Citizen Staff Writer
THE FINAL EDITION

DYLAN SMITH

dysmith@tucsoncitizen.com

The Internet killed the newspaper.

No, it’s the economy, stupid.

Or overleveraged publishing chains. Left-wing columnists. Whatever the cause, change is in the air of the publishing world, but it’s blowing faster than ever.

From the cover of Time to a slew of bloggers, the changes sweeping the news business are an untiring meme.

Newspapers big and small are stopping their presses, not to replate with the latest scandal, but to lay off their staffs, shutter the doors, retire the nameplates.

It may be news, but it’s not new. My family has been involved, off and on, in the newspaper game for more than a century. Each generation saw social shifts and technological advances challenge their publishing acumen.

My great-grandfather got into journalism in 1900. George M. Smith began writing for the Naperville (Ill.) Clarion fresh out of high school. After attending Wheaton College, just outside of Chicago, where his father taught, he worked his way through a succession of reporting jobs.

In 1913, he purchased the Du Page County Tribune, a weekly in Wheaton, setting himself up as editor and publisher.

Printing a newspaper in those days was a labor-intensive operation. Every line of type was set by hand, using individual die-cast metal letters, thousands per page.

Hot lead and Linotypes

In 1915, the Tribune purchased a new typecasting machine – a Linotype. Headlines still had to be made up by hand, but the body text of stories was cast in lines – slugs – by molding hot lead. Linotypes were complex contraptions, prone to breakdown, with 90-character keyboards.

The paper was successful under George’s leadership. To speed production, he invested in another Linotype. In 1933, in the midst of the Depression, it became a daily, and the nameplate was changed to the Wheaton Daily Journal. A subscription to the solidly Republican paper ran 5 cents per week.

My grandfather, Robert Smith, followed in his dad’s footsteps, writing a column for the Journal, and studying journalism at South Dakota State College – where he met my grandmother, Eileen.

She’d been active in her high school newspaper, which was a full page in the local Milbank (S.D.) Herald Advance, printed every week. She studied printing and journalism in college before graduating in 1938.

“There were not that many women in printing – really just a few of us in the whole field of journalism.” she said.

“At the college, we set some type by hand, but mainly with the Linotype. Working the hell box (where miscast slugs and wrongly-set type were discarded, to be sorted out later) wasn’t much fun. We had to go through and pull out all the letters and put them back.

“Everything was done by hand. The letterpress was hand-fed, which was a lot of work.

“Bob was very good at setting type. I suppose it came easy to me. I’ve been able to do a lot of computer work – at the museum and such – because of it, using a different keyboard than a typewriter.”

They both put themselves through school working for the college press – writing, proofreading, making up pages.

World War II came soon after my grandparents graduated, interrupting Bob’s endeavors in journalism with a stint in the South Pacific for him and California for Eileen. Two boys also arrived, my uncle, Joel, and my dad, Steve.

After the war, the Wheaton Daily Journal responded to its growing market.

“Everybody brought two papers – the Chicago paper (Tribune) and the Journal. People were working in Chicago, taking the train in.”

Many commuters began to identify more as Chicagoans than as members of their formerly sleepy suburbs. The ubiquity of radio and the growing television market – pioneered in the ’30s by The Chicago Daily News – challenged the small suburban publishers.

George Smith died in February 1949, having spent his life putting ink on paper, telling stories.

My grandfather and his two brothers stepped in to run the family business. Bob took over as editor, the others managing the business side.

Hand-set to high-tech

While the presses weren’t hand-fed anymore, pages were still cast in hot metal. Steve Smith – my dad – recalls the pressroom as a noisy, messy place.

“My father used to come home with burns” from working on the Linotype, he recalls. “You talk about a complicated machine. And that was a tough bunch of guys. He had a crown on one tooth from getting hit with a wrench by a pressman.”

The changing business and inevitable conflicts among the brothers led to a sale of the Journal in 1953.

Bob went into teaching, eventually becoming a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. Before he died in 1975, he was working to move the college’s program to a new computerized system.

From hand-set to high-tech, in a lifetime.

My dad went to college to study printing just as technology was shifting.

In the late ’60s, newspapers were moving to more-efficient platemaking processes and high-capacity web presses.

Colleges were still teaching outdated photoengraving techniques, even as the new technology penetrated the business. A career based on a fading process didn’t seem too viable.

Besides, the art department held more attraction. It didn’t take long for my dad to drop his journalism and printing courses.

My journey through journalism began in high school, where I learned how to type – badly – and paste up a news page by hand, using hot wax and type output from a primitive computer system at the local Prescott Courier.

After some schooling at the University of Arizona, I wrote and edited copy for a string of Tucson alternative papers whose names are mostly lost to history.

I served a stint as editor and publisher of ¿K? Magazine, an arts and culture monthly, in the mid-1990s. Despite the streamlining of the desktop publishing revolution, print publishing remained an expensive proposition.

Learning the code

In the late ’90s, I moved into Web design, learning an alphabet soup of languages: html, xml, js, css and more.

A few years ago, the Citizen was kind enough to take me on, and eventually let me manage the Web site.

In the short time I’ve been here, the technology we use has dramatically shifted. From basic html pages to rich applications that feature video and databases, the addition of reader comments and forums, the focus of the Citizen online has changed along with the culture of the Internet.

But the impressive values of the Citizen staff have remained: accuracy, fairness, truth.

This may well be the last piece I write for a daily newspaper. It leaves me with a bit of an empty feeling, sitting at my desk, preparing for the Citizen’s last edition, knowing that my family’s history with the printing press has stopped rolling.

The family paper, having changed hands several times through the years, continues as the Wheaton Sun – a suburban weekly that’s part of the Sun-Times group.

Yes, they’ve got a Web page.

And like many newspaper chains, the Sun-Times recently filed for bankruptcy.

I hope to carry on my ancestors’ legacy of reporting. Given the trend, that will have to be in some online-only capacity. I’ll miss the smell of fresh ink, but I enjoy the 24/7 challenge of keeping the news fresh.

No matter if it’s delivered by a paperboy on a bike, or via the never-ending stream of the Internet, it’s all about telling stories.

What newspaper history says about the future of news

Ink in the blood

Many Citizen staffers have families with long histories in the newspaper business.

Alan Fischer’s father, George Fischer, was in the newspaper industry his entire life. He started as a carrier for the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald as a youth, and became a pressman. He brought his skills here, working as a pressman for Tucson Newspapers from 1965 until his retirement in the late ’80s.

B. Poole’s mom, Norma Poole, and sister, Cathy Rowe, were typesetters for newspapers in Illinois during the ’60s and ’70s.

P.K. Weis’ grandfather P.K. Weis Sr. was a reporter for the Moberly (Mo.) Monitor in the early 1900s. Senior began his career as a printer’s devil when he was a young boy.

Polly Higgins’ grandfather Rathbun R. Higgins wrote a column called “The Stamp Man” for the Chicago Heights Star from 1948 to 1960 and resurrected it for the Columbus (Ind.) Republic 1967-82.

Garry Duffy’s father, Joseph L. Duffy, was an assistant to Roy Howard, of Scripps-Howard newspapers, in the late ’40s and early ’50s.

Fernanda Echávarri’s great-grandfather Jesús María Benítez Martínez, was a columnist for the local daily in Querétaro, Mexico, from 1973 to 1997.

Randy Harris’ grandfather was circulation manager of the Danville (Ill.) Press-Democrat from the age of 15. His mother was women’s editor for the Marion (Ind.) Chronicle-Tribune in the ’60s and ’70s.

