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The Close of a Chapter

By Staff | Apr 24, 2019

If you are reading this in the Wetzel Chronicle, you might already know the news due to sportswriter Bruce Crawford or columnist Chuck Clegg’s writings. If you are reading this in the Tyler Star News, you’ve found out the news from Ed Parsons’ column.

This is the final editorial for this editor.

That is correct; after seven years I am leaving the newspaper business.

It might be an unconventional way of sharing such news – through an editorial – yet, for whatever reason, I never endeavored to pursue a column of my own. However, I didn’t want to “leave without saying goodbye.”

To say I have learned a lot and lived a lot through the past seven years while at the papers is an understatement. I was hired as a reporter for the Wetzel Chronicle in 2012. I became editor of the Wetzel Chronicle in April 2016, and I became editor of the Tyler Star News in December 2017.

Have the papers always been perfect under my watch? Of course not. However, I can maintain that I have always tried my hardest – through late hours, long hours, and many Sundays – to conduct a satisfactory job. I hope that has been portrayed throughout the pages of your local newspapers.

I have grown up and lived in Tyler County my entire life; yet, as stated above, I started my job for Ogden Newspapers as a reporter for the Wetzel Chronicle. Both counties are full of some amazing people, of whom I’ve been blessed to share just some of their stories.

Seven years isn’t that long in the grand scheme of it all. Yet, when I look back on the many stories I wrote as a reporter, the many stories I’ve edited in my current tenure, and the many amazing people I have met throughout it all, it seems like a lifetime in itself that I have lived.

As I close this chapter of my life and start on an exciting new venture, I am grateful to so many – coworkers who have become so dear to me; those who I have interviewed, who have changed my life forever with their stories; friends and family, who have always encouraged me.

Yes, I’ve always been grateful for you, the readers. The papers are the community’s. Whether you’ve submitted an item for publication, or called with praises or criticism, you’ve shown that you cared. I’ve grown in the process, and I’ve always striven to do better.

Keep caring for your local newspapers. The folks at the Wetzel Chronicle and Tyler Star News truly care as well.

This makes all the difference.