Section 1: Q: We're talking with Marvin W. Hastings of
Ankeny, Iowa, on July 17, 1999. A Saturday.
We're at his home at 105 NE Sherman Drive in
Ankeny.
Q: Marvin, I wonder if you could talk a little
bit about the fact that you never submitted a
resume'. You turned down an unsolicited offer
from the Register and were later hired. How
was it that you came to the Register?
A: OK. I came to the Register...I was
recommended by a professor at Iowa State
University. Ed Blinn. Ed was my professor at
South Dakota State where I graduated and
later came to the Sioux City Journal where I
was working. Ed worked there during the
summer and I think he probably observed my
work there as well as knowing my work at
college. He recommended to the managing
editor that they hire me because they were
looking for someone.
Q: But you had already been out in the field.
You were working in South Dakota.
A: I was in Sioux City [IA] at this time. I
had worked in South Dakota previously, but I
went to the Sioux City Journal. I was there
seven years. I had a letter from Mike Pauly
who was the copy editor at the time at the
Register, asking if I'd be interested in a
copy-editing job there. I had just been named
an Action Line editor at the Journal, which
kind of intrigued me. And I liked the
Journal. I liked Sioux City. We had just
moved into an older house. So I said no, but
suggested they could keep my name on file.
That I was kind of enthused about this Action
Line job. And, about, I don't remember when
that offer came, probably in the summer. Then
in September, I got a letter from the
managing editor, Ed Hines, asking if I'd be
interested. I thought,"Well, second letter,
why don't I go and check it out." He talked
with me and said "Ed Blinn says you'd be OK.
It's OK with me if you want the job."
Q: This was 1969, right?
A: Right. September of '69. I had just bought
another house. I owned two houses in Sioux
City at the time. There was a strike in Sioux
City of the Iowa Beef Workers and houses
weren't moving and I had a difficult time
selling the houses. So Ed said, "Just take
your time. Wait till you get your houses
sold." Well, it was December. And I still
hadn't sold the houses, so he said "You want
the job or not?" So I said, "yes,"and I took
the job. I commuted on weekends by bus from
Sioux City to Des Moines [IA]. I lived at the
YMCA because we only had one car, so I had to
be close to work.
Q: So this was five days a week.
A: No, I stayed at the "Y" five days a week
and went back by bus on weekends to Sioux
City.
Q: Any kind of strain on your family, related
to your situation?
A: Well, yes. One time, one of our [fellow
employees], he was a make-up man, said, "Why
don't you call home on the Watts line?" So I
did that after the first deadline went by at
9:30 or so. I called home and my wife said,
"Jill [a twin, two years old at the time] had
fallen down the stairs. "I can't talk now. I
have got to take her to the hospital." And
she hung up. And I sat there wondering what
had happened for a while. There was not too
much strain, but it was tough being away from
the family.
Q: The first time you were offered this job,
you turned it down. You must have known at
the time, since you traveled in journalistic
circles, I mean you were a journalist, how
prestigious the Des Moines Register was.
A: Right. Yes, I was. And that had a lot to
do with my wanting to come.
Q: Your accepting it the second time.
A: Right, right.
Q: Was there any reluctance to turn it down
the first time?
A: No, but I was interested in this Action
Line. The appointment, Action Line Editor,
had been given to me. I was proud of the work
we were doing at the Journal at the time.
And, I had two houses.
Q: What did you know about the Register when
you were at the Sioux City Journal?
A: We used to read it, you know, in the
mornings, I knew it was...But I didn't know
the background or the history probably as
well as I should, but it's a transfer that I
was very happy I made afterwards.
Q: Again, the job you were given, you took,
when you were offered the second time, did
you say copy editor?
A: Yes, actually, I later learned this. My
background was printing management. My
bachelor degree is in Printing in Rural
Journalism with a Printing Management degree.
That was actually my major. And so, I later
learned this after I came on board. I
originally was going to be the make-up
editor, because the make-up editor at that
time was transferring to the Tribune. This
has never been officially said, only that the
make-up editor told me this. That I was to be
the make-up editor. But it took me so long to
get there, they hired another person in the
meantime, Terry Manley, a very close friend
of mine. And, so then I ended up on the copy
desk.