Bruce Johnston descends from three generations of journalists on both sides of his family. Both of his great-grandfathers owned weekly newspapers in Canada. The papers passed on through the next two generations in his family. One still publishes today, although no relatives still work for it.

Ray Suarez’s grandfather Edgar worked for TNI in the mailroom and advertising. Grandmother Beatriz was a switchboard operator, while Ray’s father, Stephen, worked in the composing room. Aunt Selina works in circulation for Gannett, while another aunt, Eloina, worked the switchboards. All told, Ray says that his family has put in 117 years working for TNI and the Citizen.

Citizen Staff Writer
THE FINAL EDITION

MARK KIMBLE

bstanton@tucsoncitizen.com

I can’t complain. It was a good run. There aren’t many people who have the opportunity to do what they truly love and to do it in one place for 34 years.

That’s how my career went at the Tucson Citizen – from Dec. 16, 1974, until May 15, 2009.

Some of you I will miss. Others, not so much.

At the top of the “miss” list are the people I work with. The job has been fun mostly because the people have been fun.

These pages wouldn’t be here without Billie Stanton. She’s to my right today, but in reality, she isn’t to the right of anyone. She’s impassioned and would right every wrong in the world if she had the time.

In the four months since we first were threatened with closure, we’ve know that there are a lot of people who care.

Bishop Gerald Kicanas was one of the first to call and say he was thinking of us. There also have been legislators and former legislators, City Council members and former council members and many others.

But what touched me most were the kind notes from those of you I have never met. Most offered words of support and said how much they will miss us.

Typical was a comment left online yesterday by a reader I know only as rubysky: “I hope the staffers are OK. These are our neighbors and fellow citizens.”

Others had different concerns.

I was slightly hurt when one caller was more concerned about Brenda Starr’s future than mine. How, the reader wondered, would she be able to keep up with the red-haired reporter?

I resisted telling her that Brenda was fictional and I was real and she should be a little more concerned about my future.

Oh, well. Good luck, Brenda.

I also won’t miss those people who have called or e-mailed almost every day over the past four months to point at something in the paper they didn’t like, saying, “This story is why you are closing.”

Some said it’s because we’re too liberal, some say it’s because we run too many conservative Cal Thomas screeds.

One even said we were gonna close because we ran a short story on Martha Stewart’s puppy being accidentally killed in a kennel.

I actually think the reasons were bigger than that, but who knows?

I also won’t miss the guy who called every Feb. 6 to castigate us for not running a front-page story reminding people it was Ronald Reagan’s birthday. And what would the second sentence of the story have been?

It’s been fun, this journalism business. Thanks for letting me be a part of it.

Contact Mark Kimble at mskimble@cox.net.

Citizen Staff Writer
THE FINAL EDITION

In 1996 our current interim publisher, then business editor, Jennifer Boice, hired me right out of journalism school.

I said, “Are you sure you want to hire a single mom with three kids?” I’m glad she did.

Over the past dozen years not only have my children grown up – but I have as well.

I’ve had the opportunity to reach out and talk to people I normally would not have had access to including several political figures and entertainment icons such as Jay Leno, Roseanne Barr, Phyllis Diller and Don Rickles.

The interview that sticks in my mind is when Sen. John McCain made me sick. This is not a political comment.

About four years ago he came to the Citizen and I interviewed him. He had a horrible head cold. He sneezed into his hand and then shook mine. It was a bit sticky. A few days later I was sick. Thanks, senator!

LORRIE BROWNSTONE

Assistant city editor

I was a huge baseball fan as a kid. I’d watch any game I could on TV, hardly missed a Baseball Tonight on ESPN, and read every copy of the Star’s or Citizen’s sports section that I got my hands on.

So imagine my excitement, when as a young adult and covering sports for the Tucson Citizen, I had the opportunity to interview one of my childhood heroes in the clubhouse after a Diamondbacks spring training game. We’re talking someone whose poster used to hang on my wall as kid – how exciting, right?

The entire time I talked with him he had one foot propped up on a bench, a cigarette in one hand, a beer in the other, and his eyes glued to a golf tournament on the clubhouse TV. He never once looked over at me during the interview. Talk about having your bubble popped.

In 2005, I was sent to Desert Diamond to cover the weigh-in for the next night’s fight between Demetrius Hopkins and Tucson’s Nito Bravo.

Hopkins was the nephew of Bernard Hopkins, who at 40 was the oldest man to ever hold the middleweight championship in boxing and who had defended his title a world-record 20 times.

The publicist asked me if I wanted to talk to Bernard Hopkins and I said yes, obviously.

So the publicist walked me to the bar where Bernard was sitting and told him who I was. As he was talking to Bernard, I turned around and saw was a long line of boxing fans going back out the door – all waiting to talk to and get an autograph from Hopkins.

Hopkins told me to sit down with him at the bar so I could interview him. He talked to me for over half an hour – about everything from his nephew to his own career to the weather and even the big pancakes the casino served him for breakfast.

Meanwhile, I was holding up a large and growing line of impatient boxing fans – most of whom were drinking. If there hadn’t been a famous boxer sitting next to me, I think I might have needed a bodyguard. (On a side note, the next night, at the fight, I got to interview Oscar de la Hoya, too.)

MICHAEL CACCAMISE

Copy editor

Citizen Staff Report
THE FINAL EDITION

Tucson reacts

Citizen Staff Report

The Citizen staff called area political, business and cultural leaders for their reaction to Friday’s announcement that the Citizen will cease printing a paper. Their comments follow:

“Well, it’s too bad it had to be you guys. I honestly have always thought the evening paper here was far superior to the morning paper.”

Bob McMahon

owner, Metro Restaurants

“It’s a sad day for our region. We’re losing an institution that was a watchdog of our local governments. We’re losing competition between newspapers that led to more aggressive reporting and better information. We’re losing a part of our history and our collective memory. The Citizen and all of Pima County deserved much better from Gannett.”

Ann Day

Pima County supervisor

“The Tucson Citizen is the oldest newspaper in Arizona. It’s a large loss for future readers and for us who have depended on the Citizen every day of our lives.”

Gabrielle Giffords

U.S. congresswoman

“That’s a dark day in Tucson’s history. The Citizen always gave balanced coverage. That has always been very healthy for Tucson. You lose a second voice, a second opinion. Two voices are better than one as far as I’m concerned.”

Jack Camper

executive director, Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce

“The presence of two daily newspapers in a city guarantees there will be accurate and objective news reporting. . . . The loss of the Citizen puts the responsibility on the Daily Star to do the task well. ”

Glenn Lyons

Downtown Tucson Partnership

“I just think it’s a real blow to the community, a real loss. I think it will diminish the level of balance and independent journalism that we need to keep the community informed.

“I think the Citizen has always done a good job of digging for the facts and making important information accessible. The quality of the local news reporting at the Citizen has always stood out. It’s a real loss.”

Karin Uhlich

City Councilwoman

As a small nonprofit theatre business owner it was writers like you, Rogelio (Olivas), and Chuck Graham that made a tremendous difference to our organization. The Citizen gave all live theatres in town an equal footing. The Citizen was willing to listen to a small organization in the Tucson arts community by covering or critiquing their next production. I for one, as an executive director of a 25-year-old community theatre, whose members worked thousands of hours to bring theatre to Tucson, will miss the Citizen for its support.

Priscilla Marquez

former executive director of Catalina Players

“Even when I was a reporter and anchor, one of the things I always told students was you don’t get all your news from television. I’m truly going to miss the Citizen. I always looked to the Citizen for clear, straightforward reporting of what was happening downtown.”

Nina Trasoff

city councilwoman

“As a Tucsonan, elected official and a proponent of citizen engagement, I am deeply saddened by the closing of our state’s oldest newspaper and will have the working families impacted by the shutdown in my thoughts during these though economic times.”

