Back to the past with respect

Forty-eight years ago on October 11 the Indianapolis Times ceased publication. It was one of three daily newspapers in the city at that time and its demise marked the beginning of a downturn in newspaper publication here. My father spent 26 years at the paper first as a police reporter and ending it as assistant managing editor. In high school I worked part-time as a copy boy. A brother worked in the composing department for a time.

A third brother joined the two of us today and a couple dozen other folks for the unveiling of an historical marker on the site of the Times building torn down many years ago. There is now a green commons area surrounded by the Hyatt Regency hotel to the east and the Westin hotel to the west. The marker is located near the center of the commons, a bit outside the actual former site, but close nevertheless.

Several former Times employees were present for the ceremony. Dick Mittman was a sports writer. George Totten worked in the composing department. Kathleen Van Nuys reported society news. Donna Mikels Shea reported hard news. Carl Henn worked at the city desk and Gerry Lafollette was also a reporter. Jeff Smulyan, who now heads Emmis Communications, was perhaps the youngest former Times employee present. He was a copy boy in 1963 while in high school.

I was very touched to hear Gerry Lafollette speak of my father as the "Monet of makeup." My dad's principal job on the Times was composing the design of each day's front page. Donna Mikels Shea worked diligently to see that my dad was recognized in the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.

The employees fondly remembered the hard work each of them put in  particularly when such tragedies occurred as the explosion at the Coliseum in 1961 and the Kennedy assassination in 1963. Though none of them was around to be involved in it, the Times is also remembered for the Pulitzer prize it won in 1928 for its two-year coverage of the Ku Klux Klan which dominated the corrupt politics of Indiana during that decade.

The hour or so we spent at the event was sobering. It was good to step back and to recall what preceded our present life. The Times building was not particularly outstanding in appearance and, as I remember it, seemed a bit ancient and in need of an update. Its location at 214 W. Maryland St. was 

then not a particularly pleasant one. It was a bit out of the way in the downtown area. Now it is very much in a high profile neighborhood with the Indiana Convention Center directly across the street. The historical marker sits in the center of the commons and it is hoped that it will survive the vandalism and weathering that a former marker suffered after first being installed on the street sidewalk in 1979.

The former employees are all survivors of a business that doesn't really exist anymore and one that is now difficult to explain. These employees were all professionals who believed it was important to report the events of city, state, nation and world. Their subject was the world in which they lived. Unlike newspaper and broadcasting today, the subject was not themselves. The generosity of their lives and work made reporting the news worthwhile and responsible.