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Where Are
We Now?

Don Hatfield | David Peyton | Charlie Bowen | Pamela Bowen | Patty Rhule | Jackie Jadrnak | Debra Elliotte | Richard Carelli | Diana Jones | Bruce Ebert | Bob Hall | John Klein | LaVonda Singer | Rick Baumgartner | Mara Rose Williams | Strat Douthat | C.T. Mitchell | Elizabeth Skewes | Sara Berkeley Lowe | Katharine Barrett | Joe Cosco | John Koenig | Jim Ware | Kathy Legg | Dave Walsh | Sue Teeter Hall | Al Goodman | Dick Stanley | Tim Grobe | Jim Hunyadi | Kevinne Moran | Jim Leunk | Bob Withers | Angela P. Dodson |

Don Hatfield

Became executive editor of the H-D when it combined with the Advertiser. Named publisher and editor in 1982 and added title of regional VP for Gannett East (Chillicothe, Marietta, Fremont, Port Clinton in Ohio and Tarentum/New Kensington/North HIlls in Pa.) in 1985. Trasnferred to Tucson in 1986 as publisher and editor of Tucson Citizen, and regional VP for Gannett’s southwestern operations (Tucson, El Paso, Sante Fe and a USA Today print site and distribution center in Chandler, Az.).  Retired from the Citizen and Gannett in June 2000 and joined the University of Arizona Foundation as VP Corporate Development. Retired from that in June 2006 and worked for a year as a consultant with another UAF retiree. 

Returned to Huntington in 2007 after more than 21 years to be with family (a son and one of Sandy’s sisters here, another son in Boston and another of her sisters in New England, not far from our cottage in Cape Cod, where we spend summers). In the meantime, Sandy has had major health problems including a heart attack, breast cancer, four back surgeries (the most recent this past January), and a hip replacement. But she is as upbeat as ever and rarely complains. And here we are, on Four Pole Creek a few blocks from Ritter Park.   

Dave Peyton

Dave lives in the same place where he lived during The Advertiser years. In fact, he lives in the same place he has lived since he was 5. He worked at the Huntington Publishing Company until early in this new century when he was fired for allegedly looking at porn on his company computer. This happened shortly after winning a top company-wide Gannett prize for column writing. Go figure. After that, he began writing columns for The Charleston Daily Mail. He still writes one a week for the DM, but mostly he is retired and spends lots of time yelling “Get off my lawn.” His wife, Susie, is an instructor at the MCTC Community College, where she teaches developmetal English. And his son and only child lives in St. Louis, where he does something with computers.

Charlie Bowen

He left newspapering in 1985 to write books for the next 10 years, mostly about computer communications and networking for Bantam Books, Random House, Times Books and others. Many of the books he wrote collaborating with Dave Peyton. Also during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Charlie was a contributing editor, columnist and writer for a number of computer industry magazines. In the 1990s, Charlie created and produced a syndicated radio feature called “The Internet News” with Jameson Broadcast of Washington, D.C.  The show ran for six years and at its height was carried on some 200 stations and The Voice of America.

In 2001, he took a new direction, creating Design by Bowen (www.bowenbooks.com) to design and maintain web sites in Huntington and around the country. These days, Charlie manages 40+ sites and creates new ones all the time. When not working, Charlie spends a lot of time with the 1937 Flood -- the band he and Dave Peyton started back in the mid-1970s. The Flood (www.1937flood.com) has had dozens of members over the years and still has a regular Wednesday night jam session at the Bowens’ house.

Pamela Bowen

After The Advertiser was killed, I worked on the copy desk of The H-D for a while, becoming more discouraged every day (because most of my coworkers there didn’t have the dedication and standards I was used to) until I was offered an escape in the form of the Features Department, where I was editor in charge of two reporters (one of whom was Dave Peyton!), an assistant and a clerk. I was quite happy there for many years, but stayed in that job 13 years before a new executive editor decided to eliminate the Features Department and put me back on the copy desk -- my true love -- which this time had a competent and caring staff. I loved the hours (4:30 p.m. to 2 a.m.) and the job, but had to leave in 2001 when I became legally blind. Was surprised to realize that the thing I missed most about the job was going to dinner with co-workers and complaining about the job.

My eyesight declined steadily over the next six years (a combination of macular degeneration in one eye and very low vision and severe cataracts in both). I could see only indistinct shapes and colors. Could not distinguish between a person and a telephone pole more than 6 feet away and could not see anything clearly unless it was within 5 inches of my face. I had to crawl to maintain my large flower garden, and have my nose against the paper to read anything. I had been putting off cataract surgery because of the extremely high risk of detached retina, which would take away what sight I had left, but finally agreed and the surgery was extremely successful. Now I can see (with one eye) better than I have in my lifetime, can garden standing up and -- most importantly -- can drive again! In my free time, I volunteer at the Talking Books Department at the library and am manager and booking agent for Charlie’s band, the 1937 Flood. Knowing that I’m still at high risk for detached retina, I’ve embraced the Buddhist philosophy of appreciating and enjoying every moment.

