Sunday, July 16, 2000

'Water Woes' series was a concerted, team effort
By Terri Burke
Editor

In the course of a 25-year newspaper career, I’ve worked with some of the best — Pulitzer Prize winners, future novelists, people who were passionate about using their work to right wrongs and making the world just a little bit better, writers and photographers who touched their communities every day with their words and pictures.

And then I came to the Reporter-News. There are no Pulitzer Prize winners in the bunch, although there are a few in the making.

But for the last eight days I — and you — have witnessed the work of a group of people worried about the only prize that really counts: touching their readers with stories about issues that matter.

And, I thought, you might like to know more about the 16 folks who brought you “Water Woes.”

The three staffers who carried the heaviest loads were Jerry Reed, Sandy (or as you know him, Samuel) Segrist and Joseph Chancellor.

Jerry graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington and has a master’s from Abilene Christian University.

He’s been at the Reporter-News for 26 years, having worked as a sports writer or news reporter at the San Angelo Standard-Times, the Temple Daily Telegram and the Lubbock Avalanche Journal before arriving here. He’s probably covered every beat; now he is responsible for county government.

Jerry, 58, is married to Lynn, a teacher at Crockett Elementary school and they have two children, Sarah and Daniel.

Sandy, who covers the city council and the mayor and city departments, grew up in Lubbock and attended the University of North Texas.

He was managing editor of the campus newspaper before he started covering education at a suburban newspaper in Lewisville. With nearly four years under his belt at newspapers in Beaumont and Lubbock, he joined the Reporter-News last November.

The colorful, detailed and informative graphics and charts you’ve seen all week were drawn by Joseph Chancellor, a student at Hardin-Simmons University. Joseph is majoring in communications with an emphasis in advertising and public relations and minoring in art. He is 20 years old and has been working at the Reporter-News for almost three years.

Regional writer Ken Ellsworth is a native of Kansas and a graduate of Ottawa University there.

A 20-year veteran, he has worked the last 18 years at the Reporter-News. He and his son, Nathaniel, who will be a senior at Wylie High School this fall, live in Abilene.

Everybody in town knows Doug Williamson, a native Abilenian and a graduate of Baylor University. Doug, 49, joined the Reporter-News in 1985, and has held nearly every job in the place, from weekend city editor, to director of marketing services to his present job as business editor. Doug, and his wife, Frances, who works for the Chamber of Commerce, have two grown sons, Lee and Jeff.

Larry Zelisko is another Baylor Bear on our staff. He has spent 21 years at the Reporter-News, working as a reporter, city editor and now regional editor. Larry, 43, and his wife, Nancy, have two children, Matthew and Melanie.

Photo editor Barton Cromeens is a native Texan with deep roots in the Big Country. He’s a 1993 graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown and has worked at the Reporter-News four years, starting out as a staff writer.

Bobby Horecka, 27, is the Reporter-News’ agriculture writer. A graduate of Southwest Texas State University, Bobby has been a reporter for five years, joining our staff last year.

Religion editor Loretta Fulton has worked at the Reporter-News off and on for 20 years, with a couple of sojourns in between to weekly newspapers and to public relations with McMurry University.

Loretta, 53, is a graduate of the University of Texas.

John Starbuck, a McMurry graduate, has lived most of his life in Merkel. He started with our newspaper as the Merkel correspondent and became a full-timer eight years ago.

Starbuck, 33, was the editor of the Western-Observer in Anson and worked for the Merkel Mail.

Sidney Schuhmann, a Sedona, Ariz., native, graduated from Abilene Christian University in May 1999 with a degree in print journalism.

She worked for the college newspaper, The Optimist, for three years and completed a summer internship with the Longview News-Journal before starting work at the Reporter-News the same month she graduated from ACU.

Sidney, 23, has been the military affairs writer since August 1999.

New Mexico native Jason Gibbs joined the Reporter-News in February. A graduate of the University of New Mexico, Jason, 30, grew up on a ranch in Corona, N.M., not far from where the aliens allegedly landed in Roswell.

Our courts and medical writer, Jason worked for three years at The Albuquerque Tribune, a newspaper owned by the E. W. Scripps Co., which also owns the Reporter-News.

All the stories for “Water Woes” were copy edited by Beverly Butman, a 53-year-old Abilene-area native, Beverly joined us in January, after 28 years at the Scripps-owned Daily Camera in Boulder, Colo.

A graduate of Merkel High School and Pepperdine University in Los Angeles, Beverly raises thoroughbred, appaloosa and paint horses on her family’s ranch in Mulberry Canyon.

Ron Erdrich, 35, is a former U.S. Navy photographer. Ron came to the Reporter-News in April by way of Kansas City, where was a freelance photographer. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, perhaps the nation’s most prestigious journalism school.

Every single page of this series was designed by Carrie Wells Hollibaugh. She joined our staff two years ago, fresh out of the University of Central Florida with a degree in English and Technical Communication.

Carrie, 25, juggles her position here with working on a master’s degree at Hardin-Simmons, and mothering two sons, Alex and Dan. Her husband, Keith, is a staff sargeant at Dyess.

Finally, there’s the Aggie. Anthony Wilson, our city editor and a 10-year veteran of the Reporter-News, was the editor of the entire series.

Not only did he develop the story “budget” — the list of stories that would be reported and written – he rode herd for four months on their reporting and editing.

Near the end, he bowed out for a week to ride herd on the birth of his wife Debbie’s and his baby girl, Grace.

A native Houstonian, Anthony has won two Katie Awards from the Dallas Press Club and two Gavel awards from the State Bar of Texas.

He is a member of the board of trustees of St. John’s Episcopal School.

A graduate of the journalism school of Texas A & M University, Anthony has covered nearly every beat at the newspaper and he imbued this series with his institutional knowledge.

I’m proud of what this staff accomplished this week.

We all hope this series leads to a better understanding of our “Water Woes.”

And we hope they get solved so that the Nathaniels, and Lees and Jeffs and Matthews and Melanies and Sarahs and Daniels and Alexes and Dans and Graces and all the other children of Abilene won’t have to confront them again.

Terri Burke can be contacted at 676-6705 or burket@abinews.com.