Q: As far as you're concerned was that to
your disadvantage or your advantage that you
were on the copy desk rather than in the
make-up area?
A: Well, there was a time when I was on the
copy desk that I really enjoyed doing that. I
think it was probably an advantage in the
long run although, I think probably Terry
Manley was a better make-up than I would have
been.
Q: And also in your move to the Register, you
had some of the personal concerns, the fact
that you couldn't sell the houses
immediately. Did I get that right?
A: Yes.
Q: Did it play into the decision--the fact of
how prestigious the Register was when you did
move, was that a concern?
A: No, I don't think so.
Q: Did you find out at any time during your
stay that this was a standout paper?
A: Oh yes, definitely, definitely. I had
often told people that I made two good
decisions in my life. First, to ask my wife
to marry me. That's the most important. And
taking the job at the Register was the second
best decision I ever made.
Q: Could you expand on that? Why do you think
that's true?
A: Just to be able to work for a prestigious
paper like that. It just makes one proud to
be affiliated with an institution like that. --
Section 2: Q: Did you start out, then on the copy desk
as the night copy editor?
A: One of many, on the old horseshoe rim they
had at that time. The slot man would be in
the middle and pass out the stories and you'd
edit the stories and boil them down and write
headlines for them.
Q: So, your hours first when you started were
what?
A: About 6:15 PM till 2 or 2:30 AM.
Q: And I've asked this before of other
people, but again describe what a slot man
does.
A: Well, in the Register situation at least,
the slot man would be sitting in the middle
of the horseshoe desk with the copy editors
around the outside. And he would take stories
that the city editor had given him, or he or
she would take a packet of stories from
various wire services, hand them to the copy
editor and say, "We need this story boiled
down to fifteen inches." And you would take
(at that time) paste and cut and tear and
edit them and boil down the story, give it
back with a headline to the slot man. He
would or she would glance at it, see if the
headline fit and send it on to the composing
room for the linotype operators.
Q: So ultimately, it was decision of the slot
man as to what got in the paper.
A: To a certain degree, yes, to a certain
extent.
Q: What would be the exception?
A: Well, over the slot person, there would be
the news editor at the Register who would
probably make a decision to give the copy to
the slot man to distribute on.
Q: Did you like the work?
A: Yes.
Q: You did?
A: Yes. And, as I said before, on the make-up
editor's days off or on vacation,
occasionally I would sub and fill in there.
Q: Back in '69 and the early '70s, what
constituted being a make-up editor? What were
you doing?
A: You would get a list of stories from the
city editor or from the news editor and the
slot editors and state editors. And find
[determine] where that fifteen-inch story
would fit on a certain page. Then go down
into the composing room and shepherd the work
on in and see that it fit. And if the story
came up two inches long, well, you would make
a quick read of it at deadline time. Throw
this paragraph away or whatever.
Q: Any stories that you remember about that?
I mean you're right down to a deadline and
you're seeing that maybe this doesn't fit or
we need something more?
A: Oh, it happened everyday.
Q: Was it stressful?
A: It was fun.
Q: What was fun about it?
A: Just the challenge.
Q: Time consuming?
A: Time pressing. Not time consuming. Not too
bad.
Q: Were you getting paid enough as far as you
were concerned?
A: Yes, although during these years there was
the...I don't remember for sure, but it was
during a wage freeze nationally. Was it Nixon
I think? There was a time there where...so I
don't think I got a raise for the first two
years, but there was a freeze in effect at
that time. I got a substantial raise when I
started over what I was getting in Sioux
City. So I didn't ever feel bad about not
having received a raise for the first two
years.
Q: Can you tell us what you were getting in
Sioux City and what you were hired at?
A: I can't remember. It was in the, I think,
probably $50 a week difference. I was being
paid in the upper one-hundreds in Sioux City
and I went over $200 when I came here. But
exact figures I wouldn't remember.
Q: Over $200 a week.
A: Yes. --
Section 3: Q: What was it at the Register? You probably
were doing a different job because at Sioux
City you were doing this column and then you
were a copy editor. Maybe you can describe
some of the differences clearly, one you're
writing, the other you're editing.
