Here's a nice article about Barry Burkhart, one of my coworkers on the copy desk at The Arizona Republic. I found out yesterday that he died this weekend. He was curmudgeonly, caring and funny, and it's hard to believe he's gone.
From the article:
Bob Jacobsen, initially Burkhart's assistant and then his successor as The Republic's sports editor, recalled with a chuckle that Burkhart was so passionate about the Arizona outdoors that he once asked Jacobsen if the company would purchase a bass-fishing boat for him.
"I looked at him funny and he said, 'It doesn't hurt to ask,' " said Jacobsen, now retired.
It wasn't the first time, evidently. Bob Early, former managing editor of The Republic, who hired Burkhart from Wichita, Kan., in 1977, said Burkhart once put the hit on him for a bass boat, as well.
"He told me we'd have better reporting if he had a bass boat," said Early, who went on to become editor of Arizona Highways. "I politely turned him down."
Also be sure to read this account of his DUI. I had heard stories about that, but I never knew that he wrote it up.