Mississippi experienced the retirement of its all-time best editorial writer last week. Tim Kalich, editor and publisher of the Greenwood Commonwealth for more than 30 years, retired.
Tim is one of my dearest friends, more like a brother, and we have worked together for decades, toiling in the fields of local professional journalism.
The top award for editorial writing conferred by the Mississippi Press Association is named after my grandfather, the J. Oliver Emmerich Award for Editorial Excellence. He was editor and publisher of the McComb Enterprise-Journal for more than 50 years.
It is awarded to the writer of the single best editorial written in Mississippi for the year. Tim has won it seven times, by far more than anyone else.
The winner of the second most Emmerich awards, four awards, was Lloyd Gray, editor of the Tupelo Journal for many years. Former Clarion-Ledger editorial writers David Hampton and Jim Ewing each won two and a half times (they shared one award.) Now the Clarion-Ledger doesn’t even have an editorial page.
My father and I both won two Emmerich awards. I won my first just a year after my father died. Then the next year I got to present the award to Tim. That was in 1996, when newspapers were still going strong.
I remember how bittersweet that was. I was so happy to hand the award off to Tim, who had succeeded my father as editor and publisher of the Greenwood Commonwealth. I just wished my father could have been there.
Other two-time winners were Sid Salter, longtime columnist and former editor and publisher of the Scott County Times; Joseph Ellis, editor and publisher of the Clarksdale Press Register; Sam Hall, editor of the Clarion-Ledger; Jim Prince, editor and publisher of the Neshoba Democrat; Jack Ryan, editor and publisher of the McComb Enterprise-Journal; and Ray Mosby, editor and publisher of the Deer Creek Pilot.
Since the award was created in honor of my grandfather in 1977, the year before he died, there have been 27 different winners of 48 awards. Of the 48 total awards, 16 were won by Emmerich Newspapers writers and 25 were won by writers who had been employed by Emmerich Newspapers at some point in their careers.
Most of the editorials that appeared on the pages of the Northside Sun were written by Tim Kalich, and also Jack Ryan of the Enterprise-Journal.
I always felt a little guilty not writing all my own editorials, but it’s been incredibly time-consuming battling the forces of change and, after all, I would be supplanting an editorial written by a seven-time Emmerich award winner with an editorial written by a two-time award winner. That seemed like a waste of time.
Fortunately, Tim has agreed to continue writing editorials in his retirement.
Not only is Tim a great editorial writer, he is probably the best small-town newspaperman in the country. I’ve never seen anyone with his integrity or work ethic. And not only that, he was immensely helpful giving me advice on running Emmerich Newspapers as a whole — advice that will be sorely missed.
Just as Tim was meticulous in running a newspaper, he was meticulous in planning his retirement, promising his wife Betty Gail years ago that one day he would turn his attention to her and not work. Like everything Tim has done, he fulfilled his promise.
So when Tim called me several months ago and asked if I could have lunch with him at Bravo, I knew what was up. I was filled with a sense of dread, but hoped for the best.
When he broke the news as we broke bread, I reacted more strongly than I had planned. A sense of profound sorrow swept over me, a sense of my own mortality, and I had to excuse myself to shed a few tears in the men’s room.
Likewise, when I drove two hours north to Greenwood for Tim’s retirement party, a sense of profound loss was overwhelming me. Fortunately, Ginny was by my side, comforting me.
When my father died, he was still very much active and running the Greenwood Commonwealth. Many in Greenwood expected me to take over. But there was no way I was going to push Tim aside. He had earned the position, learning every aspect of the job under the tutelage of my father, who treated Tim like a second son just as I treated Tim like a brother.
There was a big group at the retirement party, about 35 or so. Employee after employee spoke about Tim and told stories about what a great boss he was: fair, hard working, kind, conscientious. It went on and on.
Finally, I stood up to hand Tim a plaque I had made labelled “Mississippi’s All-Time Best Editorial Writer.” It had the Mississippi Press Association logo, Tim’s regular column photo and the headline’s of his seven winning editorials.
I noted that very few small towns in the nation still have a daily newspaper. Greenwood probably is the smallest. This was all Tim’s work. As I started talking and praising Tim and our 40 plus years working together, I got choked up and had to stop twice. It took all the will power I could muster to carry on and not embarrass myself.
I’m not sure what is in store for the future of professional local news. Quite frankly, it is dying and I am doing everything I can do to save it in my beloved state of Mississippi. But I do know this: There was never a better newspaperman than Tim Kalich. The loss of Tim, and others like him, is heartbreaking.