A: There wasn't that much difference because
I had been the columnist-the Action Line
Columnist-only a matter of few months. Before
that I was on the copy desk, too, there at
Sioux City, so there wasn't that much
changeover. The columnist, I only did that
for three or four months before I took this
job.
Q: And writing a column is somewhat like
reporting?
A: It was. What it was, I think the Detroit
Free...one of the Detroit [MI] newspapers,
started this and it was catching on across
[the country], where people would write in
when they had a complaint about a product or
they had a complaint about some government
agency. You would go to that company and try
to resolve it. And then you took those few
good ones, and you published them. Like we'd
get probably, I don't know how many, letters
from people who hadn't gotten a magazine
subscription forever, you know. I do remember
somebody in Florida had moved or something
and their bank check had got put in someone
else's account. And I think, hundreds of
dollars, I remember. And I did get that one
solved. I remember that one probably as well
as any of them.
Q: How did you get it solved?
A: I just went to the bank, and they said,
"Oops, the computer or something screwed up."
This person had been trying for months to do
it. It was a change in transfer between
banks.
Q: When you were at the Register did you do
any kind of work like that, that you did at
the Journal? Column writing or reporting?
A: No, no. I didn't. Well, later when I
became an assistant city editor at night,
there would be some rewriting and reporting,
if there wasn't a reporter around. But no. No
bylines. I think I had one byline all the
time I was at the Register.
Q: And when was that?
A: Commuting between Des Moines and Ankeny at
two in the morning in a blizzard. And the car
right ahead of me, with a wind-chill of sixty
below, and the car ahead of me had gone into
the ditch. And I stopped and brought him back
into town. And I wrote a story of that
experience.
Q: How soon after did you write that story?
A: The next day. In fact, I wrote it on a
portable typewriter I had here [at home] and
took it in.
Q: Did you ever have a desire to do more
reporting?
A: No.
Q: Any kind of writing?
A: No. I guess, no. Bylines didn't mean much
to me. I guess it was just my nature.
Q: Not necessarily bylines, but just the fact
that you had written a story?
A: Well, I would rewrite and write short, you
know, car accidents or something like that on
deadline, or something.
Q: But you weren't out in the field.
A: No. --
Section 4: Q: These first few years at the Register, did
it live up to your expectations?
A: More than, it lived up to my expectations.
Q: In what way?
A: Just enjoyed it. The professionalism, the
sincerity, the camaraderie, just everybody
worked together for one goal. Some of the
other newspapers that I had worked for,
including the Sioux City Journal (I have many
friends there yet), but there used to be
bickering among employees and that just
wasn't the case with the Register. Everybody
seemed to be working for the same goal. There
was a competition between the Tribune and the
Register, but when it boiled down to the
nitty gritty, if some outsider tried to pick
on you, you'd stick up [for one another]. It
was competition; there wasn't controversy
between the staff.
Q: There wasn't conflict, I guess.
A: Conflict, or bickering, but there was
competition which made for better newspapers.
Q: Anything that you can think of
specifically that illustrates that kind of
competition? Perhaps a specific story or some
of the in-house stuff that went on.
A: Yes, I can recall one incident. It
involved what was known as the "Bloody Sunday
Murders" in downtown Des Moines. I think it
was three or four boys were killed in a
construction site downtown. You probably
remember.
Q: Was it near a hotel?
A: Yes, maybe it was. It was a building being
torn down. And a man was a suspect in that
shooting. And he was on the lam and they had
been looking for him, and we had been
following it very closely. I was on the
Register at this time. And they finally
caught the man, and we had worked on it, and
we had all the background. I had worked very
closely with two reporters, Tom Suk and Paul
Levitt. We had pretty much the story written
and ready to go when he was arrested because
we knew a lot of background. And he was
arrested at 11:00 in the morning in Nashville
[TN] or Memphis [TN], I don't remember where.
And he was arrested. We were in the newsroom.
