November 15, 2006
In the fall of 1994, I was given a camera, some black-and-white film and a mission: Go to Centre High School and take pictures of the sports teams, to be featured in the next edition of the [Marion County Record.][1]I lugged that camera around for a few days - taking pictures of the teams, and snapshots to go with other stories I was writing for the paper, which was my first real journalism job. And on Tuesday, a day before the weekly was to go to press, I handed the camera to the woman whose job it was to develop the film and photos.Which is when I found out something awful: I had misloaded the film. None of the pictures I thought I had taken had actually been taken.The next day, a notice appeared in the paper that - while I forget the precise wording - went very much like this:"We had intended to show you pictures of the Centre High School sports teams this week. But Joel Mathis, our reporter, did not load the film into his camera correctly and all the images were lost. He is a young reporter, and this is the first time he has made this mistake. It will also be the last."No, I wasn't fired. But Bill Meyer, the Record's publisher and editor, was teaching me a lesson - and letting all of Marion County know about it. You tend not to repeat a mistake when everybody in town has given you a hard time about the first one.It was one of perhaps thousands of lessons that Bill, who died Tuesday night at the age of 81, gave during his long [hall-of-fame career.][2] He started at the Record in 1948, and spent the next half-century mentoring young journalists - he usually had an intern from Kansas University during the summer - and sending them out into the world. I was lucky. The summer I went to work for Bill, his expected KU intern backed out at the last second. So he gave me - a 21-year-old kid sick-and-tired of carrying out groceries while I went to a small college - a chance.Boy, was I lucky. Tabor College doesn't have an extensive network of journalism alumni, but the fact that I had worked for Bill Meyer helped me get my first job at a daily newspaper after I graduated.What I remember most is Tuesday afternoons. The computerization of newspaper design hadn't made its appearance in Marion by the mid-1990s, so Tuesdays in the office were filled with the sound of Bill singing, the snip of scissors and the smell of hot wax as he composed pages the old-fashioned way. He loved being a small-town newspaper editor. He loved having a big voice in his community. He loved agitating for unpopular causes in the editorial page. He loved tweaking the pieties of the Mennonites in Hillsboro, 10 miles down the road - "They're German," he wrote once (and again, I paraphrase from memory). "Shouldn't they love beer?" And, not infrequently, he reminisced about his service in World War II, at the Battle of the Bulge.He provided a glorious beginning to my journalism career. He provided a glorious beginning to many such careers, winning the Gaston Outstanding Mentor Award from the Kansas Press Assn. in 2000. If you've read any Kansas newspaper in the last few decades, you've probably read the work of one of his alumni.Thanks, Bill. I will miss you.- 30 - [1]: http://www.marionrecord.com/ [2]: http://www.kspress.com/img/HOF/members/meyerb.html
Comments
lawrence.com does not necessarily agree with comments posted below - responsibility lies with the relevant user alone. Read our full policy.
leslie (Leslie vonHolten) says...
He sounds like a gem. What a lovely tribute.
November 15, 2006 at 8:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
morganalefay (anonymous) says...
From what I've seen of your work, Joel, I'm sure you were his pride and joy.
Nice tribute!
November 16, 2006 at 9:55 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bloozman (anonymous) says...
Joel -- You're right about your first job at a daily. There were two people, Bill and Tom Eblen, whose word I took as gospel when looking at job candidates. Both would tell it like it was, good or bad.
I should add that your stringbook was strong even without Bill's imprimatur. And I congratulate you for these remarks that capture Bill's personality without using the word "curmudgeon." Although he wouldn't have minded ...
November 16, 2006 at 10:08 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
emawkc (anonymous) says...
Wow! I hadn't heard that Bill had died. Bummer. As an MHS alumnus I knew him well and had regular meetings with him as I went through J-school at K-State. He helped me do a business case for community journalism for one of my classes, and I was the beneficiary of his career advice.
R.I.P. Mr. Meyer.
November 16, 2006 at 4:09 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
imagold (anonymous) says...
Mr. Meyer wrote a very nice piece on my aunt when she passed away in Marion some years ago. My parents and grandparents were from Marion and I can remember them talking about this or that editorial by Mr. Meyer...not always in agreement with him. It's nice to read your tribute.
November 16, 2006 at 10:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )