Connecting - Aug. 13, 2024

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Aug. 13, 2024

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Colleagues,

Good Tuesday morning on this Aug. 13, 2024,

We bring you the obituary of our colleague Hugh van Swearingen in today’s Connecting, following up on Monday's story on his death last Friday.

As the obituary notes, a celebration of Hugh’s life is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. (Mountain), Friday, August 23, 2024, at Anderson Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home in Townsend, Mont., with a reception to follow the service in the Social Hall of the funeral home. Donations in Hugh’s name may be made to the Townsend Rotary.

DICTIONARY PURGE: Jim Limbach - Re Mark Mittelstadt's dictionary purge: Can we assume these words will not show up in the National Spelling Bee? The words: Groak, Snollygoster, Brabble, Lanspresado, Twattle, Mugwump, Smaze, Quockerwodger, Fudgel, Tyromancy.

I am awaiting an enterprising Connecting colleague to write a sentence using at least one of those words – before they are officially purged!

Have a great day – be safe, stay healthy, live it to your fullest.

In Memory Of

Hugh H. van Swearingen, age 86, of Townsend

January 1, 1938 – August 9, 2024

Hugh van Swearingen, a long-retired resident of Townsend (Mont.), died peacefully at home August 9, 2024 following a lingering illness. He was 86.

Hugh was an independent man who got things done on his own and rarely asked for help. He was an outdoorsman and in his senior years he enjoyed carpentry and built his own house. Hugh had a 24-year career with The Associated Press. He retired at the age of 54 and sometimes said, “I won the rat race.”

He was born January 1, 1938, in Butte to Hugh and Isabel (Kelley) van Swearingen, the second of their eight children. Throughout his boyhood years he was known as Butch. He and his brother David, younger by just 13 months and known as Mick, were inseparable pals.

Hugh was a graduate of Great Falls High and the University of Providence, Great Falls. He also studied at the University of Montana, Montana State University, Columbia University in New York City, and Portland Community College. He served eight years in the Army Reserve. He worked at the Anaconda Company smelter in Great Falls several times between college stints, and once in Los Angeles for a military contractor assembling components for artillery rockets.

Hugh and Janet Tovson, sweethearts since high school, were married in Great Falls in 1960. They raised two daughters and were together for 48 years until her death in 2008 when they were living in retirement near Townsend.

Hugh first got into the news business while in grade school as a delivery boy for the Great Falls Leader newspaper. He and Mick also sold the Leader on downtown street corners at a nickel each. The papers cost them two and one-half cents each, so they made a profit of two and one-half cents on each sale. If they sold 100 papers each, and they usually did, they each pocketed $2.50. Not bad for an after-school job for boys in those days. Economics at 2.5 cents a pop was a lesson in frugality that stayed with Hugh lifelong.

He got his first job as a news reporter in 1962 at the Lewistown Daily News. He joined the Montana Standard in Butte in 1964 and moved on to the Missoulian in Missoula as state editor in 1967.

In 1968 he began what was to become his career as a reporter, editor and manager with The Associated Press. His AP service included six years as newsman and later news editor in Helena, two years as correspondent and statehouse reporter in Bismarck, North Dakota, nine years as bureau chief in Helena and seven years as bureau chief in Portland, Oregon. He retired in 1992.

Hugh and Janet moved from Portland back to Montana in 1994, settling near Creston in the Flathead Valley and living there until 2000 when they sold their house, got rid of most of their belongings to live and travel in an RV trailer. They were avid hikers and backpackers, spending winters in Arizona and Utah and summers in Montana. A favorite hobby was hiking to remote ancient Indian ruins in Southwest desert country. They hiked extensively in Glacier National Park. In 2004 they bought a rural lot near Townsend and then spent several years building their own house.

After Janet died, he began seeing Nancy Marks and on her farm near Townsend soon learned that raising cows and growing hay was hard work. He said she kept him around because he was handy with a wrench and good at moving irrigation pipes. She sold the farm in late 2017, after which they made their home together at his house.