The Tribune and the Register shared the same
newsroom. One on one side of the room, one on
the other end. And, the Tribune's police
reporter came up at 2:00, their deadline
time, or just past their deadline time, and
said "We understand that, his name is Munro
and he has been captured" in whatever town it
was and the Register's slot man said, "Yes,
Memphis." He had known about this for two
hours in the same room, but had kept it
completely secret.
Q: Intentional?
A: Yes. So the Tribune wouldn't have it. And
that's one instance of the competition that I
can remember.
Q: Did it get in?
A: I think they [the Tribune] did finally run
a bulletin; one paragraph that they got in.
Maybe didn't make it to all the readers even.
Q: Based on the information that this guy
got...
A: Well, I think they knew he had been
arrested somewhere, but not from me. I wasn't
on duty at the time when this happened
because I didn't come to work until 6:00. But
they felt that strongly.
Q: Was there any kind of policy against that
kind of thing? They're both owned by Cowles,
the same employer. How did they handle that?
A: I'm not going to name any names now, but
there was a very controversial case, and this
was Register reporters. We had typewriter
ribbons, electric typewriters, when the
ribbons were carbon, and then you take and
throw the ribbon away. Well, a couple of the
Register people took one of the Tribune's
tapes and read it and reported on it, and
they got a little reprimand on it. They
weren't fired, I don't believe. But they were
reprimanded on that one.
Q: How did you find out? I mean, how would
they track that down?
A: Probably because they knew that was where
the information was, and that was the only
way they could get it.
Q: Anymore specific about that, like when it
was, what year?
A: No, I don't think I can remember the year.
It would have been in the late '70s or early
'80s. And neither of the two people involved
with the Register are there anymore. In fact,
they have better jobs, probably. They went
on. And I don't remember whose tape [they]
copied off. I don't know if I ever knew whose
tape they copied.
Q: My question is, you've got Tribune
reporters here, you've got Register reporters
here, they are both in the same room. Was
there any policy, I mean anything that you
were supposed to abide by as set in stone as
to (laughs) stealing each other's stories?
A: I don't know that there was any written,
probably was an unwritten code maybe,
respecting the others. But again, I would get
there after the Tribune people had gone at
that time. And I did go to work for the
Tribune. I worked for the Tribune for about
18 months before it closed. --
Section 5: Q: And who was your immediate supervisor when
you were hired?
A: Immediate supervisor would have been Mike
Pauley. Mike later left. He left the Register
shortly after I got there, within a year I
think. And later returned after he went to
Florida. Well, he went to Dubuque [IA] and
was maybe news editor or something. I don't
know. He went to Dubuque-that was his
hometown. And then he later went to Florida
and then he came back here to the Register
after probably four or five years. I don't
recall.
Q: You worked under him for how many years?
A: Oh, just a matter of months. And then
Jimmy Larson, one of the greatest newsmen
there is and is still on the staff, but in a
copyediting role now. He's probably in his
'70s. Great newsman. Was the news editor at
that time. So, there are layers and layers of
bosses. My immediate would have been Mike
Pauley at that time, and then probably the
next one would have been Jimmy Larson, who
was the news editor. It would have been the
slot man, Mike Pauley and then Jimmy Larson.
Q: How long did you work under him? Jimmy
Larson.
A: Jim was the news editor...well I changed
jobs, but Jim was the news editor there for
years.
Q: How was he to work for?
A: Super. Good newsman, good news judgment,
excellent news judgment. Personable. And he
later was replaced as news editor under a new
regime. He retired at that time, took early
retirement, and then came back to work on the
copy desk for, I guess, for financial reasons
and for...newspapering was in his blood.
Q: It may seem obvious to you and other
newspaper people, but what makes a good news
editor, as a person like Jim was?
A: News judgment, quick to react and just
knowledgeable of the business.
Q: Good writer?
A: He probably was. I don't know if he ever
wrote anything. An excellent headline writer,
excellent headline writer, so I'm sure he was
a good writer, but I never saw anything that
he wrote. I don't think a good reporter
necessarily makes a good editor, or a good
editor makes a good reporter.
Q: What was that again, you don't think
that's true?
A: I don't think that a good reporter
necessarily would be a good editor and vice
versa.
Q: Why is that?