Rodney Glassman

city councilman

“Anytime you lose an institution in the media like a newspaper that’s been publishing more than 100 years is sad. There’s bound to be a void in the coverage. I understand the feeling of abandonment of employees, but also in the community, not getting information.”

Richard Elías

Board of Supervisors chairman

“The more media outlooks citizens have the better,” Romero said. “It’s really important that we have different perspectives from different newspapers.”

Regina Romero

Tucson councilwoman

Referring to the Web site, which will offer only opinion pieces: “That’s great. I’ll make sure I pay attention to that.”

“More and more people are getting their news online these days.”

Ray Carroll

Pima County supervisor

Citizen Staff Report
THE FINAL EDITION

Employees remaining when the end came and their start dates:

Baker, Wayne 06/27/06

Barrett, Elsa 04/14/82

Bermudez, Arnie 12/18/06

Boice, Jennifer 08/22/83

Bracamonte, Renee 01/29/04

Brazzle, Ken 09/17/85

Brosseau, Carli 12/31/07

Brownstone, Lorrie 09/09/96

Buckley, Dan 08/03/87

Bustamante, Mary 08/29/78

Caccamise, Michael 01/22/03

Cañez, Val 01/04/93

Carlock, Judy 05/26/80

Chavez, Dianna 03/02/98

Chesnick, Mike 12/04/95

Clemens, Bill 07/26/93

Denogean, Anne 11/01/93

Douglas, Gawain 03/10/03

Duffy, Garry 03/26/01

Dunham, Kristina 03/05/07

Echavarri, Fernanda 05/05/08

Evans, Mark 01/22/07

Fimbres, Gabrielle 01/07/85

Fischer, Alan 03/26/07

Flick, A. J. 10/11/93

Gallegos, Xavier 02/17/74

Gargulinski, Ryn 01/14/07

Gimino, Anthony 12/27/04

Graham, Chuck 03/11/74

Grammer, Geoff 02/20/07

Grzasko, Rose-Mary 09/01/86

Harris, Randy 04/25/94

Higgins, Polly 02/17/00

Horton, Renee Schafer 09/24/07

Johnston, Bruce 05/21/73

Kimble, Mark 12/16/74

Kornman, Sheryl 09/28/99

Lee, Bryan 12/31/86

Luber, Diane 11/01/04

Lum, Jennifer 03/27/06

McVay, MJ 06/02/98

Medina, Francisco 08/02/99

Moredich, John 08/13/00

Olivas, Rogelio 08/06/90

Petruska, Dave 02/07/77

Poole, B. 08/04/98

Pugno, Monica 08/03/06

Rivera, Steve 08/14/87

Rochon, Joel 05/06/74

Ross, Otto 08/29/08

Rowley, Heidi 01/06/03

Sagara, Eric 05/26/02

Schmelzle, Michael 07/17/99

Schwalbach, Paul 08/27/79

Smith, Dylan 05/16/05

Stanton, Billie 04/29/04

Stauffer, Tom 01/15/07

Suarez, Raymond 08/28/08

Teibel, David 07/13/81

Todd, Jan 07/12/93

Truelsen, Michael 07/11/94

Truelsen, Teresa 03/18/96

Vitu, Teya 11/24/00

Watt, Mary 08/06/07

Weber, Warren 01/02/01

Weis, P.K. 03/14/73

West, Jennifer 04/28/08

Wyckoff, Jim 11/16/72

Citizen Staff Writer
Farewell

ROGELIO YUBETA OLIVAS

I’m either in love with or co-dependent on the Tucson Citizen. It’s hard to know the difference.

After leaving twice to work at bigger newspapers, I returned within three months to the Citizen. I just couldn’t stay away.

At the other papers, I felt like just another cog in the machine, someone whose name the publisher didn’t even know. Departments didn’t even mingle with one another.

They were so different from the Citizen, where everyone knew one another and where the editors and employees made staffers feel like family.

That feeling of family is what’s helping many of us get through this wrenching time – but it’s also what’s causing the most heartache, because we’re losing loved ones.

Fellow employee Gabrielle Fimbres described it best. When she found out that Gannett was selling the Citizen, she said she felt as if she had just unexpectedly been served with divorce papers from someone whom she still adored but who didn’t love her back.

The situation’s been tough. Many of us can’t sleep at night and we’re deeply worried about finding work in this troubled economy. Like many Americans, we’re afraid of not being able to provide for our families and of losing our homes.

We’re desperate for jobs. Many of my fellow employees are applying for positions for which they are way overqualified, which is a shame because they are so talented and good at what they do.

It’s unfortunate that they just can’t work for our competition, The Arizona Daily Star, whose employees also are insecure about their future in this Internet-cable TV age where newspapers are becoming a dying breed.

With the closing of the Citizen, some journalists and readers have lamented the loss of a second source for local news coverage in Tucson. But readers also will miss out on having two distinct (and often opposing) voices covering entertainment in the Old Pueblo. No more dual reviews of movies, restaurants, books and plays, which disappoints me because our critics were always fair, objective, knowledgeable and just as good (if not better) than the competition’s.

Like many of my colleagues, I have no idea what I’m going to do next. Journalism is all I’ve known since graduating from the University of Arizona in 1985 and working at papers in Yuma, Phoenix, New York City and here.

But I’m glad I have interim editor-publisher Jennifer Boice and associate editor Mark Kimble to help shepherd me and my co-workers through this trying time. Jennifer, who’s been at the paper for 25 years, truly is one of us and cares deeply about our welfare. When she cries with us, her tears are genuine and heartfelt.

I’ll never forget Mark because when I started working here in the early 1990s, he encouraged me to ask for a raise. Without me even asking him, Mark accompanied me to the publisher’ office and argued my case. I got my raise that week. Thank you, Mr. Kimble.

As I wind down my career at the newspaper, I find myself working 12-to-14-hour days instead of the usual 8 to 10. I tell myself it’s because I have lots more work to do. But deep down I know it’s because I want to spend as much time as possible with my Citizen family in our home. After 18 years (off an on) as a copy editor, page designer, reporter and entertainment editor, I dread my third departure from the Tucson Citizen on May 15 – because this time I can’t come back.

Stupidest headline I ever wrote

“Man drowns to death” – almost as bad as saying someone was murdered to death.

The two words on the police scanner that always drew a collective groan from the newsroom

“Rectal bleeding”

What I always wanted to tell callers complaining about a missing Jumble or astrology listing:

Get a life!

The life lesson I will take with me

Never let a boss abuse you emotionally. I did – but I never will again. To others in the same situation, no job is worth your dignity. Call the abuser on his behavior, or quit. You’ll be a stronger person for it.

What I’ll miss most

• Interacting with readers and the thrill of discovering new music talents and sharing them with others.

• Working with our great Features staff, including the incomparable Chuck Graham, whose stuff I began reading (and enjoying) when I was in junior high; the wacky Dan Buckley, who always brought a smile to my face; the always hip Polly Higgins, who schooled me on pop culture; the irascibly charming Larry Cox, my partner in snark; Kristina Dunham, who made all our stories come to life with her dazzling page design; our super talented young writer Otto Ross, who restored my faith in today’s youth; and my right-hand gal, Elsa Barrett, who always had my back.

What I won’t miss

• Whiners who say there’s nothing to do in Tucson. Bull! The Old Pueblo has plenty of options for fun. You just need to open your mind, get off your lazy butt and explore the city.

• The cowardly online posters who hide behind a cloak of anonymity to spew their bile and link all the woes of the world to illegal immigration. What will you do without us?

