MERCURY NEWS EDITOR BOB INGLE PASSES AWAY

 

San Jose, California Mercury News editor Bob Ingle, Mercury News executive editor and Knight Ridder vice president who launched America’s first news website in 1995, passed away Tuesday, March 16 in Sarasota, California. He was 81.

In May 1993, the Mercury News became one of the first U.S. newspapers to deliver breaking news and other content online, via its Mercury Center partnership with America Online. In early 1995, Mercury Center Web — the nation’s first news website — went live.

In his 38-year career with Knight Ridder, Ingle led the Mercury News to two Pulitzer Prizes —in 1986 for exposing Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos’ hidden wealth and in 1990 for coverage of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. He began his newspaper career in 1962 as a Miami Herald copy editor and advanced to managing editor. In 1981 he replaced Larry Jinks as the Mercury News executive editor until 1995.

The Mercury News got the Bill Farr Freedom of Information Award in 1989 for its battle to force authorities to reveal public information.  From 1988 to mid-1995, the Mercury News — under Ingle and then-managing editor Jerry Ceppos — went to court 61 times to open records, court proceedings or meetings that should have been public.

In 1995, he received the California Press Association’s Justus F. Craemer Newspaper Executive of the Year Award for leading the Mercury News to Pulitzer Prizes and for his “pioneering work in electronic media.”

The University of Iowa graduate and Sioux City, Iowa native delivered the Des Moines Register on his bike as a teenager.

Ingle is survived by his wife, Sandy Reed, of Saratoga; his daughter, Julie Ingle Valdez and two grandchildren, Utah and Wyatt Valdez, all of Castro Valley; and his brother-in-law, former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, now of Monument, Colorado.

Memorial service plans will be announced at a later date. The family suggests contributions in his memory may be made to the nonprofit Mercury News Wish Book fund.

THRITY UMRIGAR AT BOOK BASH

 

Bookwhacker time!

Former BJ columnist/prolific author Thrity Umrigar will participate in “1,000 Books: Battle of the Books” of the Cuyahoga County Public Library at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 18.

James Mustich, author of 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die, is the main attraction.

Thrity will be joined by Mary Bly, who writes romance novels as Eloisa James; “What Should I Read Next?” podcast host Anne Bogel;  Andromeda Romano-Lax, journalist, travel writer, and author of historical fiction; and Donna Seaman, book reviewer and Editor for Adult Books at Booklist.

BETTY JAYCOX'S SON PASSES AWAY

 Son of Betty Jaycox,

Ed Jaycox, passes away

Ed “Kim” Jaycox, son of BJ Society Department legend Betty Jaycox, passed away Monday, March 1 in his Washington, DC home.

His remarkable life overshadows even his legendary mother’s.

You can read all the details in Kim’s obituary:

Edward van Kleeck Jaycox, Jr. died on March 1, 2021 at the age of 83 at his home in Washington, DC. Known by most by his nickname "Kim", Jaycox was a pioneer in the fight against global poverty and spent most of his adult life traveling the world for that cause. He was a path-maker, a mentor, an adventurer, a sailor, a bird watcher, a story-teller, and a benefactor.

The cause of death, according to his wife Victoria Holt Jaycox, was cancer.

A native of Akron, Ohio, Jaycox was the son of Edward ("Jay") and Betty Jaycox. He graduated from the Hill School in 1954 and received a scholarship from the United States Navy to attend Yale University where he graduated Cum Laude in 1959. Jaycox then served four years as a junior officer aboard the USS Valley Forge.

In 1964, Jaycox received a Masters in International Affairs and a Certificate in African Studies from Columbia University. A traveling fellowship from Columbia allowed him to travel to Africa that summer. Writing about his journey, Jaycox related that "I wanted to be on the ground, finding out what was happening among Africans as they transitioned to independence. So I made the trek thumbing my way by truck or private car, by bus, boat and train, and with only two flights, one across the jungle of central Congo and one from Monrovia to Dakar. A sock full of newly-minted Kennedy half dollars helped to ease my way."