Hugh served eight years on the board of trustees of Broadwater Health Center, Townsend’s local hospital and nursing home. He later served on the board of the Broadwater Hospital District. He was a member of the Townsend Rotary Club.

During the last five years, he suffered increasingly from neuropathy which would eventually rob him of the ability to walk.

Hugh is survived by Nancy Marks, daughters Susan (Loren) Blossom, Helena, and Jenny van Swearingen (Bart Sevik), Missoula, and grandsons Taylor Blossom and Norris Blossom. Other survivors include sisters Mary Christine van Swearingen, Windsor, CA; Winnie (Juris) Ore, Helena; Vickie (Jerry) Edgar, Woolwich, Maine; and brother Carle, Livermore, CA. He was preceded in death by brothers Thomas (Donna) and Paul (Shelly), both of Great Falls, and David (Karen), Scappoose, OR.

Donations in Hugh’s name may be made to the Townsend Rotary.

A Celebration of Hugh’s Life is scheduled for 1:00 p.m., Friday, August 23, 2024 at Anderson Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home with a reception to follow the service in the Social Hall of the funeral home.

Click here for link to the obituary. Shared by Len Iwanski, Steve Graham.

Memories of Hugh

Nick Geranios - I was saddened to hear of the death of Hugh van Swearingen. He hired me into the AP at Helena, Montana, in 1982. He was a great and patient boss and an excellent newsman who loved a good yarn. Both of us were raised in Great Falls, the Paris of Montana.

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Steve Graham - Hugh was news editor in Helena when I joined the AP in Helena, Mont. in 1974, where he patiently brought me up to speed on the AP way of reporting.

Our paths joined again when he came to Portland as COB and I returned from New York.

He was a great mentor, a good friend and a wonderful human being.

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Rick Green - I was sorry to hear that Hugh passed.

I worked for him during his years in Portland. Sally Hale was the news editor, Jack Smith the photographer, Bob Baum the sports editor.

Hugh made me broadcast editor, and we’d sometimes go on member visits together. I enjoyed chatting with him as we’d travel down to Eugene, Corvallis or Albany in his company car.

He was a good boss, very fair, but not a lover of administrative work. I think he preferred his old job as a correspondent.

Hugh was an outdoorsman and I also got the sense that he missed Montana.

He had an engaging personality and was very friendly with members and staff. We’d have staff parties, including at his home on Sauvie Island. He attended my wedding.

Hugh was a good guy. He’d try to tinker with bureau operations to increase efficiency, but didn’t play favorites or ever hold any ill will to the people who reported to him.

I do remember him working feverishly when getting ready for an election or needing to complete some pressing bureau chief task.

One anecdote:

Hugh was smoking up a storm in his office one day while trying to get something important completed. (The AP had an interior space on the third-floor of The Oregonian building, in what used to be the newspaper’s library, no windows). Hugh must have thrown a still-smoldering cigarette butt into his metal garbage can because all of a sudden we could see its contents were on fire.

He grabbed the trash can, brought it down the hall to the washroom and doused the flames. The can was still sending up a plume of smoke when he returned it to his office, closed the door and went back to work. We could hardly see him at his desk for all the smoke.

I didn’t realize he was just 55 when he retired, but I got the sense he was ready.

A Letter From Mom

Marty McCarty – Paul’s sharing of his mother’s letter is inspiring. We’re all lucky to own such a warm souvenir. Here’s one of mine:

Slitting the envelope on Mom’s letters felt like opening an oven door and releasing the freshness of her words. The college girls flocked to my dorm room on cold, prairie nights to toast themselves under my electric blanket and listen to me read Mom’s letters aloud. My mom grew up on an Iowa farm and she was homey:

Your daddy got home about 5:30 and I had pork chops and gravy browning on the stove, she wrote. I mashed a batch of garlic potatoes and opened a jar of kernel corn your grandma canned last summer. Delicious! Carrie Miller stopped by with a cherry cobbler. Carrie loves to bake (because she loves to eat!).

I warmed the cobbler and Dad had a little vanilla ice cream with his.

