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Sunday, January 03, 2010

Former editor Howell remembered for leading Pioneer Press to Pulitzers and as a loyal friend

Topic requested...Please click onto the COMMENTS for the story.

posted by Bob at Sunday, January 03, 2010

10 Comments:

Anonymous Pioneer Press said...

By Elizabeth Mohr and Christopher Snowbeck
Pioneer Press
Updated: 01/02/2010 08:46:03 PM CST


Deborah Howell Deborah Howell, a former editor at the Pioneer Press who helped guide the paper to two Pulitzer Prizes in the 1980s, was remembered Saturday as a tenacious journalist and a loyal friend.

"She was the best newspaper editor I ever worked with," said John Camp, one of the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters during Howell's tenure at the Pioneer Press. "She didn't do things by a managerial workbook; she was instinctual."

Howell, 68, was on a vacation with her husband, C. Peter Magrath, when she was struck and killed by a car, said her stepson, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. Howell previously was married to Nicholas Coleman, former majority leader of the state Senate, who died in 1981.

"My family and I are devastated by Deborah's tragic and untimely death," Chris Coleman said in a statement. "Deborah was a pioneering journalist. She was fascinated by people and places the world over. She was a woman of ideas and an irreplaceable guiding force in my life and in the lives of everyone who knew her."

Howell once said she was "a reporter in my bones." She grew up in San Antonio, Texas, the daughter of two journalists. She worked for her high school paper, the Daily Texan at the University of Texas in Austin and was later hired as a copy editor at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

She came to the Twin Cities in 1965to work for the Minneapolis Star. In 1979, she took an assistant managing editor job at the Pioneer Press. She became managing editor in 1982 and then executive editor in 1984 - the position Howell held when Camp won the paper's first Pulitzer for a five-part series depicting life on a southwestern Minnesota farm. Camp went on to become a best-selling author under the name John Sanford.

Howell promoted to editor in 1987. The next year, the newspaper was awarded another Pulitzer for a three-part series chronicling the life and death of a political activist and farmer from Glenwood, Minn., who suffered from AIDS.

When Howell left in 1990 to become Washington bureau chief for Newhouse Newspapers, she told the Pioneer Press newsroom, "(this) is the hardest decision I have made in my life. This paper has been the be-all and end-all of my life for the last several years."

But colleagues don't remember her as a softie.

"She could swear like a sailor. She taught me how to swear," said former reporter Theresa Persons (whose byline was Theresa Monsour). "She's tiny. A delicate, tiny, well-dressed woman, and she would open her mouth and say stuff that I don't think you can say in a newsroom now."

Persons started at the Pioneer Press as a junior at the University of Minnesota, and recalls being schooled by Howell on more than one topic.

"I was a really hungry reporter but I'm sure I was really really rough around the edges. I came to work in jeans and Rolling Stones shirts," Persons said. "She wanted me to put my best foot forward, and that included looking the part. She'd call us in and dress us down for dressing down. And she was right. That was a time when women really had to perform better than the guys to stay in the newsroom."

Like others who once cowered when Howell bellowed from her office, Persons came to know Howell as a loving and loyal friend.

"There's a whole huge group of people all of whom look upon Deborah as a good friend and we still stay in touch," said Camp. "What you find is a very odd collection of people spread all over the country who looked to Deborah to hold us together. It's been pretty devastating to lose her like this."

8:47 AM  
Anonymous story continued said...

Jacqui Banaszynski, who earned the second Pulitzer Prize during Howell's tenure for reporting the "AIDS in the Heartland" series, called Howell "the center star of a constellation."

Banaszynski recalled a time when she was once "shaking with rage" after a newsroom argument with Howell. As the reporter finished her story that day, Howell marched up and insisted they go to dinner. During the meal, when Banaszynski told her how mad she was, Howell simply replied, "I know. You'll get over it."

"In that way she modeled true journalism. When you do a story on a person it's tough," Banaszynski said. "You don't walk away from people. And Deborah never walked away from people. She never walked away from a fight."

Former Pioneer Press columnist Nick Coleman said Howell was a mentor and confidant to many in the newsroom, and her relationships beyond those walls were something that might make other editors uncomfortable.