Patty Rhule

After leaving Huntington in 1982, I went to work at what was then a startup newspaper called USA Today. I worked there in a variety of jobs -- copy editor in the News section, cover stories editor, TV editor and Entertainment editor in the Life section. I left in 1994 to free-lance for 8 years while my son was young, and went back to USA Today as movie editor. Two years ago, I came to work at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., as a project editor, where I edit and research new exhibits.

Jackie Jadrnak

I left the Advertiser to take a job in the Columbus bureau of Gannett News Service in January 1979, worked there for nine-and-a-half years, took a couple months off and did a car trip through the West for about four weeks, then did a year with the Kiplinger program, earning a master’s degree at Ohio State University.

Then I frantically looked for another job, got an interview with The Albuquerque Journal, and fell madly in love with New Mexico. I’ve been here since December 1988, working seven-and-a-half years covering state government, 10 years covering medicine/health (my favorite job ever -- how cool to watch surgery and autopsies!!!), and then I got burned out again and took a year off to sit on my couch and read.

Now I’ve spent about a year working as city/night editor for the Journal North bureau. Editing is OK. Sitting here alone at night waiting for the pages to get done so I can check them is fine. Gives me time to write these things. Yes, I’m still underpaid in a dying industry.

And I'm still a loner, with a series of monogamous relationships with dogs, a fling with a horse who ultimately was too expensive and time-consuming, and a steady love for hiking in the mountains, rafting down whitewater and occasionally finding my way outside the country (London, Cost Rica, Peru, Ecuador, Galapagos, and a couple yoga retreats in Mexico).

Debra Elliotte

I left Huntington in 1977 for a job with Digital Equipment Corporation. I worked there for 15 years and at Oracle Corporation for 4+ in various technical positions. During the 20+ years I lived in New England, I finished my bachelors degree and married. In 1998, my husband, Jonathan, and I both accepted positons with Marshall University and returned to Huntington, where we continue to live with our three dogs, Clare, Bristol and Purna.

Richard Carelli

I was AP correspondent in Huntington from April 1971 to August 1973. Was with the AP in Miami until ‘76, and then in D.C. with the AP until 2000. Had 31-plus years with the Great Combine. Retired in 2000; had the financial security to stay retired two weeks before taking a public affairs (flack) position with the federal court system. Have almost 9 years in as a fed, and hope to retire (again) in 2012.

Diana Jones

After leaving the H-D, I went to the Tulsa Tribune, where I worked as a feature writer for five and a half years... I left there to pursue an adventure in Australia, where I lasted for about three months. Came home and stayed with my mother for a few weeks before landing a part-time gig at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. That turned into a full-time job, which I have had ever since, with a nine-month hiatus for a Teamsters strike, a lock-out, another JOA killed and a transfer of power that ended the afternoon-Sunday reign of the mighty Pittsburgh Press. The Post-Gazette continues on with a smaller staff but no big lay-offs as yet. 

In Pittsburgh, I have learned to speak Spanish, I have played in a Cajun-Zydeco band since 1990 (our gigs have come at a trickle in recent years but you never forget how to play the washboard). I live in a national historic district from which I can walk to work. I have a dog and a cat and a housemate with three dogs. (We have reached the city limit allowable on four-legged residents at one address.) 

Bruce Ebert

After leaving The Advertiser, I made my way down I-64 to Tidewater Virginia, where I worked for almost 20 years for the Newport News Times-Herald (another PM that met its fate) and Daily Press. The county government I covered for a while wasn’t nearly as rollicking as the Cabell commissioners. Later worked for a PR firm, mostly on a seat-belt program -- very rewarding because it meant doing more than just helping some rich guy retire early.

Now I’m a free-lance writer, living in the coolest neighborhood in Norfolk. In between all this, saw The Quilt, finished five marathons, rode the length of Cape Cod on a bicycle, danced
shirtless on top of a speaker at the hottest gay disco in Chicago (being a reporter sure did make me an extrovert), got cancer and beat it, and made lot of friends, many of whom actually love many of the stories I tell about my time with The Huntington Advertiser.

Bob Hall

After The Advertiser was folded, I went on to become managing editor of the United Mine Workers Journal until a new UMW president was elected. Bounced around at the Journal of Forestry, Curtis Publishing (corporate histories) etc. until 1988, when I became editor of Quick Printing magazine. Recently was named executive editor of the Cygnus Graphics Group, which includes Quick Printing, Printing News and Wide-Format Imaging. Just celebrated 19 years of marriage to a fine Cajun girl who also happens to be managing editor of Quick Printing. Living in Charleston with two rescue dogs and a rescue cat.

John Klein

I left the Herald Dispatch in 1982 to go to graduate school at Ohio University. It took me till 1986 to finish my thesis but I got a masters in journalism and visual communication. One of my graduate projects was a history of the final days of The Advertiser. After a brief stay at the Detroit News as a photographer/picture editor, I came to the then Milwaukee Journal in 1984 as a picture editor. When they merged The Journal with The Sentinel, I became the photo department assignment editor for the Journal Sentinel.