I hope you’re feeling fine, honey. I’m sure you’re getting smarter every day.

—Love, from your mom and dad

(What’s funny is my mom thought I was getting smart, but I wasn’t.)

Luckily after college, I landed a job as a writer for a swell daily newspaper. Walt Stevens was my extraordinary and revered editor. Guess what? Paul Stevens is Walt’s son.

When print was king

Charlie Hanley -- Back in Neolithic times, when many of us Connectors were kids, it was a truism that where you found people you found newspapers. The wonderful, posthumously discovered street photographer Vivian Maier saw this daily through her Rolleiflex viewfinder in the streets of 1950s and ‘60s New York and Chicago. In a superb exhibit at NYC’s Fotografiska Museum, it’s striking how often this pairing of people and print is captured in her “pix” (what a word to use for an artist!). Here are a few I shot:

Italian group sets US screenings of documentary film on WWII alpine lake disaster that killed 25 American soldiers

Chris Carola - A nonprofit history group based in Northern Italy has scheduled the first U.S. screenings of its documentary detailing the final hours of 25 American soldiers who died in World War II when their Army amphibious vehicle sank in an alpine lake during the final days of the fighting in Europe.

Association Benàch, which produced “The Lost Mountaineers” with the Italian nonprofit association Fondazione Museo storico del Trento (FMST), plans to show the 60-minute film in Colorado Aug. 14, 16 and 19 and in Arkansas Aug. 21-24.

In late 2012, a group of volunteer divers in Torbole, at Lake Garda’s northern end, announced they had used sonar and a remotely operated vehicle equipped with a video camera to locate the amphibious vehicle sitting upright in 900 feet of water on the bottom of Italy’s largest and deepest lake. No human remains or evidence of clothing or equipment could be seen in the video.

I was the first journalist in the U.S. to write about the vehicle’s discovery after a member of the group, British ex-pat Ben Appleby, contacted me in 2013 at The Associated Press bureau in Albany, New York. Fort Drum in northern New York, longtime home of the 10^th Mountain Division, is in AP New York’s coverage area.

In October 2018, Milan-based AP reporter Colleen Barry wrote a story on the end of the search for remain of the fallen soldiers.

The 2023 film tells the story of the 25 soldiers who died when their vehicle with the military designation DUKW (referred to as “duck” by soldiers) sank in rough waters on Lake Garda on the night of April 30, 1945. All but one of the soldiers were members of the 87th Infantry Regiment of the 10^th Mountain Division. The other soldier, an Italian immigrant raised in Washington, D.C., who was driving the DUKW, was a member of another unit.

The only soldier to survive the sinking was Thomas Hough, a 10^th Mountain corporal from Dayton, Ohio, who was a lifeguard before joining the Army.

In recent years, Appleby and other residents around Torbole have found ways to honor the 25 men who died and Col. William O. Darby, the then-assistant commander of the 10^th Mountain who was killed earlier on April 30 by a German artillery shell that exploded in the village. Darby had gained fame and headlines earlier in the war when he played a key role in the formation of the U.S. Army Rangers, an elite fighting force inspired by Britain’s commando units.

Two days after Darby’s death, on May 2, the German general in command of Nazi troops in Italy surrendered. The late George Bria, a Connecting contributor who died in 2017 at 101, was an AP correspondent covering the war in Northern Italy and broke the story of the surrender, which occurred five days before all German forces formally surrendered on May 7.

In 2016, Appleby’s group, with the help of three U.S. Army Ranger veterans of the Vietnam era, dedicated a memorial to the 25 fallen soldiers, which I wrote about.

The marble monument bears the soldiers’ names, along with the insignia of the 10th Mountain Division. It’s located across Torbole’s village plaza from the memorial dedicated to Col. Darby, a West Point graduate from Fort Smith, Arkansas. Darby’s Rangers, as they became known in the American press, fought battles across North Africa, Sicily and Italy and helped establish the foundation of today’s U.S. special forces.