Africa was then the main focus of Jaycox's thirty-two year career at the World Bank. He began in 1964 as a Junior Professional, appraising projects all over the world, then rose through the ranks to a position from 1984 to 1996 as Vice-President for Africa, where he oversaw the Bank's $3.8 billion annual leading program to over 40 African countries.

When he began, most countries' economies were in free-fall, and relations with the Bank were poor. Because the political situations were so fragile, Jaycox devised a way to funnel billions of dollars in funds and debt relief from new sources, so that over 30 countries resumed per-capita income growth for the first time in 25 years. In 1991, he also launched the African Capacity Building Foundation aimed at enabling countries to develop using their own resources. As of today, that Foundation has awarded $700 million in assistance to 48 countries

After retiring from the World Bank in 1996, Jaycox set up the African Infrastructure Fund, one of the first private equity funds focused on investing in Africa, with Nelson Mandela as chair of the Advisory Board. Despite some initial resistance to the idea that private investors could make good returns honestly in Africa, the fund was ultimately very successful and has been succeeded by a number of others.

Jaycox is survived by his wife of 61 years, Victoria Holt Jaycox, the daughter of Victor and Rowena Holt, and by her daughters, Tamara Jaycox Kessler and Lisa Jaycox, both of Chevy Chase, Maryland; by their spouses, Lewis Kessler and Andrew Morral; by granddaughters, Olivia and Isabel Kessler, and Ada and Celia Morral; and by his sister, Jill Jaycox Dietrich of Akron, Ohio.

In 2005, in response to the premature death of Dr. Dunstan Wai, a friend and World Bank colleague from South Sudan, Jaycox and others founded a charity in his memory to provide scholarships to girls in South Sudan and Uganda to attend secondary school and beyond. The Dunstan Wai Memorial Charitable Foundation now supports some 150 girls in local schools. Gifts may be made in Jaycox's memory to the Dunstan Wai Memorial Charitable Foundation. www.dwmcf.org .

CIRCULATION'S DAN LIAS PASSES AWAY

 

Dan, Dan the Beacon Man, as his family called him, has passed away in Houston.

Daniel J. Lias was a unique and impressive and patriotic former BJ Circulation home delivery manager.

Dan’s daughter, Melissa, describes him this way:

“My dad will forever be Dan Dan the Beacon Man. He is a legend in so many senses. I'm so proud of my dad. He has made me who I am today and will forever be.

“I am setting up a charitable fund in his name for an organization he loved very deeply.”

That would be Wreaths Across America, which honors America’s fallen military heroes, including Dan’s oldest brother Dayre, a retired Air Force colonel. The goal is $5,000. The project lays wreaths at more than 2,100 locations in America, including Houston National Cemetery and in Alliance, Massillon and Smithville in Ohio. December 18 is National Wreaths Across America Day.

Dan always flew the Stars and Stripes outside his home and volunteered his efforts for the Kiwanis Club of Blue Lagoon Foundation based in Pensacola, Florida, which in 1914 got the first Naval Air Station commissioned by the Navy.

The URL for the Dan Lias Wreaths Across America online donations in Dan’s memory:

https://www.facebook.com/donate/3835491913199199/5251656368208965/

That’s the family’s preference. If you want use the Postal Service to donate in Dan’s memory, make your check out to

Wreaths Across America

In the Memo on the lower left write:

In Memory of Dan Lias

From His BJ friend

The address to send the donation is:

Kiwanis Club of Big Lagoon Foundation

Att: BLKF Wreaths

10447 Sorento Road

Suite 100

PMB #19

Pensacola, FL 32507

Dan's brother is the spearhead of this group, and Dan volunteered with his brother.

Dan’s widow is Susan Lias. Melissa Lias and Kevin Lias are Dan and Susan’s children. Brooklyn Rose is his granddaughter. Dan was United Way drive chairman for the BJ for 8 years (2002-2010).

Dan was a close friend of the late Rod Dingle, also in BJ Circulation. Melissa recalled: “Rod was close with my dad. My mom said they were just talking about Rod. I grew up going to work with my dad sometimes and we would go get breakfast with all those guys. Such wonderful times and being with dad in his element always made me so proud, even as a little kid.”