I am now the assignment editor and the photo editor/photographer for JSonline breaking news desk. I still get to make pictures and I cover the Green Bay Packers. I have now been working for three afternoon papers that were put to pasture while I was working for them, starting with a paper route I had with The Cleveland News. I am an adjunct at Marquette University, teaching photography and advising the visual staff of the college newspaper. I am married to Judy Klein, a graphic artist with an advertising design company. In my spare time I ride my motorcycle, sail, barbeque and do woodworking. We live in Milwaukee with our dog and bird.

LaVonda Singer

I started at The Herald-Dispatch in 1971. A girlfriend of mine was applying for a job and she asked me to come with her and put in an application. I wasn’t really looking for a job at the time, but I went anyway. A year passed before the newspaper called me and I had forgotten that I had even applied. I took a typing test, and I was good at typing, but failed the first test because I was so nervous. They let me take it again and I passed.

I started working in the composing room under an apprenticeship with the men. I learned to develop ads in the darkroom and was a TTS operator. Mr. Baumgardner hired me and said after three months I would have to go on night shift. That worried me, because I can’t stay up late at night, so I planned to wait until I was told to go on night shift, and then I would just quit. But it never happened.

When they did away with my composing room position, Don Hatfield brought me to the newsroom as a typist. I was so happy that he gave me the chance because I could have ended up anywhere in the building. I was right where I wanted to be. I did obits for five years and various other jobs. I wrote a paper and was accepted at the University of California at Berkeley to learn to become a reporter. At the last minute I decided not to go because I had just adopted a 4-month-old baby and would have to leave her and my husband for awhile. So I stayed and was named assisted newsroom clerk. Before I retired after 35 years, I was writing stories and still doing a little bit of everything.

Now I get to travel quit a bit. My family and I usually rent cabins on the holidays. My sisters and I went to Las Vegas in May. Also, this summer I went to Lynchburg, Va., to a family reunion, Richmond, Va., to a 60th birthday party for a nephew, and Columbus, Ohio, to the Singer reunion with 300 or more people. Have had lots of fun this summer. I have three grandsons: Allen, 13, Alec, 6 and infant Trey.

Rick Baumgartner

After a stint as Advertiser staff artist from 1975 to 1979, was graphics editor of The Herald-Dispatch until I left in 1985 to be a designer for The Press-Telegram in Long Beach, Calif. In 1986 I returned to The Herald-Dispatch as graphics editor until 1991, when I founded and became publisher of Blue Acorn Press in Huntington (www.BlueAcornPress.com), where I am a full-time researcher and writer, and author or editor of a dozen books. The next title, “This Carnival of Hell: German Combat Experience on the Somme, July-November 1916,” will be published in January 2010. I bought a house out near Barboursville in 1987 and still live there. Have tootled around Europe some, but spend a lot of time in Ohio and Georgia when not writing. Looking forward to the reunion.

Mara Rose Williams

Since leaving The Herald-Dispatch in 1985, I have worked at four newspapers; The Stamford Advocate in Connecticut, Newsday in Melville, L.I., The Atlanta Journal Constitution and The Kansas City Star, in that order.

I live with my family in Independence, Mo., the home of President Harry S Truman. I have been married for 20 years to Ceaser M. Williams, a former newspaper editor who now is an editing consultant. We have two sons, Trey, who is starting at Northwest Missouri State University this fall, and Jordan, a precocious 13-year-old. At The Kansas City Star, I am the higher education writer, a job I’ve had there since 2006. Last year I was selected for a month-long fellowship in Kenya by the Alfred Friendly Press Foundation. I trained Kenyan journalists at the Nation Media Group in Nairobi.  

Strat Douthat

I retired from The Associated Press in 2000, finished “junkin” and spend my days sleeping as late as I want and doing pretty much as I please (after all, living well is the best revenge, no?). Oh ye,s we spent six months traveling in Africa, Italy and France and now go camping in the Caribbean for six weeks every winter. I garden, read, play online poker and drink whatever’s in the house (hair tonic sucks).

C.T. Mitchell

I worked at Marshall for 27 years after leaving The Advertiser (and orange Buddy Hayden) in late 1972.  After retiring from MU in 1998 and again in 2000 (Gilley made it worth my while to hang around and edit his writings), I spent five years on a part-time basis helping Dr. Robert Hayes write the history of the MU med school. Since early 2007 I’ve been working three days a week as an information specialist at Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing (RCBI), trying to match the grouchiness of my colleague, Jim Casto. Gives me a much-needed reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Despite being fat before it was fashionable, smoking two packs a day for 61 years and big-time surgery in 2000, I’m still here at nigh on to 77 -- with the help of 15 daily pills, three different inhalers and two types of eye drops. Bless the VA med center and its fairly cheap pharmaceuticals.

Elizabeth Skewes

I left the H-D for a job with The Tampa Tribune, where I worked for about four years, covering a variety of beats and developing an appreciation for Cuban sandwiches and pink flamingoes. But the Trib was a strange place to work, especially in the late 1980s, so when Pete Gigliotti told me about an opening in the PR department at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, I applied. To my surprise, they hired me. It turns out that media relations wasn’t a good fit for me, but shortly after I started there, the editor for the school’s alumni publications retired, so I got to start editing a magazine. It was great fun.