Appleby said research into the lives of the soldiers lost in the DUKW sinking led to some poignant personal details:

The soldier operating the vehicle, Nicholas De Grosso, was 7 years old when his family immigrated from Italy to the U.S. and settled in Washington, D.C., where his father worked at a factory. He enlisted in the Army and was assigned to a quartermaster unit, which maintained and operated military vehicles, including DUKWs.

Roger L. Murray, a soldier from Braymer, Missouri, had a brother, Hugh, serving in an Army quartermaster unit. Hugh Murray and more than 700 other American servicemen died April 28, 1944, when German torpedo boats attacked U.S. transport ships participating in a pre-D-Day invasion training maneuver off the coast of England at Slapton Sands. Like Roger, Hugh’s body was never recovered.

The 10^th Mountain Division was formed in the summer of 1943 in Colorado as an elite outfit trained to operate in rugged conditions, with skiing included in the training regimen. Many of its original members were skiers from the West and northern states. Some of those who survived the fighting in Europe returned home and helped establish the ski industry in the U.S.

Because of that Rocky Mountain connection, Appleby says “The Lost Mountaineers” will be screened at three locations in Colorado: Vail on Aug. 14, Leadville on Aug. 15 and Denver on Aug. 19. The film will also be presented in Darby’s hometown on Aug. 21 at the Fort Smith Museum of History and Aug. 22-24 during the Fort Smith Film Festival Arkansas.

Appleby says his group also hopes to screen the film in Chicago before departing for Italy in late August, but those plans haven’t been confirmed.

Connecting wishes Happy Birthday

Mike Hendricks

Deb Peterson

Ed Tobias

Stories of interest

News outlets were leaked insider material from the Trump campaign. They chose not to print it (AP)

BY DAVID BAUDER

At least three news outlets were leaked confidential material from inside the Donald Trump campaign, including its report vetting JD Vance as a vice presidential candidate. So far, each has refused to reveal any details about what they received.

Instead, Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post have written about a potential hack of the campaign and described what they had in broad terms.

Their decisions stand in marked contrast to the 2016 presidential campaign, when a Russian hack exposed emails to and from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta. The website Wikileaks published a trove of these embarrassing missives, and mainstream news organizations covered them avidly.

Politico wrote over the weekend about receiving emails starting July 22 from a person identified as “Robert” that included a 271-page campaign document about Vance and a partial vetting report on Sen. Marco Rubio, who was also considered as a potential vice president. Both Politico and the Post said that two people had independently confirmed that the documents were authentic.

Read more here.

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The New York Times Will Stop Endorsing Candidates in New York Races (New York Times)

By Katie Robertson and Nicholas Fandos

The New York Times editorial board will no longer make endorsements in New York elections, including in races for governor and mayor of New York City, The Times’s Opinion editor said.

The change will be immediate: The paper does not plan to take a stance in Senate, congressional or state legislative races in New York this fall, or in next year’s New York City elections, when Mayor Eric Adams is seeking a second term against a growing field of challengers.

Kathleen Kingsbury, The Times’s Opinion editor, said in a statement that The Times remained a journalistic institution “rooted in New York City.” She did not give a reason for the shift but said that “Opinion will continue to offer perspective on the races, candidates and issues at stake.”

The Times’s editorial board, the part of the Opinion section that makes the endorsements, operates separately from The Times’s newsroom. The board will continue to endorse in presidential elections, as it has since 1860.

Read more here. Shared by Dennis Conrad.

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Atop ABC, a Personal Connection to Kamala Harris (New York Times)

By Michael M. Grynbaum and Brooks Barnes

On paper, the potential for a conflict of interest seems obvious: ABC News, the host of next month’s high-stakes presidential debate, falls under the purview of a top corporate executive at Disney who happens to be longtime friends with the Democratic nominee.

The executive, Dana Walden, first met Kamala Harris in 1994. Their husbands, Matt Walden and Doug Emhoff, have known each other since the 1980s. The Waldens — “extraordinary friends,” per the vice president — have donated money to Ms. Harris’s political campaigns since at least 2003, when she ran for district attorney in San Francisco.