Former Beacon Journal home writer Mary Beth Nord Breckenridge posted:

 

“Dan and I became friends when we served on the United Way committee together. His enthusiasm was infectious and his leadership skills impressive. He should have been the publisher.”

BJ reporter Betty Lin-Fisher added:

“Wow, I didn’t know Dan had moved to Houston. I agree with Mary Beth. His personality and enthusiasm was infectious.”

Dan was at the BJ from 1979-2011 when left for the PD as state circulation manager (till 2016). Dan left Cleveland for the Houston Chronicle. In 2018, he became a self-employed advisor till 2021.

Dan had to herd more than 700 independent contractors, as the carriers were called back then, at the BJ. Not an easy task. All three of my children had BJ carrier routes in Cuyahoga Falls long before Dan got there. Retired BJ photographer Don Roese was on their route.

When BJ circulation rose slightly to 142,941 in 2001 while PD circulation dropped by 15,290 or 4.2%, Dan, then Circulation Home Delivery Manager, was quoted in a May 7 Crain’s Cleveland Business article as saying:

“We are attempting to leave no stone unturned when it comes to circulation opportunities,” focusing more on single-copy sales and promotions involving special events like high school graduations and sporting events.

A BJ ad quoted Dan as saying:

“Each customer is a part of our family. I want to provide the service they expect.”

Sounds like Dan was channeling and echoing legendary owner John S. Knight’s mantra, huh?

Melissa posted:

“Right now we do not have anything planned for a service in Akron, but I will keep you in the loop as I will plan a Celebration of Life more than likely in the summer. His birthday is in June and I would like to have my mom present.”

If you want to send condolences to the Lias family, the email address is melissalias040@gmail.com .

My thanks to Ken Krause for providing the basic information before I went Googling away. And for Cheryl Scott Sheinen, a frequent tipster, for tipping off Ken who tipped off me and for being the go-between for days between Melissa and me for information. That’s what BJ folks do, help each other help each other and keep track of each other.

BOB GILES TRAVERSES TO LITERARY AWARD

 

Former BJ executive editor Bob Giles, at Ol’ Blue Walls from 1958-1975, received the Traverse City (Michigan) National Writers Series’ Literary Service Award for “When Truth Mattered,” his book on how the BJ handled the 1970 Kent State shootings by the Ohio National Guard that killed 4 and wounded 9 and brought the first of four Pulitzers to the BJ. Owner John S. Knight also got a Pulitzer for his editorial columns.

 

He can use the Traverse City award as an impressive trifecta to the 1971 Pulitzer and the 1978 Scripps-Howard Foundation's Distinguished Journalism Citation for "outstanding public service in the cause of the First Amendment" for columns that advocated more press coverage of courtroom proceedings.

 

After leaving 44 E. Exchange Street Bob was executive editor then editor of the Rochester (New York) Democrat & Chronicle and Times-Union. Later, Bob was editor/publisher of the Detroit News for 11 years. The  News received a 1994 Pulitzer for disclosing a Michigan House Fiscal Agency scandal. After a year with Freedom Forum, Bob became curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard for a decade till his 2011 retirement and permanent move to Traverse City, where he joined the Bob editorial board of the Traverse City Record-Eagle.

 

Traverse City is the place to go for tart cherries. It’s the largest producer of that delicacy in America. The Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi  tribes called it Kitchiwikwedongsing (“at the head of the bay,” as in Grand Traverse Bay). European settlers pushed the tribes out, of course. Traverse is on the northwest edge of the lower of two chunks of Michigan land that is separated by Lake Michigan.  

 

Bob’s wife, Nancy Giles, is a psychologist. She would have had a field day at the BJ during my 1969-96 days there.

 

Bob was a 1955 DePauw University graduate who got his master’s in 1956 from Columbia University. 