I also started teaching part-time, both at Dickinson and at a nearby community college. And after I moved to Santa Fe, N.M., to work at St. John’s College, I realized that I loved teaching. So ... back to grad school (again!) -- this time to Syracuse University for a Ph.D. -- so that I could teach full-time in a tenure-track job. I landed the teaching position at the University of Colorado at Boulder as I was finishing my Ph.D., and I just got tenure this past year. 

I bought a townhouse in Longmont, Colo., a few years ago, which I share with four cats. I know, it’s a lot of paws, and I’d like to think I haven’t gone completely around the bend ... Pete and Ellen can let you know if I have, though. They know me better than anyone. I am sorry I’ll miss the big weekend, but if anyone wants to get in touch or is headed out this way, please shoot me an e-mail at elizabeth.skewes@colorado.edu

Sara Berkeley Lowe

 I exchanged chasing leads for chasing executives at companies (worked in the cable TV industry) as a public relations professional to get a word with them regarding info/publicity/crisis/etc. These executives showed themselves pretty ignorant of the media and media relations. Did that for too many years. Good points of that career: had fun traveling, learned a lot about business and marketing, excellent salary and worked with great colleagues, although I always thought they just were not as intelligent as newspaper people.

Started my own marketing/PR company few years ago, when I lost my job, but that has not worked out well financially! Last year began writing/producing/publishing audiobooks, finished my first title. I loved doing it, and I’m proud of my audiobook, but I picked a lousy time economically. Considering entering job market again (at my age?! at this time?!) but have to pay my mounting bills. Anyone wanting to contribute to the Save Sara fund ... 

Katharine Barrett

Here’s what I’ve been doing since the mid-1970s -- worked as a reporter for The Commercial Appeal for a few years, did a lot of free-lance writing (including a Family Circle article for which I successfully pretended to be an 8th grade student in Huntington, while staying with the Bowens), worked as an editor and writer for Ladies’ Home Journal in NYC, got married in 1982 (to former Huntington Herald-Dispatch intern Rich Greene), and had two children, Ben and Sandy.

In 1984, we both quit our jobs as magazine editors and started a career as full-time free-lance writers. We’ve been doing that ever since. We write a lot about state and local government, have a twice a month e-newsletter called the B&G Report (for Barrett and Greene), write a monthly magazine column for Governing Magazine, and do a lot of consulting for the Pew Center on the States. We’re currently interviewing lots of governors for a book (and have written a handful of others). The other part of our free-lance lives has involved a lot of work about Walt Disney -- we’ve done two books and a CD-ROM about him, as well as an ABC-TV documentary. We’re also involved with the new museum about him that’s opening in San Francisco. (For about 10 years, we also were the “curators” of the virtual Walt Disney Family museum.)

Joe Cosco

Unfortunately I can’t make the reunion, but I have enjoyed reading your notices, looking at the photos, and generally reliving fond memories of The Advertiser, Huntington, and Wild and Wonderful West Virginia. Although I was a short-timer at The Advertiser, it was the perfect job for a beginning reporter. Not only did I learn a lot, but had a great time doing it. What a great staff. From Hatfield
on down to the editorial assistants, it was a fun, tight-knit, hard-working staff. For those who remember me and might be interested, here is my life in a nutshell:

I left The Advertiser in 1979 for a job at another now-defunct newspaper, the (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, and a reunion with former H-D staffer Fred Grimm in South Florida. Worked as a features writer and then was a one-man Miami Bureau. Also found time to have a wild time, get married to Kathleen (who was with me in Huntington), and have a daughter. South Florida was a reporter’s dream (Mariel boatlift, Haitians, riots, natural disasters, Cuban exile commando squads, corrupt local and Caribbean politicians), but it was not the most family-friendly place. And I didn’t have nearly enough bling. We left in 1986 for Norfolk, Virginia, and The Virginian-Pilot, the third very good paper it was
my good fortune to work for, and the only one still publishing. Covered medicine/health, then the federal court and federal law enforcement. Back in my Advertiser days, Jack Hardin, in his inimitable style, used to call me Three Degrees. About 10 years ago, I made it four. In much too easy fashion, I got a doctorate in American Studies at William and Mary, left the Pilot, and landed a
tenure-track position at Old Dominion University. It was a great move, but as Grimm reminds me, I was essentially the beneficiary of dumb luck.

I was always sort of bookish (an Advertiser promotion had me sitting under a tree with a stack of books), so I love the academic life and the students keep me relatively young. Administrative duties I can do without. I have tenure, teach a mix of journalism and American Literature/American Studies courses, and currently serve as graduate program director for our master’s in English. Still married, have a 25-year-old daughter who lives in Richmond (and is mostly off our dole), and like living in Norfolk. Recently "celebrated" my 60th birthday and feel like it’s been a pretty good run so far. Hope everyone else can say the same. Wanna give a shout-out to Don, the Bowens, the Hall Bros., Kevinne, Rick, Jim, Strat, John, Sara, Patty, LaVonda, Bonnie, Steve, and the rest of the late-70s Gang. Would love to hear from any and all of you.