Future career options

Telenovela writing school; Tiger Beat intern; plus-size model

Citizen Staff Report
THE FINAL EDITION

Citizen Staff Report

Arizona Citizen is born

Oct. 15, 1870

The first edition of the Arizona Citizen, then a weekly, rolls off the press. The first issue notes that a pair of valuable mules and a horse had been stolen from a ranch within sight of the city, and that sweet potatoes were selling here for 20 cents a pound.

When the paper debuts, the Civil War has been over for just five years and Arizona won’t become a state for another 42 years.

Camp Grant Massacre

April 30, 1871

Just before dawn, a group from Tucson shoot, stab and bludgeon to death more than 100 Apache men, women and children camped near Winkelman about 65 miles northeast of Tucson. The Citizen’s report notes the raid was in ‘self-defence’ because four settlers had been slain and stock stolen in the San Pedro Valley. But the killings provoke outrage across the United States. At a murder trial, all of the participants are acquitted.

The railroad arrives

March 20, 1880

“There was rejoicing in Arizona last night,” the Citizen reports on the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which would bring a wider variety of goods to Tucson – and at far cheaper prices – than by stagecoach.

“The iron horse panted into Tucson and with its neigh gave notice that a new order of things was about to be established.”

Shootout at the OK Corral

Oct. 26, 1881

The Citizen says the shootout between the Earps and the Clantons “will always be remembered as one of the crimson days in the annals of Tombstone . . . the bloodiest and deadliest street fight that has ever occurred in the Territory.’

Wyatt Earp kills Stillwell

March 1882

Earp suspected Frank Stillwell of killing his brother Morgan in Tombstone a few days earlier. He and “Doc” Holliday track Stillwell down near the downtown train depot and shoot him.

Ground broken for UA

Oct. 27, 1887

The Territorial Legislature appropriates $25,000 to help start the territory’s first university. But the money doesn’t cover the land purchase. The city is about to return the money when two gamblers and a saloonkeeper step forward and donate the land. Classes begin in 1891 with 32 students.

Arizona becomes 48th state

February 14, 1912

President Taft signs the proclamation making Arizona a state.

The Citizen reports that when a dispatch from the White House arrived with the news, Tucson greeted it “with an an outburst of whistles and bells.” The paper says the demonstration was as great as when the railroad first arrived in Tucson.

Lindbergh visits Tucson

Sept. 23, 1927

Thousands gather to greet the “Lone Eagle,” flier Charles Lindbergh, and his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh, who months earlier became the first to fly solo across the Atlantic, speaks at the University of Arizona and helps dedicate Davis-Monthan Airfield.

Dillinger gang captured

Jan. 26, 1934

Tucson police capture desperado John Dillinger and six gang members without firing a shot. Members of the gang had been staying at the Hotel Congress, where some of them were recognized when a fire forced the evacuation of the hotel. Dillinger himself is captured in a residential neighborhood a few blocks northeast of downtown. Dillinger, who eventually escapes, dies a few months later when he is gunned down outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.

Raytheon’s ancestor

Feb. 2, 1951

Calif.-based Hughes Tools, owned by the reclusive Howard Hughes, announces plans for a plant in Tucson that will eventually employ as many as 10,000 people. The operation, now owned by Raytheon, is the city’s largest private employer.

Jet hits supermarket

Dec. 8, 1967

It was called a miracle when just four people died after an Air Force F-4D jet fighter crashed into the Food City supermarket at 1830 S. Alvernon Way.

Tucson celebrates 200

Aug. 20, 1975

Residents mark the 1775 founding of the Tucson presidio by Capt. Hugo O’Conor, an Irish mercenary working for the Spanish crown. It is the first European settlement in what is now Tucson, but the area had been inhabited for thousands of years by Native Americans.

IBM plans new plant

Oct. 12, 1977

The plant, located on the Southeast Side, opens in May 1978, with as many as 5,000 employees predicted. Ten years later, IBM announces it will cut 2,800 jobs there. The plant site is now also home to the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park.

Inferno claims Old Tucson

April 25, 1995

Fire destroys three-fourths of the movie studio and Western theme park, which had been a site for numerous Western films since 1939. The cause of the fire is never determined, although arson is suspected.

CAP water arrives

November 1992

Tucsonans get their first taste of Central Arizona Project water after the final link in the 336-mile-long project from the Colorado River is completed. The delivery means Tucson will no longer have to depend solely on its rapidly shrinking supply of groundwater. But many Tucsonans complain about the taste and the water’s corrosive effect on appliances. Delivery is halted while those problems are solved.

Wildcats win NCAA basketball title

April 1997

The University of Arizona Wildcats beat Kentucky in overtime for the school’s first national title in men’s basketball. The Cats become the first team to defeat three No. 1 seeds on the way to the title. Although the Wildcats had won national titles in baseball, the basketball championship brings attention on UA sports to a new level.

After the game, thousands of fans converge on Fourth Avenue to celebrate the win.

Citizen Staff Writer
THE FINAL EDITION

MICHAEL SCHMELZLE

mschmelzle@tucsoncitizen.com

Fred W. Enke and Joe Batiste might have been the most versatile athletes in southern Arizona history.

Enke was named all-state in football, basketball and baseball at Tucson High in the 1940s – and starred in all three sports at the University of Arizona before playing in the NFL.

Batiste, also a Tucson High star, set a world record in 1939 in the 120-yard high hurdles at 14.0 seconds. He also was a standout running back.

Abe Chanin, a graduate of Tucson High and the former sports editor of the Arizona Daily Star, marveled in a 1999 Citizen article at the talent of Enke, whose father was the longtime basketball coach at the University of Arizona.

“He was a marvelous athlete all the way around,” Chanin said. “He was the greatest all-around athlete for the University of Arizona ever, as well. He was a great three-sports star, just superb in each of those sports.”

During his years as a Badger, Enke was voted all-state in each sport at least once: football (1941-42), basketball (1943) and baseball (1943). In his three years at the varsity level in three sports, he was on eight state title teams with the Badgers, missing a sweep in 1941 when the basketball team failed to win.

He was the quarterback in football, a guard in basketball and a fleet outfielder in baseball.

Enke was the first Arizonan to play quarterback in the National Football League. From 1948 to 1951 he played for the Detroit Lions. Then he spent a year with the Eagles and finished his career with the Baltimore Colts in 1953-54.

Batiste, an African-American, was not allowed to participate in football at first because of his race. It wasn’t until Mesa High tried to lure Batiste away that Tucson High allowed him to play. His refusal to run track unless he was allowed to play football was another factor in finally getting a shot at football.

Joe’s main talent was track. His 120-yard hurdles world record stood for 18 years.

“He could do almost anything there is in track. He was brilliant in sprints. Today, he would most likely be a decathlon athlete,” Chanin said.

Batiste qualified for the 1940 and 1944 United States Olympic teams as a hurdler and a decathlete, but the war forced the cancellation of those games. He died in 1958.

THE FINAL EDITION

GABRIELLE GIFFORDS

Arizona’s oldest continuously published newspaper will hit Tucson newsstands and doorsteps for the last time on May 16.

As a longtime reader of the Tucson Citizen, I think I speak for many when I say the paper’s closure will be like saying goodbye to an old, trusted friend.

What a friend it has been. The Citizen already was 11 years old when it told us about Wyatt Earp’s shootout at the OK Corral in 1881. It had been around 42 years when Arizona became a state in 1912. And when the city of Tucson celebrated its bicentennial in 1975, the Citizen had a 105-year record of reporting behind it.

Tucson will be very different without the Citizen. Our community will have one fewer voice, one fewer watchdog, one fewer place to go for the news we need to understand our increasingly complex world.

