Saturday, October 25, 2014
Tom’s abrupt passing has robbed me of a good friend, mentor and occasional therapist. He gave me a new life path and gave me back my life. The man who was once my boss, my first editor, hired me not because I was good but because I seemed to care. If you had the passion, he had the time to channel it, a sometimes daunting task in our small newsroom where the reporters were not always philosophically compatible. He believed in his reporters and backed them at every turn, sometimes to his own detriment; he became the target when our stories angered the powers that be and polite society. Tom made us believe in ourselves so that people would believe what we wrote. We won many more battles than we lost. Not a bad legacy for a man forced too soon into the shadows. Tom gave me so much more than I could ever give back, but I never forgot. We stayed in touch. We last spoke before his recent trip to Britain. We laughed recalling old times. May it comfort his family and loved ones to know that Tom lives on in every article and book I’ve written, and that what he taught me has been passed along to ensuing generations of journalists. You will be missed, my friend.