John Koenig

I left The Huntington Advertiser in 1977 to be city editor of the Marietta (Ohio) Times for two years, then moved to the Times-Union in Rochester, NY, as reporter and assistant city editor. In 1983 became staff writer and political editor of Florida Trend in St. Petersburg, FL., a state business magazine. After that, I was a free-lance writer and business consultant; executive editor of the Maddux Report, a regional Florida business magazine; and business columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. From 2000 to 2006, I was founder and president of O-Force, a regional Central Florida non-profit organization; then was director of marketing for Holland & Knight, a national law firm, and is now a business consultant, currently developing an online publication.
 
Married in 1977 to Barbara McKenna Koenig, whom I met in Huntington, where she was program director at the Huntington Galleries; Barbara is currently a senior marketing executive with a real estate development company. One daughter, Brett, born in 1981.  She is an architect and lives in Austin, TX. Currently living in Winter Park, FL.  Interests: Sailing, travel, golf.

Jim Ware

After I was an intern at the Advertiser, I was hired by Ernie Salvatore to be a part-time sports clerk for the H-D. That evolved into a full-time job as a copy editor, first in sports and later in news. Before I left the H-D in 1988, I had worked as a reporter, LeisureTime editor, assistant features editor and assistant city editor.

From 1988 to 1992 I was city editor, Community News editor and editorial page editor at The Saratogian in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. From 1992 to 2006, I was assistant metro editor at the Valley News Dispatch in Tarentum, Pa. From 2006 to 2007, I was an online editor at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. I became assistant metro editor at the StarNews/StarNewsOnline in 2007 and was named night editor/crime team leader in 2008. I live in Wilmington, N.C. In December 2008, I was a fellow at the Knight Digital Media Center in Berkeley, Calif.

I'm a proud grandfather of two beautiful granddaughters. In my spare time I volunteer as a search dog handler with Brunswick Search and Rescue, go fishing, read books about sailing and hang out on the beach.

Kathy Legg

I left the Advertiser in 1974 (my god, can it really be THAT long ago?!!) and spent a year at The Palm Beach Post as a layout editor for what was then called Poster, aka the features section. Hated the Palm Beach Post. Hated Palm Beach. Hated Florida. Left all three in 1975 and joined The Trenton Times as the Good Times (I kid you not) editor. Why do newspapers insist on giving their features sections ridiculous names? Might that have some bearing on their spiraling demise? Trenton was terrific. If you haven’t been there, go. I was hired shortly after the paper was acquired by The Washington Post Company. In 1977 I was asked to join the Style (see?) section of The Washington Post. During my 31 years at the Post, I did a bit of writing, but primarily was an art director. I art directed (at various times) the Sunday Style sections, the Home section, Food section, Real Estate section and Travel section. In June 2008 I took advantage of a lucrative buy-out offer and, along with about 100 other journalists from the newsroom, left the Post. Sadly, The Washington Post has not been spared from these tough economic times and the cut-backs have been drastic. Happily, I can look back at a long career working for one of the world’s great newspapers during its heyday. 
 
I still live in Washington in the Dupont Circle neighborhood. My husband, Joe, and I bought my family’s farm near Point Pleasant a few years ago and are spending time there as well. 

Dave Walsh

After leaving The Advertiser, I spent five years with The Ithaca (N.Y.) Journal (we won Best of Gannett in 1982). Then I went to The Wilmington (Del.) News Journal for about a year. Came back to The Herald-Dispatch in late 1985 and have been here since. Have covered all sports at all levels and did some other items for news side (Progress edition, etc.).  I did quite a few stories on “We Are Marshall” movie, also got a part in the movie as assistant coach for Xavier. That was quite an experience, especially being in Atlanta for football scene shooting and Los Angeles for premier.

Other awards: 1976: Bowling writer of the Year. Story on Marshall bowling team is placed in Bowling Hall of Fame. 1984: Associated Press Top 10, Sunday sports section. 1992: West Virginia Special Olympics award for coverage. 2008: Third in sports features in West Virginia Press Association awards. 2009: Gene Morehouse Award winner for service to profession in West Virginia. This one is quite special.

Wife is Mary Ann. Children are Amy (34), who lives in Datyon, and David Joseph (31) who lives in South Point.

Sue Teeter Hall

I was the last intern for The Huntington Advertiser – and no, I didn’t kill the paper. Thanks to all of you who helped me grow that summer. I met many who became long-term close friends, most notably former H-D reporter Mike Hall. In 1980, I interned at The Cincinnati Enquirer, which I loved. I was given the chance to stay, but I loved modern dance and ballet more, so I returned to Lexington, Ky., to pursue my dance dream and work in a deli. That was followed by moving to the Austin area, where I worked at a county paper. I joined Mike in the nation’s capital area in 1982 and we’ve been happily married since 1990. I was a free-lancer before spending 19.5 incredible years in Veda International’s media group, doing everything from writing to pubs design to web stuff for customers as diverse as the U.S. Navy and International Migratory Bird Day. Our close-knit company merged with another to form Veridian in 1997, and in 2003 Veridian was sold to a military-industrial-complex giant. I moved on, hoping to do “something different” in life, and ironically landed as a senior editor/writer at Northrop Grumman. No kids, but we have two great long-haired German shepherds. Mike and I share passions for music and travel. I am learning guitar and spending lots of time horseback riding.