A: A good editor will probably pay more
attention to detail and facts and--not that
the reporter won't of course, whereas a good
reporter is better at turning a phrase and
use of the language. Which I'm not a great
writer. I'm a poor writer.
Q: (Laughs) Is that right?
A: Yes.
Q: You were on the Register as the late
assistant city editor, as you described.
A: For, I think, eleven years. I worked from
six, well, there was a change in the city
editor's job. Dave Witke was on the copy desk
and was one of the assistant slot people and
he was named city editor. Again, Dave Witke
is an excellent, excellent newsperson. He's
been demoted unfortunately over the...
[Brian, you may want to footnote this?]
Q: I've heard his story.
A: And Dave was on the copy desk and I was on
the copy desk. When he was named city editor,
he asked me if I would become the assistant
city editor. I said sure. He moved on to
managing editor, but I stayed as an assistant
city editor.
Q: Was that before he became sports editor?
A: Yes, yes. Years before.
Q: And then this was the 6 PM to the 2:30 AM
[shift] for you.
A: Yes, actually those hours coincided with
what I worked on the copy desk.
Q: Any memorable stories or anecdotes that
you can remember during that graveyard shift?
Was it the graveyard shift? Did you like it?
A: Yes, and one of the, it interrupted the
family life. It was bad for family life,
those hours. So I didn't like it for that
purpose. Yet I liked it better than the 2
o'clock shift start because I was home with
the family for the evening meal, although we
ate awful early to be at work by six.
Q: 2 PM?
A: Yes, I liked working six over two because
you'd never see the kids if you went in at
two. And I shunned any of the other jobs that
would have been probably a step up, like a
state editor's job. In fact, I was approached
to be the state editor and said no. I didn't
want to start at 2 o'clock. --
Section 6: A: ...and one story, getting back, you were asking,
this is one of my more prouder moments in the
business. It was toward the end of the
Vietnam War and over the wire it came that a
person named Vondrak had been captured. He
was a pilot and he had been captured.
Vondrak, I don't remember his first name,
from Iowa. That's all there was. And this was
like, we got that word at probably ten
o'clock at night. And I thought Vondrak. I
was on the late desk, and this time there was
probably only one police reporter around. So
I thought Vondrak, a name like that, must
have some connection to Cedar Rapids [IA],
being a Czech name. So, I called
information-that's when you called
information, you talked to a voice, not a
machine in the telephone. And I asked for all
the names of Vondrak in Cedar Rapids. There
were two Vonderacks in Cedar Rapids. I called
them. I said I don't-this was late at night,
I probably wouldn't do it today, but at that
time I was still young enough to interrupt
peoples lives at home and call them-and said,
"I don't want to startle you, everything's
all right. This may be good news that someone
Vondrak had been captured." They said "No, I
don't know anybody by that name." So it
wasn't that family. I called another one and
I finally got one that said "I went to
college with a person by that name at the
University of Iowa and I think he was
from..." I can't remember the name of the
town. Then I called and got the mother on the
phone and said "I don't want to alert you,
but I understand that I have probably some
good news" knowing that they had already been
notified probably that he was captured. But
that he was alive. So I called her and I got
who he was, who he was married to, where he'd
gone to college. He had been in ROTC student
then, and so in the morning newspaper after
getting that at ten o'clock, we had a pretty
good what we called an "A Head" at that time.
It was one of the outside columns in the
front page about him, where the wire service
only had that someone from Iowa had been
captured.
Q: So that was a bit of reporting.
A: Right, and then, I think the time has
changed. You know, I think back...then there
was more emphasis to get that late-breaking
news that happened after ten o'clock than
there is today. In fact the deadlines had
been set up. Although the new technology is
supposed to speed it up, I think the
deadlines have been set up earlier than they
used to. And that was maybe a prod to have
something in the paper that wasn't on the ten
o'clock TV. And try to get as much as you
could so there would be nothing for the
Tribune to follow up with the next day. And
vice versa for the Tribune. They always
wanted to get ahead so there wouldn't be
anything for the Register the next day.
Q: Even though they may be separate stories
in and of themselves.
A: Right, right.
Q: It may be separate stories, you haven't
really sweeped them. I don't know.