Many believe that, as an afternoon newspaper, the Citizen’s days have long been numbered. Perhaps, but the loss of the Citizen is emblematic of a far more troubling trend. The entire newspaper industry is struggling as never before, thanks in part to a seismic shift in how we get our news.

Today the Internet, not the daily newspaper, serves as our window to the world.

For news junkies and avid newspaper readers, this is a truly sad turn of events. I count myself among this shrinking community.

Sure, going online is fast and handy. But old school types love newspapers – we love holding them, with a cup of coffee at hand, and learning about what has happened in our neighborhood, city, state and country.

Some of us – the real die-hards – even like comparing competing articles and editorials on the same subject among rival newspapers. Tucson was one of the few cities where this was possible; ours was one of the last two-newspaper towns left in America.

With the demise of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Rocky Mountain News in Denver over the past month, Tucson is by no means alone in having to rely on one newspaper. That, however, is little comfort. Competition is a good thing for newspapers, as it is for any business.

Having two newspapers fostered a competitive spirit that allowed the Tucson Citizen and Arizona Daily Star to bring out the best in each another. Reporters, editors and photographers at each of our papers wanted to scoop the other guy. In that race, readers were the winners.

Since 1870, the Citizen has kept southern Arizonans informed. We didn’t always agree with an editorial position or like the angle of a news story, yet we kept reading.

We needed the Citizen. Sometimes we needed it to figure out a City Council decision. Sometimes we needed it to tell us how the Wildcats did. And sometimes we just needed it to tell us when movies began at The Loft.

The point is, the Citizen was there for us.

From the era of the Butterfield Overland Stage to the Phoenix Mars Mission, the Citizen helped chronicle Arizona’s amazing journey from a rough and tumble territory to the second-fastest growing state in the country.

It was an indispensable part of our community. It educated us, entertained us and inspired us. It will be missed.

Goodbye, dear friend.

Gabrielle Giffords is a member of the U.S. House representing Tucson and southern Arizona.

Citizen Staff Report
THE FINAL EDITION

Multimedia manager Daniel Buckley

The song is on a collection of various artists called “Conjure” – a jazz setting of poetry by Ishmael Reed. The tune is titled “Dualism 1.” The words (sung by Taj Mahal) are:

“I am outside of history.

I wish I had some peanuts.

It looks lonely there in its cage.”

After the instrumental break it returns with:

“I am inside of history.

It’s hungrier than I thought.”

I pick this song because history has just swallowed the Citizen whole.

Book reviewer Larry Cox

It would have to be “Thanks for the Memories,” originally introduced by Shirley Ross and Bob Hope in the 1937 Paramount film, “Big Broadcast of 1938.” The song is wistful and a little sad, exactly how I feel as we get nearer to the final edition of The Tucson Citizen. A close second comes to mind after reading some of the nutty, over-the-top, hateful comments posted by some of our readers on the paper’s Web site: Bessie Smith’s “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.”

Features editor Teresa Truelsen

I would dedicate “Closing Time” by Semisonic. Not only is its sentiment appropriate, but it reminds me of happier times at the Citizen, when former sports editor Peter Madrid would sing the one line – incessantly – early in the morning.

Arts writer Chuck Graham

This is a sad one to write, after working 35 years at the Tucson Citizen, but only one song keeps coming to mind. That would be Bob Hope singing “Thanks for the Memories.”

Reporter Ryn Gargulinski

I am in a bubble

I am in a bubble

I am in a bubble

A bubble

Covers

Me.

“The Bubble Song” (2009) by Ryn Gargulinski

Copy editor Rose-Mary Grzasko

This dedication goes out to my comrades in print journalism as we follow the path of the dinosaur (many of us became such during our years at the Citizen): “Time of Your Life” by Green Day.

“For what it’s worth,

It was worth all the while” . . .

“I hope you had the time of your life.”

I know I did!

Events coordinator Elsa Nidia Barrett

The first song that came to my mind is the ’80s rock song, “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen. But the more I thought about it and dozens of endearing memories (about growing up at the Citizen) flooded my head, I could think of only one melody: Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

“But/ nothing/ I said nothing can take away these blues/ Cause nothing compares/ Nothing compares 2 U.”

Online content editor Mike Truelsen

“Still Be Around” by Uncle Tupelo

It’s about loyalty and dedication and coming out the other side of tragedy/addiction and hoping someone is there when you do.

“If I break in two, will you put me back together?

When this puzzle’s figured out, will you still be around?”

Arts writer Otto Ross

“The Times They are A-Changin’ ” by Bob Dylan

“Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won’t come again

And don’t speak too soon

For the wheel’s still in spin

And there’s no tellin’ who

That it’s namin’.

For the loser now

Will be later to win

For the times they are a-changin’.”

Cartoonist Arnie Bermudez

“Where the Birds Always Sing” by The Cure

“The world is neither fair nor unfair

The idea is just a way for us to understand

No the world is neither fair nor unfair

So some survive

And others die

And you always want a reason why”

Copy editor Dave Petruska

I’ll go with The Beatles’ “Good Night.” I probably would have picked Billy Joel’s “This is the Time to Remember” if it hadn’t been used for the Lute Olson farewell.

Online editor Dylan Smith

Joe Jackson’s “Sunday Papers”

“Sunday papers don’t ask no questions

Sunday papers don’t get no lies

Sunday papers don’t raise objection

Sunday papers don’t got no eyes”

Metro columnist Anne T. Denogean

“Another One Bites The Dust” by

Queen

Reporter B. Poole

Sheryl Crow’s “Can’t Cry Anymore”

“It’s never ending

It could be worse

I could’ve missed my calling

Sometimes it hurts

But when you read the writing on the wall

Can’t cry anymore”

And too much time I’ve been spending

With my heart in my hands

Waiting for time to come and mend it

I can’t cry anymore”

Voices editor Paul Schwalbach

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Gordon Lightfoot and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”

“That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed.” Sounds like us.

And really, for the whole f—— song. As nauseatingly hypersentimental as it is, on our last day, it will be fitting. “Fellas it’s been good to know ya.”

Reporter Heidi Rowley

“Ticket to Ride” by The Beatles or “Unbreak my Heart” by Toni Braxton

Reporter Alan Fischer

Joey Ramone, from a goodbye album he wrote and made while dying of cancer. The title song is “Don’t Worry About Me.”

“Ahh nothing lasts forever

And nothing stays the same

Feeling numb all over

And totally deranged

When you finally make your mind up

I’ll be buried in my grave

You don’t know what you want

You don’t know what you need

You don’t know what you want but you want it”

Information specialist Mary Watt

David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” I feel like the astronaut out in space without a lifeline, with a circuit that’s gone dead.

“Here am I floating round my tin can, far above the moon, Planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do.”

Designer Jan Todd

“Sounds of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel

Former features editor Dina L. Doolen

As corny as it may sound, my dedication song to the Citizen would be “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge. In my 11 years working at the Citizen, that’s exactly how I felt. We were family, warts and all, and when adversity hit, supervisors and peers insisted that our real families came before the Citizen. Also, if the song was good enough for baseball great Willie Stargell and the Pittsburg Pirates, it’s good enough for the Citizen. Best wishes to all.

Designer Jen Lum

It’s too easy to be cynical about everything that’s happened, so instead I’ll dedicate my favorite ode to an ended relationship, “You and I Both” by Jason Mraz.

“You and I both loved

What you and I spoke of

And others just read of

Others only read of the love, the love that I love.”

I’ve never been able to accurately describe to nonnewspaper people just how much I’ve loved my job and the people I work with. I will miss the Citizen dearly. Thanks for a great run.