“In many ways, Dana and Matt are responsible for my marriage,” Ms. Harris joked at a fund-raiser in April 2022 at the Waldens’ home in Brentwood, a wealthy Los Angeles enclave where Ms. Harris and Mr. Emhoff also own a residence. The Waldens, Vice President Harris explained, set up a couple who in turn had set her up with Mr. Emhoff on a blind date.

Ms. Harris’s Republican opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, recently sued ABC News for defamation, and he and his allies are often quick to accuse news organizations of bias when they are displeased by coverage.

Read more here. Shared by Dennis Conrad.

AP classes, by the year...

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a listing of Connecting colleagues who have shared the year and the bureau where they started with the AP. If you would like to share your own information, I will include it in later postings. Current AP staffers are also welcome to share their information.)

1951 - Norm Abelson (Boston)

1953 – Charles Monzella (Huntington, WVa)

1955 – Henry Bradsher (Atlanta), Paul Harrington (Boston), Joe McGowan (Cheyenne)

1957 - Louis Uchitelle (Philadelphia)

1958 – Roy Bolch (Kansas City)

1959 – Charlie Bruce (Montgomery)

1960 – Claude Erbsen (New York), Carl Leubsdorf (New Orleans)

1961 – Peter Arnett (Jakarta, Indonesia), Strat Douthat (Charleston. WVa), Warren Lerude (San Diego), Ed Staats (Austin)

1962 – Paul Albright (Cheyenne), Malcolm Barr Sr. (Honolulu), Myron Belkind (New York), Dave Mazzarella (Newark), Peggy Simpson (Dallas), Kelly Smith Tunney (Miami)

1963 – Hal Bock (New York), Jeff Williams (Portland OR)

1964 – Rachel Ambrose (Indianapolis), Larry Hamlin (Oklahoma City), John Lengel (Los Angeles), Ron Mulnix (Denver), Lyle Price (San Francisco), Arlene Sposato (New York), Karol Stonger (Indianapolis), Hilmi Toros (New York)

1965 – Bob Dobkin (Pittsburgh), Harry Dunphy (Denver), John Gibbons (New York), Jim Luther (Nashville), Larry Margasak (Harrisburg), Rich Oppel (Tallahassee)

1966 – Shirley Christian (Kansas City), Mike Doan (Portland, OR), Edie Lederer (New York), Nancy Shipley (Nashville), Mike Short (Los Angeles), Marty Thompson (Seattle), Nick Ut (Saigon), Kent Zimmerman (Chicago)

1967 – Dan Berger (Los Angeles), Adolphe Bernotas (Concord), Lou Boccardi (New York), Linda Deutsch (Los Angeles), Don Harrison (Los Angeles), Frank Hawkins (New York), Doug Kienitz (Cheyenne), David Liu (New York), Bruce Lowitt (Los Angeles), Chuck McFadden (Los Angeles), Martha Malan (Minneapolis), Bill Morrissey (Buffalo), Larry Paladino (Detroit), Michael Putzel (Raleigh), Bruce Richardson (Chicago), Richard Shafer (Baltimore), Victor Simpson (Newark), Michael Sniffen (Newark), Kernan Turner (Portland, Ore)

1968 – Lee Balgemann (Chicago), John Eagan (San Francisco), Joe Galu (Albany/Troy), Peter Gehrig (Frankfurt), Charles Hanley (Albany), Jerry Harkavy (Portland, Maine), Herb Hemming (New York), Brian King (Albany), Samuel Koo (New York), Karren Mills (Minneapolis), Michael Rubin (Los Angeles), Rick Spratling (Salt Lake City), Barry Sweet (Seattle)

1969 - Ann Blackman (New York), Ford Burkhart (Philadelphia), Dick Carelli (Charleston, WVa), Dennis Coston (Richmond), Mary V. Gordon (Newark), Daniel Q. Haney (Portland, Maine), Mike Harris (Chicago), Brad Martin (Kansas City), David Minthorn (Frankfurt), Cynthia Rawitch (Los Angeles), Bob Reid (Charlotte), Mike Reilly (New York), Doug Tucker (Tulsa), Bill Winter (Helena)