DOWN MEMORY LANE WITH THE BJ FEATURES DEPARTMENT

 

These talented, caring people are among the main reasons that I RAN to work at the BJ for 26 years, once I ended my sojourn with the magnificent whirling dervish, State Desk Editor Pat Englehart.

What a marvelous crew to cruising along in the same boat with!

And with John S. Knight as America’s greatest media owner ever and Ben Maidenburg as the greatest reclamation projects publisher ever (when I was fired at the Dayton Daily News for my union activitires after 13 years there, Ben proclaimed: “It was their fault!”), it was as if I had been swept into Heaven before my time!

Think about it.

The first day I walked into the BJ newsroom, when sexist thoughts were allowed, I looked around and my brain told me: “Joan Rice and Janis Froelich are the two hottest-looking women in this newsroom!

Turns out that Joan Rice’s brain was even more beautiful, that she was as fashionable as hell in her choice of clothing and a frequent and most helpful shoulder to lean and complain on when management went into harrumph mode.

Alas, Joan long ago got her reward in Heaven for putting up with me.

Joan and her husband, former Summit County Sheriff’s Deputy Capt. Larry Momchilov, passed away 12 days apart in 2016. They were married 36 years.

 

Joan’s identical twin, Marie, was a media person, too, in television. 

 

Michelle LeComte was the leader of this ship. Well, officially. But, as the lower photo in the montage shows, when Michelle was away on a cruise, we knew how to have fun without her, too. When Michele returned from her vacation, there was the lower photo on her desk with a note: “Having a great time. Wish you were here.”

Bob Dyer was named Ohio Columnist of the Year so often (he can tell you how many years; believe me) because he made wit, humor and excellent writing skills an unbeatable combination.

Bob and I spent nearly two decades eating Blue Room food together. Miraculously, it didn’t keep me from staying alive to be 88 years old. Maybe a nonagenarian rather than an octogenarian, too, if I’m lucky.

Liverpool, Ohio native Jane Snow, in my opinion, is the greatest food writer in BJ history. Ol’ Blue Walls has had some great food writers, including sassy Polly Paffilas, so being #1 in that crowd is like being the best queen ever for Great Britain.

Jane also was a formidable force for BJ management to deal with during negotiations with her sitting across the table in her “Oh, yeah! Try it!” posture.

Denny Gordon was more than an outstanding photographer. The guy rode his BICYCLE to Columbus and back routinely! Can imagine the guts and stamina that took?

And also as nice a person as you ever would want to meet.

Ah, Craig Wilson, chief librarian before becoming the wizard of Action Line during his 40 years at Ol’ Blue Walls. Like Englehart he ruffled feathers with his behavior and obsessions, but he was one helluva trainer for a long string of reporters, including Betsy Lammerding, also in these photos.

Craig irked the hell out of me, but I respected the hell out of him because he could find a needle in a haystack for a reader who didn’t know their way through the labyrinth of red tape in this world.

Columnist Jewell Cardwell and I had a connection that only the late Bill Canterbury and I did: Southern West Virginia.

Jewell’s uncle and aunt lived in the Cinderella, West Virginia coal camp adjacent to Williamson, on the Tug River border to Kentucky, where I met my wife, Monia Elizabeth Turkette Olesky, whose parents, grandparents and 2 or 3 aunts all resided in that camp. I called her my Mona Lisa, a play on her first and middle birth names, most of our 48 years of marriage and 2 years of courtship. She lies in Northlawn Memorial Gardens in Cuyahoga Falls under a double grave marker with “WV” below both of our names.

Jewell subbed for the legendary columnist Fran Murphey while Fran was on an 8-week journey in a variety of countries. On her final day as a stand-in for Fran, Jewell showed up in Jewell’s version of Fran’s traditional bib overalls.

As for Canterbury, he grew up in Wayne County, West Virginia, which I had to drive through from Williamson’s Mingo County to get to Huntington. He was a mild soul with a quiet sense of humor that was effective as someone doing it in a loud and guffawing way.

Betsy Lammerding was the mellow voice and personality near the joined-at-the-hips desk for Joan and me. Betsy was a home furnishings expert who went to North Carolina a lot for the dog and pony shows companies put on there.

