville, Kentucky on the first Saturday in May.

SUSAN MANGO CURTIS GOES TO FUNERAL, HAS BJ REUNION WITH AL FITZPATRICK

 

                    AL FITZPATRICK AND SUSAN MANGO CURTIS 

Funeral led to a reunion

 

A funeral turned into a BJ reunion for Susan Mango Curtis.

 

The funeral was for Mango’s father-in-law, Jim Rivers.

 

I’ll let Mango explain the rest:

 

“I was in Akron this week for the funeral of my father-in-law, Jim Rivers, and had a pleasure of taking 94-year-old Al Fitzpatrick out to dinner with Socrates. It was absolutely a pleasure to be able to talk with Al about Knight-Ridder.”

 

In 1956 executive editor Ben Maidenburg hired Al as the first person of color in the BJ newsroom with about 600 employees. Ben was big on reclamation projects, too, like hiring me even though I was blackballed by Dayton Daily News editor Jim Fain, nationally known columnist, for my union activities. Ben simply said, “You were there 13 years; it was their fault. Pick a side and stick with it.”

 

So I became State Desk editor Pat Englehart’s assistant editor alongside Harry Liggett, who founded this BJ Alums blog and turned it over to me when he knew he was dying.

 

Al was a Kent State Journalism School graduate. He rose to managing editor at the BJ, the first of his pigmentation to reach that rank in a metropolitan newspaper.

 

As for Mango, she was assistant managing editor at the BJ, Northwestern University professor, and at the Tallahassee Democrat. She came from Savannah, Georgia and wound up in Chicago.

 

In 2021 Mango received the National Association of Black Journalists-Visual Task Force Legacy Award.

 

In 2020 Mango was named Black Journalists’ Education Journalist of the year.

In 2019 she received the Society for News Design’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Mango is a 1981 graduate of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts and a 1977 graduate of Great Mills High School in Lexington Park, Maryland.

Her career includes art director for the National Rifle Association, where she designed American Marksman magazine.

ANDALE GROSS RIDES TAYLOR SWIFT, CHIEFS STAR TO GLORY IN KANSAS CITY!!!!

 

Andale, Taylor Swift, Chiefs tight end a perfect trifecta!

 

Former BJ editor Andale Gross, fairly new to his Kansas City Star managing editor role, is making a big impact in a hurry.

When Taylor Swift showed up at a Kansas City Chiefs game the Star reporters zoomed in on Taylor and her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Result: 40 stories, thousands grabbing onto a digital download of the Star’s Taylor front page, leap in circulation.