1970 – Richard Boudreaux (New York), Richard Drew (San Francisco), Bob Egelko (Los Angeles), Steve (Indy) Herman (Indianapolis), Tim Litsch (New York), Lee Margulies (Los Angeles), Chris Pederson (Salt Lake City), Brendan Riley (San Francisco), Larry Thorson (Philadelphia)

1971 – Harry Atkins (Detroit), Jim Bagby (Kansas City), Larry Blasko (Chicago), Jim Carlson (Milwaukee), Jim Carrier (New Haven), Chris Connell (Newark), Bill Gillen (New York), Bill Hendrick (Birmingham), John Lumpkin (Dallas), Kendal Weaver (Montgomery)

1972 – Hank Ackerman (New York), Bob Fick (St. Louis), Joe Frazier (Portland, Ore.), Terry Ganey (St. Louis), Mike Graczyk (Detroit), Denis Gray (Albany), Lindel Hutson (Little Rock), Brent Kallestad (Sioux Falls), Tom Kent (Hartford), Nolan Kienitz (Dallas), Andy Lippman (Phoenix), Ellen Miller (Helena), Mike Millican (Hartford), Ginny Pitt Sherlock (Boston), Lew Wheaton (Richmond)

1973 - Jerry Cipriano (New York), Susan Clark (New York), Norm Clarke (Cincinnati), Jim Drinkard (Jefferson City), Joe Galianese (East Brunswick), Merrill Hartson (Richmond), Mike Hendricks (Albany), Tom Journey (Tucson), Steve Loeper (Los Angeles), Jesus Medina (New York), Tom Slaughter (Sioux Falls), Jim Spehar (Denver), Paul Stevens (Albany), Jeffrey Ulbrich (Cheyenne), Owen Ullmann (Detroit), Suzanne Vlamis (New York), John Willis (Omaha), Evans Witt (San Francisco)

1974 – Norman Black (Baltimore), David Espo (Cheyenne), Dan George (Topeka), Robert Glass (Philadelphia), Steve Graham (Helena), Tim Harper (Milwaukee), Elaine Hooker (Hartford), Sue Price Johnson (Charlotte), Dave Lubeski (Washington), Janet McConnaughey (Washington), Lee Mitgang (New York), Barry Shlachter (Tokyo), Bud Weydert (Toledo), Marc Wilson (Little Rock)

1975 – Peter Eisner (Columbus), Bill McCloskey (Washington), David Powell (New York), Eileen Alt Powell (Milwaukee)

1976 – Brad Cain (Chicago), Judith Capar (Philadelphia), Dick Chady (Albany), Steve Crowley (Washington), David Egner (Oklahoma City), Marc Humbert (Albany), Steven Hurst (Columbus), Richard Lowe (Nashville), Mike Mcphee (Boston), John Nolan (Nashville), Charlotte Porter (Minneapolis), Chuck Wolfe (Charlotte)

1977 – Bryan Brumley (Washington), Robert Burns (Jefferson City), Charles Campbell (Nashville), Carolyn Carlson (Atlanta), Dave Carpenter (Philadelphia), Jim Drinkard (Jefferson City), Ken Herman (Dallas), Mike Holmes (Des Moines), Brad Kalbfeld (New York), Scott Kraft (Jefferson City), John Kreiser (New York), Peter Leabo (Dallas), Kevin LeBoeuf (Los Angeles), Ellen Nimmons (Minneapolis), Dan Sewell (Buffalo), Estes Thompson (Richmond), David Tirrell-Wysocki (Concord)

1978 – Tom Eblen (Louisville), Ruth Gersh (Richmond), Monte Hayes (Caracas), Doug Pizac (Los Angeles), Charles Richards (Dallas), Reed Saxon (Los Angeles), Steve Wilson (Boston)