Calendar editor Rogelio Yubeta Olivas

After getting ridiculed by my co-workers for my first two picks (“My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion and “Wind Beneath My Wings” by Bette Midler), I’ll go with Charanga Cakewalk’s “Tu y Yo (You and I.” The love song not only adds some Latin spice to the Citizen playlist, it truly describes how I feel about the paper. It’s about two lovers who are linked forever.

Readers
THE FINAL EDITION

Paper gave ‘plain old people’ a voice

I am very sad because I am losing a good friend, the Citizen. I have enjoyed your excellent paper since we came to Tucson in 1951.

Special thanks to my journalism hero Tony Tselentis, editorial page editor, who shared his valuable insights about community issues, printed our letters and sent our questions and concerns to the news side to cover.

Thanks also to the wonderful investigative reporters (Jon Kaman, etc.), who dug out the facts about many critical issues like the fraudulent Butterfield freeway public opinion survey and the GAC plan to convert Empire Ranch to a huge bedroom community.

The Citizen gave us plain old people a voice so we could be effective.

Time has moved on. Thanks to the new crew who continue quality news and editorial coverage – Mark (Kimble), Billie (Stanton) and the other good folk who carry on.

Soon we citizens will lose an important voice. I will miss you greatly.

Ruth Holzinger Stokes

Kudos to former Citizen journalists

The only way I have to express how much I’ll miss the paper is to tell my story. Most of all I’ll miss Billie Stanton. She is irreplaceable.

The summer of 1967 was the happiest time of my life. The Tucson Citizen gave me the chance to continue my newspaper career in a new town, in a new job.

The job was as city desk assistant, working with Tom Duddleston and Keith Carew.

The staff was great – so warm and friendly, like a big family, pre-computer with more time for each other.

I was able to continue my journalism career, which began in Columbus, Ohio, in 1942 as one of five war-time staff photographers on the Columbus Citizen newspaper.

In 1956, I had gone to New York and married Bruce Hopkins, a New York Mirror photographer. The paper folded.

John Hemmer, a former staffer there, offered Bruce a job here. So here we were.

I retired when I was 62.

At the Tucson Citizen, we made longtime personal friends, such as my 30-year-friend Allison Hock-Rose, who started as a teen intern.

She recently was in town, and we discussed old times.

From the old building, these staffers deserve to be remembered – and bosses, too:

William Small Jr., Paul McKalip, George Rosenberg, Clyde Lowery, Tony Tselentis, Mary Brown, Mary Moody, Micheline “Mike” Keating, Nicki Donahue, Ellen Crosby, Anne Ross, Corky Simpson, Bill Hopkins, John Winters, Dan Pavillard, Sue Giles, Mary Gerdan Hunt, Judy Terlizzi, Regis McAuly, Paul Allen and Jeannie Jett.

WILMA S. HOPKINS

Fine work of staff won’t be forgotten

How do you say “thank you” to so many people who have made a difference in your life, professionally and personally?

After being in the military more than 21 years, you would think I would know how to say goodbye to friends and comrades on the newspaper side of the house.

News that the Tucson Citizen will close came as a surprise to me, and soon it will be a reality.

I want to thank all those reporters, photographers, editors and the weekly Calendar magazine for working with me for the past seven years.

Working together to get the news to and about our nation’s heroes, veterans and their families has truly been the fruit of our combined labor.

What a joy it has been to have worked personally with Anne Denogean, Heidi Rowley, Sheryl Kornman, Billie Stanton, Val Cañez, Norman Jean Gargasz, Larry Copenhaver and so many others who made our news a focus of interest and personal reflection.

As the book is slowly closed on this historical newspaper, let us wish all those who shared our cheers and sometimes our tears the best of future hopes and dreams, as they will not be forgotten in my heart.

Let us remember not how the newspaper died, but how it lived! Thanks for the memories, Tucson Citizen!

PEPE MENDOZA

fellow journalist

Gaslight indebted to Chuck Graham

We at The Gaslight Theatre will be forever indebted to Mr. Chuck Graham.

Over the years, Chuck has faithfully reviewed all of our shows. A large part of our growth and success can be credited to the dedication and professionalism of Chuck Graham. He has been fair, honest and always helpful with his reviews.

As a small business, we rely on every type of public relations opportunity available. Losing the Tucson Citizen and Chuck’s reviews will leave a gap that will be hard to fill.

All of us in The Gaslight Family would like to thank you, Chuck, for all of your hard work and support of The Gaslight Theatre over the years. We wish you all the best and lots of continued success as you set out on the next phase of your career.

Tony Terry & The Gaslight Family

owner, The Gaslight Theatre

Bryan Lee was advocate for athletes

It is a shame that the Citizen is closing; good people will lose their jobs, and the community will lose your expertise.

A free press is the cornerstone of a healthy citizenry, and we will miss your varied voices.

Thanks to the entire staff for working so diligently to provide our community with news of the city.

I want to acknowledge one writer in particular: Bryan Lee. Bryan has written countless articles about the health and fitness community over the years, whether in the Sports pages, Outdoors, Body Plus or elsewhere.

He has been an advocate for local competitive athletes and a champion of healthy living.

Thank you, Bryan, for all that you’ve done for Tucson.

Randy Accetta

Southern Arizona Roadrunners

Stay in Tucson, employees; we need you

My family and I will miss the Tucson Citizen. We’ve especially appreciated the thoughtful editorial page in recent years.

Arizona media will be poorer with the Citizen gone.

Hopefully, Citizen journalists and employees will stay in Tucson and be involved in the community in other positive ways.

Daniel Patterson

state representative, LD 29

Citizen Staff Writer
Farewell

GABRIELLE FIMBRES

When I was a child, there was little love in our family for journalists.

My grandfather, a federal judge in Tucson, spoke of newspaper reporters who botched the facts, or twisted them to fit the story.

When I told Grandpa that I yearned to be a journalist, he did a pretty good job disguising what must have been disappointment. He loved us so much and would never have discouraged our dreams.

I knew from the time I started my “Dear Gabby” column in the student newspaper at St. Michael’s Parish Day School that I wanted to be a journalist.

I wanted to tell people’s stories.

I walked into the Citizen newsroom Jan. 7, 1985, as a journalism student at the University of Arizona.

I knew I was home.

The image of the adrenaline-charged editors jumping up from the news desk to yell “Stop the presses,” still brings a shiver.

My early days were spent filing photo negatives and answering phones. Then I became a real reporter. I covered cops and courts. I covered Mexico. I wrote breaking news and in-depth projects. I was doing what I dreamed of, telling the stories of people in the city I was born and raised in, the city my ancestors lived and died in.

I became assistant city editor, and later assistant features editor.

Then came the babies. After becoming a mom, I worked out a deal that allowed me to work part-time, mostly from home. I wrote about fetal alcohol syndrome. I wrote about drug-addicted parents. I wrote about violent children.

They are unforgettable, these stories of a lifetime.

There was the elderly woman, dressed in black and clutching rosary beads as she prayed at the base of a mountain of rubble in the heart of Mexico City.

Her daughter’s family lived in a high rise that tumbled during an early morning earthquake that left more than 10,000 dead. She prayed for a miracle that somehow her family had escaped.

It was a miracle that never came.

There was the hulking, blind man with mental illness who was led shuffling and shackled into the courtroom after voices in his head told him to kill his mother, whom he said had inflicted cruelty upon him for decades.

There was a young woman with all her possessions piled into an abandoned shopping cart as she headed to a shelter after completing rehab. Free from methamphetamine after a 13-year addiction, she was starting a new life for her and her boys.

There were the heroes, too many to count.

