Letter from the Editor

Back from a trip. Catching up on e-mails, correspondence and phone calls can take a toll. Especially when you read the local obituaries and those in the trade journals. Journalism lost a good one this month. Lawrence Gibbs, 67, managing editor of the Perkins Journal died Aug. 10 in Tulsa.

Lawrence Gibbs

He grew up in Oklahoma City, went to OSU, worked on newspapers in Guthrie, Chickasha and Guymon before finding his niche at the Stillwater NewsPress in 1968. In his 35 years there, he served as city editor and later managing editor. That’s where I got to know him.

He was a good sounding board for young editors, loved good stories and funny photos and could turn a phrase like few in the business today. His weekly column, Gamboling, was a must read in Payne County.

Besides being a first-rate newspaperman, he was a railroad buff and was active in Boy Scouts. He founded a monthly publication for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad Historical Society. 

 In 1988 and 1992, when I took journalism students to the national political conventions as correspondents for local papers, Gibbs was among the first to sign up as a sponsor. He and Larry Gittings, then managing editor in Duncan, were as supportive as any editor in the state. When they got together, they could light up a room.

Gittings died a while back. The old gang is getting together again. I can only imagine what a newspaper they’ll put out together.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 9:36 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.