"She had personal loyalties and could count on people's loyalties," said Coleman, who also was Howell's stepson.

When Howell left Minnesota for the Newhouse post in 1990, she became one of the first female chiefs of a Washington bureau, said David Shribman, executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Shribman ran the Washington bureau for the Boston Globe in the 1990s and said he considered Howell a colleague, mentor and "amazingly loyal friend."

"She took an underperforming bureau that did routine stories badly and made it a center of innovation and enterprise," Shribman said.

In October 2005, Howell began her tenure as ombudsman of the Washington Post, a position she held until December 2008.

In her first year on the job, she sparked controversy with a column about the newspaper's coverage of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges.

Howell wrote that a number of Democrats had received Abramoff campaign money - a claim she subsequently clarified by noting that Abramoff did not make direct contributions to Democrats but rather directed his lobbying clients to do so.

Many readers were outraged, and the newspaper had to shut down a portion of its Web site that invites reader comments after hundreds of posts, many using profane or sexist language, criticized Howell - some speculating that she was "a right-wing whore," as she noted in a subsequent column.

"There is no more fervent believer in the First Amendment than I am, and I will fight for those e-mailers' right to call me a liar and Republican shill with salt for brains," Howell wrote. "But I am none of those."

The chapter was far from definitive during Howell's time at the Post, said Leonard Downie, the executive editor of Washington Post at the time. Downie said he didn't even recall it.

"These things happen with ombudsmen," Downie said. "What I remember is her constant concerns about making corrections, being responsive to readers and readers being able to talk to reporters and editors when they had concerns about stories."

8:48 AM  
Anonymous story conclusion said...

Those who worked during the Howell years at the Pioneer Press say she was deeply invested in quality journalism. She asked questions and often knew as much about a story as the reporters.

When she was criticized for sending Banaszynski and Pioneer Press photographer Jean Pieri - two women - to Africa, she was heard saying, "I'm sending my two best journalists. Now get out of my office," Banaszynski said.

Most recently, Howell worked as a consultant for Advance Publications.

In October she was awarded the University of Missouri School of Journalism's Honor Medal "In recognition of a life's career devoted to practicing and leading others to practice aggressive, fair and useful journalism," according to the school's Web site.

In November, she was elected to the board of directors of MinnPost, a Twin Cities news Web site.

Nick Coleman said that from what he could gather, Howell likely died trying to take a photo. He said she'd been sending photos to family here during her trip, and that she probably made the driver stop so she could get out and snap a shot. "She died doing the journalistic duty. That would be typical of her."

Funeral arrangements are pending.

8:48 AM  
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9:40 AM  
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11:37 AM  
Blogger Bob said...

I am very sorry to hear of the mayors loss. My heart goes out to him and his family.

Please folks, this topic isn't the place to make political statements.

12:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is off topic, and for that I apologize but I don't know what the proper method of starting a thread around here is.

Anyway...

There is a couple of conservatives tearing the pelts off of the moonbats on the Minneapois e-dem list, and I think there's a few folks here that would enjoy the reading.

I bring this up because A) It's great fun to witness a rational, well spoken person tear "the reality based community" to shreds; B) it brings back memories of the time before I realized the leftists are not worth the time or effort to attempt having a rational discussion with them and C) I'm wondering how long everyone thinks it will take before the list censor tires of the flood of bitter, lefty tears that are surely flooding his inbox and he bans our two heroes.

Check it out!

http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mpls/messages/topic/1UzJobqSiVJVx1cFDdeI5E

8:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Two things - Bob I had the chance to serve on a committee with Ms Howell back in 1990. She was a very impressive intellegent woman.

I feel for Chris and his loss.

Swiftee... as to your point having read the discussion on the Mpls list the issue will be that Mr Fox isn't discussing anything about Mpls in his posts.

JMONTOMEPPOF

Chuck Repke

9:38 PM  
Anonymous Alex said...

Condolences from the Wendt family.

Alex Wendt and family
"East side pride"

11:04 AM  
Blogger Bob said...

Hi All,

If you have a request you can do as Tom has done here or email me with your request to

A_Democracy@yahoo.com

Thanks Tom, very interesting discussion. I will post a topic on it.

11:26 AM  

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