Gail Leland was the first hero I met along the way. Her 14-year-old son Richard was murdered in 1981, and his killer was never caught.

Gail and her best friend, Gloria Fritz, helped others going through their same hell. Gloria’s adorable 7-year-old daughter, Cathy, was murdered in 1982.

The two moms sat in their living rooms and talked with other parents who had lost children to murder. Today, 27 years later, Gail continues her mission, always missing her friend, Gloria, who died from cancer in 2000. Through Parents of Murdered Children and now Homicide Survivors, Gail has helped thousands of Tucsonans devastated by the murder of a loved one.

There was quiet rancher Jim Corbett, who was prosecuted for helping Salvadorans fleeing violence in their homeland. He offered food and shelter to the tormented.

There was Teresa Kellerman, who 31 years ago adopted John, a baby with fetal alcohol syndrome. What started as a mom advocating for services for her son led to Teresa educating people around the globe about the permanent brain damage caused when a pregnant woman drinks alcohol.

There were Laura and Bill Henderson. When Laura said her prayers at night, she would ask God to let her live long enough to see her grandsons into adulthood. The couple, in their 70s and 80s, were helping with homework, packing lunches and carting kids around after the boys’ parents could not care for them.

The Hendersons were among thousands of Tucson grandparents left to raise children, usually when parents are lost to addiction, incarceration, mental illness or death. They found help and a family at the KARE Family Center in Tucson.

There was Mark Loebe, a young man struggling to figure out who he was. He had pieced together his past, one in which he was so terribly beaten as an infant that he nearly died.

But he survived, and was adopted. Mark dreams of someday becoming a dad. For now, he helps other youngsters who have been abused.

They are the stories that live in my heart, and in the Tucson Citizen archives. I am forever grateful to those who shared their lives with me.

It has been a privilege to write about the city I love so dearly. I am thankful for my grandfather, my parents, my brother, my husband and my three children for all their love and support, as well as my incredible Citizen family.

I hope I made you proud, Grandpa.

Citizen Staff Report
THE FINAL EDITION

I’ve been amazingly fortunate that for the past 32 years I’ve been paid to read and write for a living while working at the Tucson Citizen.

For many years, on the Citizen’s dime, I was able to travel across America, and once to Japan, to cover sporting events. It was a pretty good gig.

But the coolest time was from 1991 to 1994 when I did my first stint on the copy desk. I had the power, as the late man on my shift, to stop the presses for breaking news stories – with the approval of the managing editor, of course.

With a touch of a button on my phone, I had a direct connection to the pressroom, and the thundering machines would come to a halt while we remade the paper.

I was always tempted to do a Humphrey Bogart impression (he played an editor in “Deadline U.S.A.”) when I shouted out “Stop the presses,” but it would have been lost over the roar.

DAVE PETRUSKA

Copy editor

One of the more amazing moments I experienced at the Citizen was being with the Tucson-based science team for the Phoenix Mars Lander mission when the spacecraft safely settled on the planet’s surface May 25.

The craft faced a danger-filled “seven minutes of terror” as it used the Martian atmosphere, a parachute and 12 descent thrusters to slow from 12,500 mph to a soft landing to end its 10-month, 422-million-mile journey.

The 400 people packing the Tucson Science Operations Center waiting for confirmation of safe landing erupted in joy as the Lander’s first images from the Martian surface were shown on large screen monitors. The “live” images took 15 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth.

ALAN FISCHER

Reporter

I was about 5 when my oldest brother started delivering papers for the Citizen. Every afternoon, I helped him fold them and wrap a rubber band around them. I felt proud, as though I was part of something very important.

Many years later, I got my first newspaper job at the Citizen.

I remember the night Old Tucson burned down. I went to the newsroom about 7 p.m., thinking a few old-timers would be there – in those days, the newsroom starting lighting up about 3 a.m. to put out the afternoon paper. At 7 at night, everyone should be home and exhausted, gearing up for the next day.

But the newsroom was hopping, keyboards going at a rapid pace, phones pressed to reporters’ ears. The sense of loss was palpable as we all worked to get the story about the blaze.

But we also wanted a story – stories, really – that talked about what the old movie set meant to Tucson’s economy, Tucson’s tourism, Tucson’s residents.

We all worked late into the night and got those stories. We wrote with compassion, knowledge and precision.

We all were part of something very important.

KATHLEEN ALLEN

Former staff member

Citizen Staff Writer
THE FINAL EDITION

BRYAN LEE

brylee@tucsoncitizen.com

Since 1957, the Tucson Citizen has profiled more than a 1,000 of the city’s finest high school student-athletes.

Each school nominated a candidate based on academics, athletics, leadership, service to their school and an essay on who influenced them most.

In all, there were 54 winners of the Tucson Citizen Student-Athlete Award, with co-recipients named twice.

Every year, the Citizen also would revisit a past winner from a decade before. Here’s what three are doing now:

Tim Ashcraft, Sahuaro, 2004

How many AH-64D Apache attack helicopter pilots play piano, cello, drums and guitar, sing in chorus, give piano lessons and have and acted and sung with professional aplomb in musical performances?

Tim Ashcraft is one of such an elite.

A 2007 West Point grad, Ashcraft, still very much a champion of the arts, is now stationed in flight school at Fort Rucker, Ala., where he is specializing in helicopters.

Ashcraft always yearned to fly. He likes to recall when he first learned on a Cessna while at West Point and flew around the Statue of Liberty and up the Hudson River. It was both business and fun.

At Sahuaro, music was as much of his growing-up years as academics (22nd in his class) and sports (nine letters in football, baseball and soccer). At the academy, he minored in music and majored in mechanical engineering.

“My granddad was in the Army, so that was the military background,” Ashcraft says, “but I didn’t think about the military growing up. But in choosing West Point, it provided the best opportunity to enjoy what I do and serve my country.”

Granddad was Clarence L. “Stub” Ashcraft, a University of Arizona icon, who died in 2008 at age 89. He was a major in WWII, a former UA lineman and served as UA historian and athletic events coordinator (1962-85). Tim’s father is David Ashcraft, a retired Sahuaro music director. Tim credits his older brother, Chris, as his life’s inspiration.

For Tim Ashcraft, serving in the Army has been an uplifting experience.

“With everything going on in the world today,” he says, “I couldn’t be more amazed at the support the U.S. military is receiving.”

Philo Sanchez, Sunnyside, 2002

The official programs stretched Philo Sanchez’s height from 5 feet 6 to 5-7, but every one of his 195 pounds on the football field was felt by opponents.

Sanchez, the 2002 Student-Athlete winner, has known nothing other than to overachieve since the time parents Richard and Anna Sanchez gently informed him what life was about, around age 2.

As an athlete, Philo was Sunnyside’s all-time leading rusher under his dad, the head coach, and led the Blue Devils to two state playoff championship games, winning the second time.

Sanchez continued playing at Northern Arizona and was the Lumberjacks’ leading rusher his junior and senior years.

But there is a lot more to his life than football. He was a scholar from kindergarten on and graduated fourth in his Sunnyside class of 365 and has been constantly involved in community and church service.

“Winning the Student-Athlete Award was sort of the culmination of everything, all the hard work I did,” Sanchez said.

At NAU he pursued a biology and pre-med major intending to follow in the footsteps of Dr. Mark Donovan, an orthodontist. But over the last two years, in which he helped his father as an assistant coach, Sanchez decided law school was for him. He’s now in the process of applying.

“My mother always said I should be a lawyer,” he said, “because I was so argumentative. Then after I graduated (NAU), she sensed I was not that excited about (being an orthodontist) anymore. She always was the smartest person I ever knew.”

