Another local boy makes good
I must make one disclaimer at the outset on this posting.
If you're not from Fresno, or you haven't spent significant time there, who or what I'm about to write about more than likely won't mean much to you.
But if you are, or you like to read about good people who become successful, you might enjoy this posting.
Bill McEwen is a featured political columnist for the Fresno Bee, the local newspaper in that fast-growing Central California city of some half million or so people. He took his present position there in 2002 after several years of working in the sports department, first as a reporter, then editor and columnist. Bill's passion was always hard news, and he patiently paid his dues on the sports pages while waiting for his chance to fulfill his ambitions.
I've known Bill since the early 1990s, when I was called in to help him launch a sports talk radio show on a small independent Fresno radio station. We became friends there, and I tried to help him translate his sports savvy to a medium he was not entirely comfortable with. Bill was never entirely at ease with communicating his sports opinions on the radio, even though he was superb at handling callers who would try to challenge him.
But his columns were concise, well-written analyses of the top national and local sports of the day. One that I remember vividly was one he wrote the day after the Fresno State football team massacred New Mexico 94-17. It was obvious that in the first half of that game that Bulldog coach Jim Sweeney was trying to run up the score at the Lobos' expense as much as possible, and Bill correctly characterized the charismatic coach as somewhat of a bully, despite his charming personality and his quotability.
That was not the only reason that game and column stand out in my memories...for my mother passed away the following day.
But Bill's columns would always get my attention, for they were well-written, occasionally quite humorous, and I agreed with most of them. I liked his incisive reasoning, and his ability to cut through the excess that so many sports observers are accustomed to, and get straight to the point, and hit it squarely on the head. All the while, I wondered how long he would remain on the sports page, because he yearned for more, and he was too good to be confined to the "toy department" of news, as the late Jimmy Cannon called sports.
Sure enough, in 2002, Jim Wasserman stepped away from his popular Bee political column, and Bill stepped right in. I liked Jim very much, but I knew Bill would become a more than capable replacement. And sure enough, five years later, his best columns have now been published in book form, under the title, "It's A Dry Heat".
And I like to publicize and salute my friends when they achieve something siginificant, so I salute Bill on this book...he's deserved one for a long time.
For Bill, like me, is a native Fresnan, who remembers Perry Boys Smorgies and the Lesterburgers, as well as all the famous and infamous people who make Fresno what it is(and was), and in the last five years, he has done an extraordinary job of chronicling their activities in his columns. And if anyone would like to know what makes Fresno tick, I would recommend they buy this collection of Bill's work in "It's A Dry Heat".
Bill has that love of his hometown that is quite natural, and he has dedicated his newspaper work during the past 25 years to helping make Fresno not only a better place to be a sports fan, but a better place to live, and maybe raise a family. He is well qualified in his role, being a lifelong resident of this area, and being a husband of a devoted and talented wife, and father of a pair of fine sons. And this book also shows Bill in his role as family man, and citizen.
But Bill is more than that, and the book shows that, too. He writes balanced and finely critical portraits of local leaders such as supervisor Bob Waterston, mayor Alan Autry, and even California governator Arnold Schwarzenegger, all the while filtering their accomplishments and setbacks through his unique vision of what type of place Fresno ought to be. And he's lived here long enough to know what that might be.
He also paints word portraits of people that have touched lives in Fresno, such as legendary radio and TV pesonality Al Radka(who I was fortunate to briefly work with and call "friend"), and high school history and humanities teacher Alan Amend, who shaped and influenced many a life, including Bill's(and mine...I was a student of his in 1975, and he did much to inspire me to be a critical thinker).
Bill is a big man, with big ideas, and the ability to express them in writing in a skillful and provocative manner. And his affinity for publicizing and exalting the less well-known, but all the same important and significant people, is something that has been a great influence on me since I turned to writing regularly in 2004.
So, in that vein, I take a break from my regular gospel music musings to salute Bill McEwen, friend, former colleague, and now published author, for a lifelong job well done in serving his audiences and fulfilling his dreams and ambitions.
Posted on Nov 17, 2007 - 02:24 AM | [0]
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