1979 – Jim Abrams (Tokyo), Brian Bland (Los Angeles), Scotty Comegys (Chicago), John Daniszewski (Philadelphia), Frances D’Emilio (San Francisco), Pat Fergus (Albany), Brian Friedman (Des Moines), Sally Hale (Dallas), Jill Lawrence (Harrisburg), Warren Levinson (New York), Barry Massey (Kansas City), Phillip Rawls (Nashville), John Rice (Carson City), Linda Sargent (Little Rock), Joel Stashenko (Albany), Robert Wielaard (Brussels)

1980 – Alan Adler (Cleveland), Christopher Bacey (New York), Jeff Barnard (Providence), Mark Duncan (Cleveland), Bill Kaczor (Tallahassee), Mitchell Landsberg (Reno), Kevin Noblet (New Orleans), Jim Rowley (Baltimore), David Speer (Jackson), Hal Spencer (Providence), Carol J. Williams (Seattle)

1981 – Paul Davenport (Phoenix), Dan Day (Milwaukee), John Flesher (Raleigh), Len Iwanski (Bismarck), Ed McCullough (Albany), Drusilla Menaker (Philadelphia), Kim Mills (New York), Mark Mittelstadt (Des Moines), Roland Rochet (New York), Lee Siegel (Seattle), Marty Steinberg (Baltimore), Bill Vogrin (Kansas City)

1982 – Dorothy Abernathy (Little Rock), Al Behrman (Cincinnati), Tom Cohen (Jefferson City), John Epperson (Chicago), Ric Feld (Atlanta), Nick Geranios (Helena), Howard Gros (New Orleans), Robert Kimball (New York), Rob Kozloff (Detroit), Bill Menezes (Kansas City), David Ochs (New York), Cecilia White (Los Angeles)

1983 – Donna Cassata (Albany), Scott Charton (Little Rock), Sue Cross (Columbus), Mark Elias (Chicago), David Ginsburg (Washington), Diana Heidgerd (Miami), Sheila Norman-Culp (New York), Carol Esler Ochs (New York), Jim Reindl (Detroit), Amy Sancetta (Philadelphia), Rande Simpson (New York), Dave Skidmore (Milwaukee)

1984 – Owen Canfield (Oklahoma City), Wayne Chin (Washington), Jack Elliott (Oklahoma City), Kelly P. Kissel (New Orleans), Joe Macenka (Richmond), Eva Parziale (San Francisco), Walt Rastetter (New York), Keith Robinson (Columbus), Cliff Schiappa (Kansas City), David Sedeño (Dallas), Andrew Selsky (Cheyenne), Patty Woodrow (Washington)

1985 – Beth Grace (Columbus), Betty Kumpf Pizac (Los Angeles)

1986 – Joni Baluh Beall (Richmond), David Beard (Jackson), Tom Coyne (Columbia, SC), Dave DeGrace (Milwaukee), Alan Flippen (Louisville), Jim Gerberich (San Francisco), Howard Goldberg (New York), Mark Hamrick (Dallas), Sandy Kozel (Washington), Arlene Levinson (Boston), Robert Meyers (London), David Morris (Harrisburg)

1987 – Donna Abu-Nasr (Beirut), Dave Bauder (Albany), Chuck Burton (Charlotte), Beth Harris (Indianapolis), Lynne Harris (New York), Steven L. Herman (Charleston, WVa), Elaine Kurtenbach (Tokyo), Rosemarie Mileto (New York), John Rogers (Los Angeles)

1988 – Chris Carola (Albany), Peg Coughlin (Pierre), Kathy Gannon (Islamabad), Steve Hart (Washington), Melissa Jordan (Sioux Falls), Bill Pilc (New York), Kelley Shannon (Dallas)

1989 – Ted Bridis (Oklahoma City), Charlie Arbogast (Trenton), Ron Fournier (Little Rock)

1990 – Frank Fisher (Jackson), Dan Perry (Bucharest), Steve Sakson (Baltimore), Sean Thompson (New York)

1991 – Amanda Kell (Richmond), Santiago Lyon (Cairo), Lisa Pane (Hartford), Ricardo Reif (Caracas), Bill Sikes (Buffalo)

1992 – Kerry Huggard (New York)

1993 – Jim Salter (St. Louis)