Brains and inspiration are part of any success story. Football stars such as Walter Payton drifted in and out of his imagination, but one was always No. 1.

“Some kids make a superhero out of Superman or Spider-Man but I always had my father,” Philo says. “He’s what every man should be – compassionate, though sometimes he doesn’t show it, and strong.”

Molly Reiling, Salpointe Catholic, 1984

Girls sports took off in the 1970s, when Title IX required schools to offer equal sports opportunities to females.

Molly Reiling watched her older sister play interscholastic softball, and she eagerly followed suit.

“I was the first female Student-Athlete winner from Salpointe,” she said. “It was sort of a new thing but I remember it made me feel very proud. I was one of the first generation after (Title IX). We were some of the first to see the full effects.”

Karen Christensen from Rincon High was the first girl’s Student-Athlete Award winner in 1976, followed by Kristine Bush (Sabino), Lisa Kay Baker (Sahuaro) and Vickie Patton (Marana) before Reiling won in 1984.

Paul Reiling had three daughters and no sons but he never lacked for kids active in sports. He helped coached his girls in softball. Molly’s expertise was softball and volleyball and she went on to play two years of college volleyball at Arizona State before transferring to concentrate on her architecture degree at UC-Santa Barbara.

Now the married Molly Dowd, lives in Verona, N.J., a suburb of New York City, with two preteen daughters. A freelance spatial planning and interior drafting professional, she started a middle school volleyball program for her daughters.

“I thought of going on in sports and it’s amazing the opportunities growing for women now in college and after – professional, overseas pros, coaching . . .

“I’m just grateful for the opportunities.”

TUCSON CITIZEN STUDENT-ATHLETE AWARD WINNERS

Year Student-athlete High school

1957 D.L. Secrist Jr. Tucson High

1958 Donald Parsons Catalina

1959 Edward Brown Flowing Wells

1960 Terry DeJonghe Salpointe

1961 Robert Svob Catalina

1962 Ray Kosanke Tucson High

1963 Michael Aboud Tucson High

1964 Pat McAndrew Flowing Wells

1965 Charles Begley Sunnyside

1966 Eric Evett Catalina

1967 Ron Curry Tucson High

1968 Jeff Lovin Palo Verde

1969 Bruce Pawlowski Salpointe

1970 Dave Henry Sahuaro

1971 Tom Hagen Salpointe

1972 Bill Baechler Palo Verde

1973 Francisco Gomez Pueblo

1974 Richard Rucker Canyon del Oro

1975 Guillermo Robles Sunnyside

1976 Karen Christensen Rincon

1977 Michael Wing Rincon

1978 Craig Barker Amphitheater

1979 Ralph Gay Sunnyside

1980 Kristine Bush Sabino

1981 Lisa Kay Baker Sahuaro

1982 Vickie Patton Marana

1983 Martin Tetreault Sahuaro

1984 Molly Reiling Salpointe

1985 Timothy Roggeman Salpointe

1986 Jon Volpe Amphitheater

1987 Luis A. Padilla Pueblo

1988 Nicole Stern Catalina

1989 Robert Moen Flowing Wells

1990 Grace O’Neill Salpointe

1991 Angel Phillips Rincon

1992 Zenen Salazar Sunnyside

1993 Michelle Vielledent Sahuaro

1994 Julie Reitan Sahuaro

and Brady Bennon Sabino

1995 Kelly Yablonski University High

1996 Joe Aguirre Palo Verde

1997 Andy Viner University High

1998 Scott Beck Canyon del Oro

1999 Glenn Schatz University High

2000 Nicole Voelkel University High

2001 Ai-ris Yonekura Catalina Foothills

2002 Philo Sanchez Sunnyside

2003 Tim Ashcraft Sahuaro

2004 Joe Kay Tucson High

2005 Tiffany Hosten Tucson High

and Echo Fallon Catalina Foothills

2006 Michael Smith Sunnyside

2007 Tara Erdmann Flowing Wells

2008 James Eichberger Catalina

Reiling

Top student-athletes

Citizen Staff Writer
THE FINAL EDITION

“Aaron passes Ruth!”

“Nixon resigns!”

Those headlines helped me sell a lot of newspapers in 1974, when my journey with the Tucson Citizen began as an 11-year-old hawker. Wearing my “Citizen Charlie” smock, I pitched the paper – which cost 15 cents back then – in front of my father’s East Side liquor store.

In between begging for tips, I pored over the sports section. I studied box scores and Citizen writers such as Regis McAuley, Corky Simpson, Jack Rickard and Bruce Johnston.

The newspaper bug had bitten me.

I took journalism at Catalina High School under J.G. Carlton, and began calling in prep box scores to the Citizen for $3 a game. By the time I landed a correspondent’s job in 1980, I knew what I wanted to do with my life.

Except for a five-year stint at USA TODAY, I worked many different jobs and many crazy hours at the Citizen until Gannett announced our closure.

Some of my favorite memories:

• High school: Sahuaro quarterback Rodney Peete threw for a then-state record 424 yards and five touchdowns in 1983 against Amphi. It ended in a 34-34 tie but was the greatest game I ever reported. Amphi countered with 361 yards on the ground in a contest that saw three TDs and one field goal scored in the final 3 minutes and 42 seconds.

• College: After covering Sean Elliott for three years at Cholla High, I watched him break Lew Alcindor’s Pac-10 career scoring record in 1989. Elliott needed 34 points and scored 35 – with six 3-pointers. It’s the loudest I’ve ever heard McKale Center, and we had a special section printed after UA routed UCLA.

• Pro: Curt Schilling sprayed champagne on me and other reporters in the locker room after the Diamondbacks beat the Yankees to win the 2001 World Series. When Luis Gonzalez singled in the winning run, strangers began hugging in the aisles at Bank One Ballpark.

• Embarrassing: On a hot night, I fainted in the elevator at Arizona Stadium during UA’s 1986 football home opener vs. Houston. When I came to, then-sports information director Butch Henry stood over me, asking in his Arkansas drawl, “Is he dead?”

• Initiation: Two Cleveland Indians players, who shall remain nameless, tried to stuff me in a locker when I was 19. To the locker-room attendant who saved me, thank you.

• Sadness: When I was an assistant city editor, I had to wake up Lute Olson to tell him that former UA basketball assistant Ricky Byrdsong had been gunned down in Evanston, Ill. After Olson’s wife, Bobbi, yelled, “No, God,” Lute gave me an eloquent quote.

• Proudest: Watching our sports staff pull together some of the biggest stories of the decade: UA football coach John Mackovic’s firing; the death of UA women’s basketball star Shawntinice Polk; Olson’s retirement and Sean Miller’s hiring as basketball coach.

I’m biased, but I considered my sports staff to be one of the hardest-working and professional in the nation.

The Associated Press Sports Editors agreed. It named us a top 10 daily sports section in the nation seven of the last nine years for our circulation category.

Credit goes to my second “family”: Steve Rivera, John Moredich, Anthony Gimino, Bryan Lee, Ken Brazzle, Geoff Grammer, Raymond Suarez and Michael Schmelzle. Correspondents Ash Friederich, Rodney Haas and Christopher Veck deserve high-fives, along with past staffers Dave Petruska, Paul Schwalbach, Michael Caccamise, Shelly Lewellen, David Pittman, Stephen Sharpton, Jessie Vanderson, Charles Durrenberger and Christopher Walsh.

More thanks go out to all the page designers I annoyed with my suggestions, Simpson for his inspiration and guidance, and Peter Madrid, who I succeeded as sports editor in 1999.

Finally, I’d like to pay tribute to all the coaches, players, parents and readers who helped suggest stories and make my job easier.

I’ll miss this place.