Al Goodman

Al Goodman is CNN's award-winning Madrid bureau chief and executive producer for CNN en Español.

He was among the first international correspondents on the scene of the Madrid train bombings in March 2004 and has reported extensively on their aftermath. Goodman was on-site coordinator for CNN's coverage of the terrorist attacks against British targets in Istanbul in 2003 and he was in Casablanca in 2004 to report on that city nearly a year after the terrorist attacks there.

Goodman joined CNN full-time in March 2000, after freelancing for CNN for eight years. He has covered fatal attacks by Basque separatists, the Madrid airliner crash in 2008, the earthquake in northern Morocco in 2004, human rights cases at Spanish court, including charges against Chile’s General Pinochet, three Spanish royal weddings, Spain’s Euro 2008 football triumph, the 2006 World Cup matches involving Portugal and Pamplona’s running of the bulls. He has also helped CNN cover three U.S. presidential visits to Spain. Goodman reports regularly on camera in English and in Spanish for CNN’s various networks.

Goodman earlier freelanced in Spain for National Public Radio, the International Herald Tribune, Business Week and the Wine Spectator magazine. For four-and-a-half years, just before joining CNN full-time, he freelanced concurrently for the New York Times and CNN, often covering breaking news for both organizations on the same day.

Dick Stanley

Left the H-A in 1974 for West Palm Beach, where I enjoyed scuba diving almost every morning before work began at the Post in the afternoon. Next stop Trention (NJ) Times where folks in the shabby, post-industrial state capital always said: "You gave up Palm Beach for this?" Quit in 1977 to write screen plays for a couple of Hollywood producers I'd met in Palm Beach. They didn't sell so, in 1978, took a job offer from former Palm Beach editors who'd relocated to Austin, Texas. Been in Austin ever since. My mother was born in Dallas and I have relatives all over the state, so Texas was and is home. 
 
Did city hall reporting in West Palm and business writing in Trenton. In Austin I was city hall at first, then general assignment. Loved traveling the state. Finally focused on medicine and science, particularly research at Texas universities. Retired in 2006 to become a house-husband for wife Debra, who is state editor of the paper (Austin American-Statesman, which has had buyouts and cutbacks but is still prospering), and at-home dad for our now 9-year-old son Jack. 
 
Spend most of my time driving Jack to and from school, volunteering in his classroom and with the PTA and supervising his homework. After four years of Little League, he finally tired of striking out, and quit to play youth basketball, at which he excels. Funny, I never did. He's also a Cub Scout and they keep us busy. Otherwise, I read, blog (www.texasscribbler.com), keep up via Yahoo Groups with my old classmates at Infantry OCS, and put in hours writing. I'm piling up the rejection slips (six, so far) on a Civil War novel I finished in June. Meanwhile doing research for a book of nonfiction Texana. Onward, through the fog. 

Tim Grobe

In the early days, Kathy worked as a TTS operator in the composing room setting type before she moved to the newsroom for the Herald-Dispatch. She handled copy for the Advertiser, the Herald Dispatch and the Herald Advertiser. Before the days of terminals she typed a paper tape and ran it though a reader to the main frame computer and then received a justified paper tape in return that was then run though a typesetter to get the print matter. She is now a legal editor with the Municipal Code Corp. in Tallahassee, Fla. They are code publishers for many towns, cities and counties across the US.
 
I am a safety Engineer with Cross Environmental Services Inc. located in Crystal Springs, Fla., a specialized demolition and hazardous materials remediation company. We work in at least 6 states in the Southeast. We came to Tallahassee in 1987 from Huntington. We still work in journalism too. She writes for the Florida Catholic Panhandle Edition and I when I can make pictures for the same publication.

Jim Hunyadi

As near as I can tell, I left Huntington and spent a nano-moment or two working slot in Binghamton (hated it); spent a few years as a desk hand and feature writer at The Trenton Times (loved it); went to Wyoming and worked in the oilfields for a few years (loved it); worked the slot in Norwich Conn. (hated it); got a job as a food editor and columnist in
Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (loved it); gained 80 lbs. in three years and never left it behind (hated it).

For the past 20 years I’ve been working for the old Ottaway papers (now it's Dow Jones) in newsrooms and in corporate IT. I'm back in a newsroom at the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, NY. Some of the best stories I tell came from Huntington, although I’m not always sure anymore that they were true. But they were all good, just like the time I spent there.

Kevinne Moran

Since leaving Huntington, I spent a number of years as a daily newspaper reporter and copy editor at various places, including Rochester, NY, Hong Kong, Beijing, San Jose, CA, Tucson, AZ (Hatfield hired me again, thank god!). I also spent a year in Hawaii on a Gannett Fellowship in Asian Studies. I met my husband Juntao Cai in Beijing, though he’s from Shanghai. We were married in Tucson on July 31, 1987, and Don likes to say he paid for my wedding (Juntao forgot to bring the money for the justice of the peace!). After Juntao earned an MBA at the University of Arizona, we moved to Portland, Oregon, with our one-year-old daughter, Sophia. I began teaching all the journalism courses offered at Portland State University, and we had our Susanna in 1992. In 1996, we moved to Shanghai, China, and spent six years as expats there, with the kids going to American School (ha!). We took many wonderful R and R trips to Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. We have been back in Portland since 2002.

