Mentors Aplenty
Lawrence Dorson, Dympna Dowling, Steve Lawrence, Karen Crowe, George Riggs, Osborn Elliott, Bruce DeSilva, Jan Tarr, Mike Regan, Bill Healy, Paul Steinle, Ken Otterbourg, George McCandless, Steve Qualkinbush, Sherry Allen, Gary Gunderson, Russell Siler Jones, Bryan Hatcher, Debbie Morton, Barbara Saulpaugh, Ron Wachs, Mark Scholl.
Starting chronologically in high school and continuing through present day, I consider these 22 non-relatives, in many cases in hindsight, as having been mentors to me.
They are folks who took the effort to care in some fashion at a specific point in time of my life. The result of that caring helped me to grow as a writer, editor, counselor and human being.
As I look at the list, I see people with an array of similar qualities: critical thinking skills, empathy, passion, compassion, excellence, commitment, desire to share knowledge, nurturing and humor.
I wanted to share about one of my mentors, a journalist named Steve Lawrence, whom I knew for perhaps the shortest period of time of anyone on that list.
Steve, a reporter at the New York Daily News, decided to take on a basic journalism course as an adjunct professor at NYU, and I was a student in the first and only class he taught, in the spring of 1978, as I recall. He was always happy to share tips that went above and beyond any textbook (something I would try to duplicate two decades later, when I began a long tenure as an adjunct journalism professor for Quinnipiac University in Connecticut).
What I remember most was the note Steve wrote when he returned my final assignment. “You’re one of the few students I would tell, ‘Be a journalist.’”
It was validation, which for a freshman taking his first workshop-style journalism course was most welcome. I don’t recall speaking with Steve ever again after that class.
In researching for this blog post, I learned Steve moved to The New York Times from the Daily News, and later worked for the Financial Times in Toronto before buying a small community newspaper in New Mexico. He eventually retired in Southern California.
Unfortunately, I came upon all this information by reading an online obituary; it was a wonderful tribute with former colleagues quoted about the passion Steve brought to any newsroom as a writer, editor or publisher.
I’m grateful to Steve—and all of my mentors—for helping me along the way. I hope I’ve paid that forward over the years. I know that at least four other of my mentors are gone. One thing I vow to do after putting together this blog post is be more proactive about reaching out to former mentors. Who wouldn’t want to stay connected to inspirational folks?