1995 – Elaine Thompson (Houston), Donna Tommelleo (Hartford)

1996 – Patricia N. Casillo (New York)

1997 – J. David Ake (Chicago), Pamela Collins (Dallas), Madhu Krishnappa Maron (New York), Jim Suhr (Detroit), Jennifer Yates (Baltimore)

1998 – Alan Clendenning (New Orleans), Guthrie Collin (Albany)

1999 – Melinda Deslatte (Raleigh)

2000 – Gary Gentile (Los Angeles)

2004 - Jim Baltzelle (Dallas)

2005 – Ric Brack (Chicago)

2006 – Jon Gambrell (Little Rock)

Today in History: Aug. 13, 2024

By The Associated Press

Today is Tuesday, Aug. 13, the 226th day of 2024. There are 140 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Aug. 13, 1961, on what would become known as Barbed Wire Sunday, East Germany sealed the border between Berlin’s eastern and western sectors before building a wall that would divide the city for the next 28 years.

Also on this date:

In 1521, Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez captured Tenochtitlan (teh-natch-teet-LAHN’), present-day Mexico City, from the Aztecs.

In 1792, French revolutionaries arrested and imprisoned King Louis XVI; he would be executed by guillotine the following January.

In 1889, William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut, received a patent for the first coin-operated telephone.

In 1918, Opha May Johnson became the first woman to join the U.S. Marine Corps.

In 1952, Big Mama Thornton first recorded the song “Hound Dog,” four years before Elvis Presley’s famous version was released.

In 1969, New York City held a ticket-tape parade for Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins.

In 1995, Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle died at a Dallas hospital of rapidly spreading liver cancer at age 63.

In 2011, seven people were killed when a stage collapsed at the Indiana State Fair during a powerful storm just before a concert was to begin.

In 2020, in an interview on Fox Business Network, President Donald Trump acknowledged that he was starving the U.S. Postal Service of money in order to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots.

Today’s Birthdays: Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders is 91. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is 78. Opera singer Kathleen Battle is 76. High wire aerialist Philippe Petit is 75. Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke is 75. Golf Hall of Famer Betsy King is 69. Movie director Paul Greengrass is 69. Actor Danny Bonaduce is 65. TV weatherman Sam Champion is 63. Actor Dawnn Lewis is 63. Actor John Slattery is 62. Actor Debi Mazar is 60. Figure skater Midori Ito is 55. Country singer Andy Griggs is 51. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is 50. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is 42. Actor Sebastian Stan is 42. Actor Lennon Stella is 25.

Got a photo or story to share?

Connecting is a daily newsletter published Monday through Friday that reaches more than 1,800 retired and former Associated Press employees, present-day employees, and news industry and journalism school colleagues. It began in 2013. Past issues can be found by clicking Connecting Archive in the masthead. Its author, Paul Stevens, retired from the AP in 2009 after a 36-year career as a newsman in Albany and St. Louis, correspondent in Wichita, chief of bureau in Albuquerque, Indianapolis and Kansas City, and Central Region vice president based in Kansas City.

Got a story to share? A favorite memory of your AP days? Don't keep them to yourself. Share with your colleagues by sending to Ye Olde Connecting Editor. And don't forget to include photos!

Here are some suggestions:

- Connecting "selfies" - a word and photo self-profile of you and your career, and what you are doing today. Both for new members and those who have been with us a while.

- Second chapters - You finished a great career. Now tell us about your second (and third and fourth?) chapters of life.

- Spousal support - How your spouse helped in supporting your work during your AP career.

- My most unusual story - tell us about an unusual, off the wall story that you covered.

- "A silly mistake that you make"- a chance to 'fess up with a memorable mistake in your journalistic career.

- Multigenerational AP families - profiles of families whose service spanned two or more generations.

- Volunteering - benefit your colleagues by sharing volunteer stories - with ideas on such work they can do themselves.

- First job - How did you get your first job in journalism?

- Most unusual place a story assignment took you.

Paul Stevens

Editor, Connecting newsletter

paulstevens46@gmail.com