Currently, Sophia is a senior at Amherst College in Amherst, MA, and Susanna is a senior in high school, searching around for a college that will fit her! Juntao is working for a company that makes railroad cars and marine barges and he takes several trips a year to China. I’m working in a high school in the College/Career Center helping kids of all abilities and ambitions to get to college, find a job, or join the military (I am not pushing that one, believe me). Although I always loved working on newspapers, I think I had the most fun in Huntington and the best bunch of friends and colleagues. Looking forward to seeing many of you!

p.s. I'll have to go track down Ottie Adkins, my old nemesis!

Jim Leunk

I left Huntington in 1983 to move to the copy desk at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, and my family was graciously assisted in that move by John and Barbara Koenig, who lived in the ROC at the time. I worked for the D&C (unfortunate but widely used acronym) for 25 years and bounced through every department as copy desk chief, editor of the Sunday magazine, special projects editor, galley slave in charge of pagination, production and page design, etc, etc. Within days of arriving at the D&C, I had realized that it was not a happy place -- certainly nothing like The Huntington Advertiser. The D&C reminded me far more of the early days at USA Today, when people went back to their apartments at night and threw up from the stress. It is a testament to the power of inertia in my life that I remained a Gannettoid until taking a buyout in August 2008, a few months after my youngest daughter graduated from college.

I stayed retired for 4 months after that to plant trees and goof off on some land I own in Allegany County, in the Appalachian part of New York. But now I’m an editor for the Rochester Business Journal, a small and friendly workplace not unlike the one where I started out back in 1977. (I don't recall, however, that the average Advertiser reader was a millionaire.) Rochester is the deaf Mecca, and my wife, Mary Steensma, has been a sign language interpreter for many years now. Daughter Emily, whom some of you will remember as a shy little blond girl, is now married and living in Austin, where she is Juliana Gonzales aka Bloody Mary, jammer for the Texecutioners and national executive director of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. Daughter Hannah, our other native West Virginian, is married and works as a pediatric intensive-care nurse at UCSF Children’s Hospital in San Francisco. Daughter Abigail, a native New Yorker, is a grad student at Stockton College in New Jersey, studying occupational therapy.

I made a friend weep with laughter the other day by telling him stories about Harold Frankel and Nick Tweel; phantom candidates, vote buying and Switzer Bias; and Bob Partlow’s threat to take me swimming in the Ohio River with some concrete blocks. I’ve been back to Huntington only once but have many great memories. A special shout-out to two fellow H-D copy editors, the Rev. Bob Withers and Deborah Higgins, who drove me home at night for 10 months when I had no car. Also to Don, who hired me without ever being able to interview me, to Charlie, the city editor who had to point me in the right direction every morning, to Jack, who showed me the ropes from day one (and is the only male ever to call me “honey”), and to Kevinne, whose friendship helped me and Mary settle in as West Virginians. If you see Kevinne, ask her about the Hendershot ducks and tell her, “I'm sorry, you’re wrong.”

Bob Withers

I retired from The Herald-Disgr -- uh, Dispatch -- on April 1, 2007, after 38 years’ service on the two newspapers (actually, it was 39 years, but they refused to count the first year because I went part time and then full time again). I had transferred from reporting to The Advertiser copy desk for TWO WEEKS, John Brown said, until a young man named Charlie Bowen could work out early-morning transportation from Ashland, and ended up on the Advertiser and Herald-Dispatch copy desks for 27 years (I never have quite forgiven Charlie for that). (Editor’s note: Okay, Okay -- full disclosure... Charlie didn’t have a car, so had to catch the bus, which didn’t run early enough to get him there in time for the copy desk shift, so he was assigned to be a reporter -- a move for which Charlie never quite got around to thanking Bob enough for!)

I returned to reporting in 1996 and spent the best 11 years of my newspaper career, meeting such folks as Huntington’s own Dagmar, evangelist Billy Graham and Don (Barney Fife) Knotts and interviewing by phone such TV idols as Marina Sirtis and John DeLancey (“Star Trek: Next Generation”) and telling the lead singer of Aerosmith he would have to clean up his very first response before I could put it in the paper. Anyway, I have pastored Seventh Avenue Baptist Church in Huntington (where I would love to see all of you after you have breakfast at the hotel) for the past 26+ years. I’m still a rail nut, and have thus far published six books on railroads (the seventh is in the can and comes out next year). In May 2006, I spoke at the George H.W. Bush Library in College Station, Texas, and sold several copies of my first book, “The President Travels by Train.” They paid the hotel bill and the first-class sleeping car fare all the way from Huntington to Taylor, Texas, then drove 90 miles to pick us up! Now, THAT'S the way to travel!

Sue Ann and I will be married 40 years come Dec. 27. We have three daughters -- Elizabeth, associate pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Midlothian, Va.; Julie Armstead, kindergarten teacher at Spring Hill Elementary School; and Leah Losh, a counselor with Kentucky Organ Donors Association. We have four grandchildren -- Katie (6) and Kaleb (3) Losh and Keci (3) and Braeden (1) Armstead. I look the same as I did when the beloved Advertiser folded on Aug. 24, 1979, except that I wear glasses and am so fat I look like a stack of used truck tires. (If this is too much, Pamela, cut my stuff at will. You never had any trouble doing that before.)