Sarah Vradenburg had more brains than I did, too. Not a high bar, but impressive nevertheless.
BJ management figured that out and later put her on the BJ Editorial Board.

Mark Dawidziak was the best TV critic during my Television Editor reign. Mark told his fellow press tour friends that “I have the best editor than you” during the annual Los Angeles pilgrimages to meet, greet and interview the stars of the next season’s network TV series.

And gives Hal Holbrook a run for his money as a Mark Twain impersonator. Since Hal’s with Samuel Langhorne Clemmons, if they both went north instead of south after passing away, that’s a reunion I’d like to see and hear.

Michelle was an understanding and competent department chief who never bristled when she gave me advice and I replied, “I’ll be the judge of that.”

Michelle knew that, to lead best, sometimes it’s better to just let your crew row it that way.

Managing Editor Scott Bosley was good at that, too. At meetings, he would listen, take good elements from various underlings, add his expertise and go with it. Not like pompous boss who knows it all, but a leader not afraid to think maybe the privates have a better idea than he does.

Scott also told others about me saving, as Cathy Tierney relayed it to me, $300,000 by doing a simple thing. I went to every typewriter in the newsroom and checked the repair notes tucked in by those who came into the building to keep the machines clicking.

I said to myself, “Why pay for typewriter repair when we have a computer in front of everyone in the newsroom that can do the same job, with the help of a printer in the Newsroom, without paying typewriter repairmen?”

So Scott, at my suggestion, phased out nearly every typewriter, often handing them over to departments in other floors.

In my 16 years in Features, my department heads were Mike Needs, Doug Oplinger, Stuart Warner, Jim Nolan (the guy who never used a vowel in his memos) and Bob Jodon.

 

Michelle passed away in 2010 at the age of 58 after being at Ol’ Blue Walls in the 1990s and at Maryland newspapers for decades.

Doug never saw a John Deere cap he didn’t buy.

Ah, Elaine Guregian. Last, but not least, the amazing Armenian.  

She left her role as BJ culture reporter, and a fine, cultured one, too, to become assistant Northeast Ohio Medical University public relations and marketing director at the Rootstown facility that produced my grandson, Dr. Dylan Timberlake, who prefers pediatrics and is doing it in Columbus but will take his wife, Casey, and my grand-granddaughter Eliza (she got the front part of Elizabeth, my late wife’s middle name) to Wisconsin in July to do his good work near another Great Lakes.

Elaine’s writing skills has earned her Cleveland Press Club’s Excellence in Journalism award for her “Women in Surgery: A Rising Tide” article. Dr. Fauci’s gender doesn’t have a monopoly on medical geniuses, Elaine’s article reminds us.

Before NEO, Elaine was  Development Officer for Corporate and Foundation Relations with the Summa Foundation.

Elaine began at the BJ covering classical music and dance, then expanded her territory for Ol’ Blue Walls.

I've got a longing way down in my heart
For that old gang that has drifted apart
They were the best pals that I ever had
I never thought that I'd want them so bad
Gee but I'd give the world to see
That old gang of mine

I just made that up, right?

Sing along with Mitch Miller. Get it?
Composer Ray Henderson and lyricysts Billy Rose and Mort Dixon and vaudeville’s Van and Schenck can fill you if it you don’t.

Unless, a century later, they’ve forgotten.

 

CIRCULATION'S RODNEY DINGLE PASSES AWAY

 

Rodney Dingle, BJ Circulation city district manager for Barberton and Wayne County, passed away. He was 76.

Rod retired from the BJ on July 31, 2001 with 23 years of service. He began at 44 E. Exchange Street in 1978 about the same time as District Manager Russell Chick, Advertising's Pamela Hughes, photographer Lew Stamp and reporter Steve Hoffman, who was in the same Tower Topic article about BJ newcomers. 

Rod and Ramona Dingle's son Randall Dingle, who lives in Denver, graduated summa cum laude from Kent State in 1999.

Rod’s sister, Daphne, lives in Akron.