And you talked a little bit about this, you
mentioned this, that you wouldn't do it today
but you were younger and you decided to call
this women after 10 PM. Did you have any
second thoughts about that? Why would you
now?
A: Interrupting people at night.
Telemarketer's maybe. (laughs)
Q: You got the story.
A: And it was a story where I thought
probably-if I did connect with the right
person- that they would be happy to know he
was safe. Or that he was alive.
Q: What was, Larson, I think, the editor you
worked with.
A: Jimmy Larson. He was the news editor.
Q: Did you socialize with some of these
people like Jim Larson or some of the people
you worked with on the ...outside of work?
A: I didn't. Others did. I guess I was a
family man. Not a whole lot of socialization
among families. There was some we did. Not a
lot. I guess, personally, I kind of liked to
get away from the newsroom, and that
atmosphere, in my social life. Although I
have very good friends. Terry Manley, I
mentioned. Tom Suk, the police reporter.
[They] were good friends and we socialized.
Otherwise the socialization mostly was
company picnics. Although there are others
who are very close and do a lot of
socializing. --
Section 7: Q: Any other stories that you can remember
about that shift during those years that you
were working at nighttime?
A: No. One thing that I always, there's a
couple of things that I was thinking about
when we were getting ready here. Technology
has made some improvements. Cell phones are
great. When a police reporter late at night
would go off to a car accident, out in Warren
County for instance, he would then have to
find a telephone to call back on deadline.
Again on the late shift, you're working
against deadline constantly. To have a cell
phone right there in the car, to call back,
was a great improvement.
Q: Given that example, were you taking down
information from a reporter who would be at
these scenes? And they'd have the stories
composed in their heads?
A: No, they usually would just call in the
details and we'd compose the story.
Q: I imagine that was difficult.
A: It was fun. It was fun. It was a
challenge.
Q: After hanging up with them, I wonder if
you had other questions.
A: Oh sure. And again, cell phones really
are, before cell phones, phones in the car.
Another incident when I did some reporting
was an Ankeny tornado in '73, I think it was.
I was on the late desk. I don't remember what
time it hit. I think it was after ten
o'clock. We had an intern on the police beat
that night. And she, we had heard of the
tornado in Ankeny. They didn't know how many
casualties or anything. So I sent the
reporter out there to cover it and see what
she could get. She found a phone, I guess. I
don't think we had cell phones. No, I know we
didn't. But in the meantime, the lines were
out, so she couldn't feed it probably. So she
drove back to Des Moines and said, "They
wouldn't let me in." I don't know if she
didn't have the right credentials or what.
But they wouldn't let her in to Ankeny. In
the meantime, my neighbor who worked
construction had a cell phone in his pick-up.
He called me and told me, "We're OK here, and
your wife is OK." But they understood that
the Hy-Vee store roof was gone. That's what
they had heard. Well, the reporter, Lucia
Herndon, told me she couldn't get in. I said
I could get in because I have Ankeny
credentials-you know, driver's license. So
then I went out and was able to get in. When
I got to the people, I didn't tell them I was
from the paper. I just told them my family
was there and I needed to get in. One of the
fellows who let me in, used to, was a
stereotyper, I believe, at one time and now
he was from Ankeny and was on the Fire/Rescue
crew. He was a volunteer fireman. He knew who
I was and he said the morgue has been set up
at Northwest School. So I went immediately to
the morgue where the two bodies were. I beat
Dr. Wooters, the medical examiner, there.
When he came in, why, he pronounced them
[dead] and said this was all [of the dead]
they knew of. So then I called back in and we
had the fact that there were only two dead,
although there could have been more in the
wreckage. But we had a pretty good story
because I was able to get in and call it
back.
Q: How did you call it back when the lines
were dead?
A: There was, apparently they weren't all
down, because I was able to go across the
street to a house from the school where the
morgue was and use their phone to call back.
Q: Have there been other occasions where you
were short of people or you need to be out on
a cutting, I mean, breaking news story? Where
you would leave the desk and you'd go out and
take a look around, I mean, just like what
you did here in Ankeny?
A: Not very many if there were. I don't
recall any others. Maybe run downtown, you
know, look out the window and something
happened out on the corner, something like
that occasionally, but I don't recall any
others where I went out.