Angela P. Dodson

I went to work at the Advertiser early in my senior year at Marshall, 1972-73, and stayed until August 1974. I went to Gannett News Service in Washington, where I worked from August 1974 to spring of 1979, shifting from reporting to being an in-house news editor. As many of you know, as a reporter for GNS I had covered the W.Va. delegations for the Huntington papers, as well as issues on Capitol Hill for a number of papers and became a bit of an expert on coal legislation. (In the spring of 1978, Lin Chaff of the Advertiser was my roommate while she did her Washington semester for her master’s from Northwestern.)
 
I spent 78-79 in graduate school at American University, earning a master’s in journalism and public affairs. I worked part-time nights on the GNS wire while in school, and then went to Rochester to do a graduate internship I needed for AU, and ended up staying for a year on various desks. I worked with and was able to hang out often with former Advertiser colleagues John Koenig and Kevinne Moran while I was there. That’s where we were when the Advertiser folded. I left to go to the Washington Star (about a year before its demise), as a features editor, but I had left there to work on the copy desk for The Louisville Courier-Journal-- pre-Gannett -- before the Star actually folded.
 
I stayed in Louisville for a couple of years and married the guy whom I had met in Rochester before he left there and moved to Derby Town as a reporter. Louisville had offered me jobs previously as a reporter while I was at GNS, but I wanted to continue editing there. In 1981, someone had leaked the word to the editors that they had my boyfriend on the payroll, and it might be a good time to try again. Not long after we wed in a lovely outdoor ceremony at the Farmington estate and bought a house, I was recruited away by The New York Times after taking the copy editing tryout. (My husband came toThe Wall Street Journal’s Philadelphia bureau and later joined The Philadelphia Daily News, and we moved to Princeton, NJ.) I spent 12 subsequent years at the Times, first on the national desk and later as editor of the Living Section and then of the Style Department and finally as a recruiter/senior editor until we parted ways.
 
I spent time rehabilitating from surgery for severe carpal tunnel in both hands and eventually took up free-lance editing and writing and learned to do some radio. I do a weekly broadcast for the Diocese of Trenton on black Catholics, and it is now on three stations and the Internet. I am a convert on account of my husband’s upbringing in the faith, and I am now a choir member, lector, parish council member and former chair of a committee that oversaw the merger of our small black congregation with a larger multi-cultural one across town.
 
In 1992, my husband and I adopted four brothers, ages 4 to 9 then. My sister, 10 years my elder, moved in with us (from Western Pennsylvania) to take care of them and us. She stayed on for many years even after I stopped working full time but now lives in Columbus, Ohio, near my brother, Bill. He runs a community development corporation for his church, creating affordable housing all over the place. (His only son and my only nephew died unexpectedly at age 29 a couple of years ago, probably the effect of a seizure.) Somewhere during that period (late 90’s), my good friend Lin Chaff died of breast cancer, just after I had written and before I published a lovely piece about her in Essence. I went to Roanoke for the funeral and spoke during the service. You also might have read about our adoption in Essence.
 
For about a decade, I worked from home most of the time with some stints at Essence magazine, the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education as a consultant and other places. I taught at the local community college. I was most recently executive editor of Black Issues Book Review in New York City for several years, but was downsized about two and a half years ago, and the magazine now appears to be defunct. I had written for it since it was founded in 1999.
 
I am doing free-lance editing mostly, some writing and consulting. I edit for an online newsletter or two, write for magazines and edit, ghost write or otherwise mid-wife people’s books into print. You can often see my work on www.diverseeducation.com, and I have a blog for writers “editorsoncall” on wordpress.
 
I am currently organizing a new book fair in Philadelphia for this fall. I am newly active in the local chapter of my sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, which I helped found at Marshall, and other community activities, including the mayor’s advisory committee on development of the area around the train station in my neighborhood. I have also continued to do workshops on editing, writing and book publishing. (By the way, for many years I taught copy editing in the Maynard Institute summer program, mostly in the Tucson years, and often saw the Hatfields and Kevinne there.)
 
I have been married 27 years to the guy I married in Louisville (Michael Days, who is now the editor of The Philadelphia Daily News.) We "temporarily" commuted in opposite directions for about 20 years. We continue to be hopeful about the future of the Daily News and newspapers in general.
 
Our sons are now grown. Only our autistic 22-year-old lives at home, and another one with special needs is in a group home and has a job at a work center. One briefly attended Marshall. One is married, and we have the benefit of two grandchildren, who can be spoiled and returned home to their rightful parents. We bought an 1870 Victorian in Trenton in 1986 and are now restoring what the kids broke. We are still trying to clear their toys and things out of all the closets and out from under the beds.
 
I get to W.Va. from time to time, mostly for Yeager scholars’ board at Marshall University. My parents are both deceased, Mom in 1985 and Pop in 1993, so there is only somewhat distant family left – just the usual W.Va. assortment of dozens of second and third cousins (Dodsons, Dotsons and Hairstons).. Sometimes our reunions are there, too.