I'm finding there is a fascinating corollary to how the newspaper business makes you young: Retiring from the newspaper business makes you even younger.
I say this after seeing Hank Sato for the first time since he retired from the Star-Bulletin in 1993. Hank was a legendary copy editor - a lousy writer's worst nightmare but a good writer's best friend if you cared about your copy going out lean, clean and accurate.
Nothing got by Hank. If you messed it up, you could count on him to bail you out and not even remind you about it too many times.
Hank also would have been a pretty decent tennis player if not for a couple of handicaps - a little too much around the middle and the can of beer attached to his left hand. It was tough to master the two-handed backhand when he refused to put down the Bud.
In retirement, Hank is leaner and fitter than I've ever seen him. He looks 10 years younger than when he retired.
'Hank, did you give up the beer?' I asked.
'No,' he said, 'I gave up all that pizza you bought when we made deadline. And all the donuts people brought in when they had babies. And all the cookies at the holidays.'
Hank says he still feels like calling sometimes when he sees an error in the paper, but he takes a deep breath and reminds himself that the young ones need time to learn.
What Hank was to fastidious copy editing, Harriet Gee was to reporting. As our beat reporter on the courts and later our Kokua Line columnist, she could get information for our readers like nobody else.
You haven't lived until you've heard Harriet work a source on the phone. She had this sweet way of reaching into the phone and shaking you by the neck until you coughed up the information she wanted. Some of the toughest lawyers in town were scared to death of this most elegant of ladies.
When I ran into her recently, she told me, 'Don't be so hard on yourself.' Harriet, I have to be hard on myself now that you're not around to do it for me. ('Dave, do you really think this new plan of yours is such a good idea?')
Phil Mayer, whose wit livened these pages for more than a quarter-century, had to retire when he lost most of his hearing to a brain tumor. He's a reminder of how the heart of our profession is public service.
Phil retired to really go to work. He's a volunteer teacher at the prison, an historian of the local labor movement and a forceful advocate for the deaf and disabled.
A lifetime lover of the theater, he was appalled that he could no longer hear plays because few local playhouses are equipped for the deaf. Phil dipped into his own pocket to help Kumu Kahua pay for a hearing system. He'll soon be flogging recalcitrant theaters with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
I find myself thinking often about these and other Star-Bulletin retirees - Jack Bryan, Oscar Kuwahara, Lois Taylor, Doug Boswell, Ray Maneki, Chuck Frankel - as we enter the age of digital journalism with the launch of starbulletin.com, our World Wide Web edition.
It's an exciting time, but Web cruisers know there's a lot of rubbish out there along with the wondrous new information. To sort it out, we need the skill, integrity and high journalistic standards exemplified by Hank, Harriet and Phil more than ever.
