Bill Roberts has been my boss for 22 years. That’s a record these days.
Bill will enter so-called retirement this month, and I’m sorry to witness that transition.
As an editorial writer, Bill is both street- and book-smart. His absence at The Durango Herald will be felt. I, for one, will miss his dry wit and unexpected takes on current events. I’ll miss his deep knowledge of local politics and his incredible ability to link small local footprints to large national and worldwide issues.
I’m a journalist and political cartoonist who lucked into freelancing for the Herald in 1995. Then, as now, Bill was the editor of the editorial page. In contrast, I’ve written for seven different Arts & Entertainment editors (beginning with Charlie Langdon and currently the remarkable Katie Chicklinski-Cahill). In today’s world, that’s more common.
My long-term working relationship with the Herald started with Bill. Here’s what happened:
On a cold March Friday, I brought my portfolio of articles and editorial illustrations to Bill. Without saying much, he looked everything over and casually invited Dan Partridge, then managing editor, to join us.
More low-key, uh-huh reactions followed. Then the two men looked at each other and suggested Morley Ballantine might be interested in seeing the portfolio – especially the illustrations.
I remember Bill saying, “For a long time, the Ballantines have wanted to have a political cartoonist on board – for local issues. It’s unusual for a small-town paper. Interested?”
Yes.
“Can you bring in at least one sketch on a local issue by Monday morning?”
Yes.
I spent an intense weekend developing cartoon ideas based on area events. Having arrived from upstate New York, where I was managing editor of a newspaper, and David, my husband, was a researcher, we wanted to learn as much as we could about our new hometown. As new residents, we attended city and county meetings, concerts, exhibits, etc.
And over that March weekend, I worked up not one but nine different cartoon sketches.
When Monday morning came, I hesitated over the ninth drawing.
“It’s pretty dark,” I said to my husband. With a smile, and his own brand of wry humor, David urged me to include what we called “the dark one.”
“You’ll learn something about the Herald,” he said. “Better now than later.”
Bill called me Monday afternoon and said the Editorial Board liked the sketches and chose one to run the following Sunday, March 19.
It’s the cartoon illustrated here – “the dark one.”
For the next few years, I brought three to five sketches in every Thursday. At first, Morley or Bill or Dan chose which one to run. After Morley died, Richard Ballantine took her place and we followed the same routine. In time, we jointly agreed that I no longer needed to bring in sketches, just a finished cartoon.
Two decades plus two years later, my assignment continues to be local issues. Editorial cartooning may be a dying art as print journalism struggles to survive, but Bill has made sure my cartoons appear online along with the national syndications.
Now that Bill is retiring, I want him to know that our local political cartoon will continue to be crafted with his dry humor in mind.
He was and will continue to be my first audience.
Judith Reynolds is a freelance journalist and political cartoonist.