Q: Would you use people who were not
necessarily journalists to get, such as your
neighbor, to get your information for you and
maybe have him go out and do a little bit of
...?
A: I don't recall doing that. Usually we'd
have a police reporter there that could go.
But we might ask...yes, there were times when
there was a hostage situation in which, while
the police reporter was enroute, I would look
in the city directory and get a neighbor and
call them to try to find out what was going
on next door, but not to use them as a source
necessarily. Only until your own reporter got
on the scene. I had done that several times.
Where you would call, look in the city
directory and find a house across the street. --
Section 8: Q: You've mentioned Jimmy Larson. You worked
under five city editors. Anyone in addition
to Larson that left a lasting impression on
you?
A: Oh, Chuck Capaldo. I don't know if you've,
he was the Tribune city editor, or was an
assistant like I was for years. Then he was
made city editor of the Tribune. That's when
I went to the Tribune for a short time. He
was there. He was a great city editor. Then,
after the papers merged, Chuck became city
editor for the Register. Dave Witke, of
course, was city editor. I would say they
were the two...
Q: And Randy Evans?
A: Randy Evans was present day city editor.
Although they don't call them city editors
anymore. They are metro Iowa editors. And he
is now assistant managing editor. He oversees
the city and state operations. Those three
are outstanding, the three outstanding
editors that I remember. Not that the others
weren't. But they were really a step above.
Randy Evans was probably...two things that he
stood out for that I remember. His
organization of the major air crash at Sioux
City. He was on the ball and he got people up
there and he got them in and out. Did an
excellent job. And the flood. Geneva
Overholser and Dave Westphal were great
newspaper people. They got a lot of credit
deservingly for the flood. But Randy Evans
and Rick Jost got that flood started. Maybe
I'm giving less credit to the other two than
deserving, and they did deserve it, but they
were the ones [Evans and Jost], in my
estimation, that organized that flood
campaign.
Q: Well, there are countless stories about
the flood coverage, getting the Register out.
What was it that they did, where others may
have fallen short?
A: Well, I think it was Randy and Rick who
really pushed. "Let's do it." I really think
they were the ones that said we can do it.
And I wasn't there, so I don't know. I just
get that impression.
Q: Tell us the story because I can't remember
it. And obviously our viewers don't know it.
A: It was one of the few times I went in, in
later years. Volunteered to go in. It was a
Sunday morning and they lost all power to the
building, I believe.
Q: The Register?
A: Yes, I think so. So what were they going
to do. And they'd probably gone and dispensed
publishing or not. I'm really eighth hand,
this is eighth hand on it, so I'm not the one
that should be telling this, going into the
archives and maybe I'm wrong. But, it's my
impression that they pushed. "Let's do it. We
can do it." So they set up a temporary
newsroom out in West Des Moines [IA]. I went
in to the office downtown. Well, I'd gone to
church in the morning ,so it was probably
eleven o'clock or noon when I decided to go
in. Maybe even one o'clock when I got in
there. Of course, all the operations had
already been decided then. And they hired a
room in, maybe a room or two rooms or three
rooms, out in West Des Moines where they had
power. Took their portable computers and
wrote the stories and then I think they took
it to Indianola to do the plates and then
flew the plates, I believe, to Iowa City
[IA], didn't they, to have them run in the
presses, I think, in Iowa City, as I recall.
Q: That's strange.
A: They flew down, I'm quite sure, after the
plates were made, to Iowa City. But they made
the plates in Indianola.
Q: And so I can't remember if everything got
out on time, do you remember?
A: I don't remember either. But there was a
morning newspaper the next day. It was only
four pages, but it was a paper.
Q: It's better than nothing.
A: Yes. And I thought the Register...two
things I thought they should have won a
Pulitzer for. One was that flood coverage. I
think they did a tremendous service, and I
wasn't really part of it. It was done by
Randy and the others on the staff.
Q: Where were you at the time?
A: I was there. But at this point in my
career, I was kind of out of the news end of
it. I was kind of an
ombudsman-sort-of-person, more than anything.
Q: Because this was four years from your
retirement in '97.