Rod was in the Wooster College Sports Hall of Fame. In 1965 Rod was named Ohio Conference Offensive Player of the Year.

Rod was on the Circulation Valor Award Committee to honor BJ carriers. The committee was chaired by Bill Aylward and included Rod, Art Beck, Dennis O’Neil and Jim Luther.

Rod was the first person to win the Beacon’s Best award for service to the BJ. Editor John McMillion and Don Clark presented Rod with the award.

In 1995 Rod joined the late legendary columnist Frances B. Murphey to welcome BJ customers and fans at the Wayne County Fair.

Rod’s brother, Tom Dingle, also was named Ohio Conference Offensive Player of the Year,  to the Wooster College Hall of Fame and was a BJ Circulation district manager.

Rod kept a hand in everywhere. He was on the committee for Akron's Desert Storm Victory March in 1991 and for the BJ Holiday Party at the Civic Theater on December 18, 1994.

Rod's brother Tom Dingle worked in Circulation  before him as a city district manager, leaving in March 1975 for the Gary Post-Tribune to be a circulation city supervisor.  

A service for Rodney will be held at 3 p.m. on Friday, March 5, and will be live-streamed on the Stewart & Calhoun Funeral Home website.

Rodney Dingle, age 76, went home to be with the Lord on February 25, 2021, with his wife by his side.  Rodney was born June 25, 1944, in Akron, Ohio to the late Tommie L. Dingle and Annie G. Dingle.

He graduated as Class President from East High School in 1962 and excelled in football and basketball.   He received an athletic football scholarship to Wooster College, where he was able to set many records.  After college, Rodney was drafted by the Buffalo Bills; however, an unfortunate knee injury prevented him from pursuing that opportunity.  In 1967, he played for the Akron Vulcans where he met many of his lifelong friends.

His working career began at The Akron Urban League as Activity Director under the leadership of the late Vernon Odom.  Rodney loved coaching basketball and mentoring young people at the Urban League.  He was also employed at the Akron Beacon Journal as Circulation Manager where he again mentored young people who had paper routes.  After retiring from the Beacon Journal, he worked for the Akron Board of Education in the After-School Program as a coordinator.  The young students loved him and affectionately called him “Mr. D.”

He was a dedicated member of Faith Temple Church of the Living God.  Rodney received numerous awards throughout his life, and he especially treasured his induction into the Summit County Hall of Fame and the East High School Hall of Fame.  Rodney received the Faith Temple’s prestigious T. W. Drone Award, and the Ohio Black Women’s Leadership Caucus Significant African American Males Award.  He also served as a Youth Excellence Performing Arts Workshop (YEPAW) volunteer for over 15 years.

Rodney was an avid golfer.  He was honored to be a member of Tiretown Golf Club and was proud to organize destination golf tournaments for his fellow club members each year.  He was also instrumental in establishing Faith Temple’s Annual Golf Outing.

Rodney was preceded in death by his brothers, Willie Robert Dingle Sr. and Gregory Dingle; sisters, Betty L. Carr, Geraldine Smith, Delores Lynum and Katherine Dingle; in-laws, Willie and Sarah Elton; nephews, Gerald Dingle and Damon Priester; niece, Romonia Dingle.

Rodney will be missed by his high school sweetheart and loving wife of 56 years, Ramona Elton Dingle; sons, Rodney Derek Dingle of Akron, Ohio, and Randall Thomas Dingle, (Wilbert Samuels, Jr.)  of Denver, Colorado; grandchildren, Jasmin Dingle and Jalen Dingle of Akron, Ohio; great-granddaughter, Siaani; brother, Thom (Betty) Dingle of Denver, Colorado; sister, Daphne Dingle of Akron, Ohio; sisters-in-law, Linda White and Gara Elton of Akron, Ohio; lifetime friends, Clem (Frieda) Demus and Michael Buckner. He was devoted to all his nieces, nephews, cousins, and special friends.  He was loved by all and He will be missed!

IN MEMORIAM TO THOSE WHO MADE THE BJ GREAT