Back in the day

Still reflecting on Steve Smith's appearance the other night, and the mini-reunion it drew of old Eugene news types.

Also in the audience were Jacqui Banaszynski and Don Nelson, who were part of that crew of "Young Turks" -- that's actually what people called them -- at the Register-Guard in the late 1970s and early '80s. Jacqui said something after the event about how there seem to be certain moments when newspaper staffs come together in an almost magical way. I've always noticed that too, and that old R-G crew was a classic case.

For a smallish paper (I think circulation is about 80,000), the Guard was always celebrated for its writing and, especially, its photography and design. And it turned out an amazing number of top-flight journalists.

Jacqui left for Minneapolis shortly before I arrived in 1980, but I knew her from visits to the newsroom. She went on to win a Pulitzer at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, then was an editor at The Oregonian before moving to the Seattle Times, where we reconnected. Jacqui and Don were a couple then, as they are now. They've followed each other around the country for the better part of three decades; Nellie's now the editor of the Skagit Valley Herald, after spending some time as editor of the Puget Sound Business Journal.

For a while Eugene was like the farm team of the Seattle papers. Blaine Newnham, the longtime Times sports columnist, had been sports editor at the R-G. Cathy Henkel, the Times' current sports editor and Bud Withers, a sports reporter there and formerly at the P-I, both were on Blaine's R-G staff. Harley Soltes and Betty Udesen, both incredible Times photographers, came from Eugene (although Betty worked at the nearby Springfield paper).

Terry McDermott, a great friend and for my money the best journalist to work in these parts, spent time with the rest of us at the Guard. In fact I think he replaced Steve Smith when Steve moved on. Terry's wife Millie Quan was my editor at the Guard and hired me at the Times (they both had a hand in getting me a gig at the LA Times, where they both still work).

Other R-G Young Turks, not so young anymore, included my good friends Mike Stahlberg and Ron Bellamy, who are still at the Guard, and Brian Lanker, the trendsetting photographer and designer who went on to fame as photographer of Sports Illustrated swimsuit editions.

And there were so many other excellent reporters and editors there around that time beyond that Young Turk group. I'll always have soft spots for Lloyd Paseman, film critic and assistant city editor while I was there; Fred Crafts, the arts and entertainment editor who gave me many breaks; and especially Dean Rea, whose name sounded like a very apt title given his stern professorial approach.

I'll never forget Dean regularly calling and waking me up at 6:30 in the morning (we were an afternoon paper at the time, so editors worked early), to point out some flaw in a story I'd filed the night before. "Mark, Dean Rea," he'd invariably begin. And then some variation of: "Do you have an AP stylebook? Turn to Page 86." And he'd hang up, leaving me to figure out which stylebook entry I'd overlooked.

My favorite Dean Rea lesson was the time he woke me up with the most concise writing instruction I ever got. "Mark, Dean Rea. Ever hear of a little thing called parallel construction?" Click. Well, I'm sure he didn't hang up without any further discussion, but that's sure all I remember of the conversation.

Man. Those were some good times. What a paper you could put out with that gang now.