A: Well, yes. But more it was...my job
description had changed. As an early, early
desk person, I was leaving at 3:30 in the
afternoon. That's really when the news was
really starting to boil in the editing end of
it. --
Section 9: Q: And going back a little bit, what were the
circumstances of your being offered a job at
the Tribune?
A: Oh, I guess they just wanted...I had been
the late city desk person for eleven years
and my family was...I'd been away from the
family, and Bill Maurer was assistant, or he
was managing editor of the Tribune at the
time. One afternoon I was working here in the
house and they called me and asked, "Would
you be interested?" There was an opening
there and he just asked me if I would be
interested. And I said, "Sure." Difference
between night and day is what it was.
Q: And it was because of your family, the
fact that you could be with your family more.
A: Right, right.
Q: And again, what was that job?
A: It was an assistant city editor. I was
doing a lot of editing of reporters' copy.
And actually I served as the city editor on
Saturdays because the city editor was gone.
So I was the acting city editor on Saturdays.
And I was also editor of the religion page,
but I did that also on the Register in my
later years.
Q: Did that entail anything different that
what you would have been editor...?
A: No, just laying out the page, getting the
stories, deciding what stories, the play and
editing it.
Q: And did you like your position at the
Tribune? Were you happy there?
A: Yes, yes I was, although the Register was
always my first love and loyalty. Although I
was loyal, you know, when I was at the
Tribune for eighteen months, but I was
always a Register person.
Q: What was the distinction do you think?
A: I think the competition, back-jealously
and what-have-you from the previous years.
Although I admired the Tribune staff,
especially Chuck Capaldo and Suzanne Nelson
and the others I worked with there.
Q: Do you recall any time where there was an
effort to unionize or organize guilds?
A: Yes, shortly after I came. The one thing
that really bothered me when I joined the
Register, and because of my printing
background, the typographical union, not the
newsroom, was threatening to strike. There
were four of us. I don't remember how many
there were. There was myself, who had only
been there a month probably, two months at
the most, I think only a month. Lyle Boone
and a couple of other fellows brought us out
to DMACC [Des Moines Area Community College]
giving us lessons on printing. "Scab School"
is what some would call it, probably. And
that bothered me because I was also subbing
occasionally as the make-up editor down
there, working on those days when the make-up
editors [were gone], working with them [the
printers] and they knew I had gone to this
other school. That bothered me a little-well
it bothered me a lot but, and I actually
complained to Jimmy Larson about it, and he
saw to it that I didn't have to go back to
the classes anymore. I don't remember. That
was probably in '70.
Then there was an organization, this is
probably what you were alluding to, when
there was an organization to organize a guild
at the Register. That would have been '72 or
so, something like that. I had belonged to
the guild at Sioux City. In fact I was an
officer. I think I was what they called a
comptroller. I just saw, mainly I had to see
to it that everyone paid his dues. And so I'm
not against the guild necessarily, but I was
opposed to them organizing here. Primarily, I
think, because Iowa has a right-to-work law
and as long as everybody isn't going to
belong there, I just think that the guild
would not have been very effective at the
Register. I knew there were a lot of people
that could have gone in there and put out the
paper by themselves. Very capable of doing
it, if the guild would ever go on strike. And
I came to the Register making more money than
I had made in Sioux City, plus the fact that
I remembered all those, what do you call it,
when you paid in for the strikes. You know,
you pay part of your check for the strikes
and your dues. And they used to take quite a
chunk out of your paycheck for that. So I was
opposed to that guild movement at that time.
And one of my close friends, who is still a
close friend, was a guild person in Sioux
City. He rote me a letter here hinting that
what a great, how services a guild can do.
"So I hope you keep that in mind," he said. I
later asked him, years later, had the
headquarters asked him to write that letter
and he said, "Yes."
Q: Could you ever see a case where the guild
would be needed when you were at the
Register?
A: I just, I think unions have done a great
thing, but I just don't think it would be
effective. If you have a right-to-work law
voted in, where everybody would have to
belong, then it might. But as long as it
would be divided, half the newsroom, I just
don't think a guild would be effective.
That's my personal opinion.
