Let editor know he is remembered

Sometimes that first real job is the one you remember the most fondly.
That’s certainly been the case for Jim Beier.
Beier, who was director of the Earlham Institute for Executive Growth for many years and did some training sessions for the old Jay County Leadership Academy, used to stop by our offices whenever his travels took him through Jay County.
And every time, he would talk about his stint as editor of The News and Sun in Dunkirk. That’s not so unusual. Other members of the informal “alumni association” of former newspaper employees often keep in touch. I hear now and then from former Dunkirk editor Perry Washburn, and I had an email this summer for another former News and Sun staffer, Delora Scott.
But for Jim, there was a special “rose-colored rearview mirror” effect at work when he talked about his days in Dunkirk and Redkey.
He joined the weekly paper in April 1960, less than a year after The Commercial Review and The News and Sun had been acquired by the Graphic Printing Company.
The announcement of his hiring had a folksy flair: “Jim Beier, an adopted Hoosier, who originally hails from Cincinnati, Ohio, is the new editor of the Dunkirk News and Sun. Jim is 23, married, and has a daughter, Elaine, who just celebrated her first birthday on Easter Sunday. His wife, Rosemary, is a native of Richmond, Ind. They met while he was attending Earlham College.”
He had just graduated from Indiana University, where he worked part-time for what was then The Herald-Telephone, now The Herald-Times.
The young family found a place to live in Redkey, and Jim set about learning about the communities he was serving.
He started writing a column called “People I Meet” every other week, profiling everyday folks that he happened to come across: His next-door neighbor Ralph Green, car dealer Ed Huggins, Minnie Brotherton as she approached her 96th birthday, Tom and John Shambarger at the restaurant in Redkey, milkman Floyd Morgan, young Bob Rawlings when he was just out of high school and attorney Zoe Wyatt, a female pioneer in the legal profession who served two terms as Jay County prosecutor.
Clearly, he was enjoying himself.
But it wasn’t all fun and games. Beier’s arrival in Dunkirk coincided with a legal battle over a contested election for mayor. 
That tussle would go on for months, and there were hard feelings on both sides.
As often happens with first jobs, Beier started looking for greener pastures. In his case, it was the opportunity to go to grad school in California and pursue a higher degree. His career as a technical writer later took him back to the Richmond area and eventually led to his position at the Earlham Institute for Executive Growth.
But wherever his career took him, part of him remained in western Jay County with those people he met when he was just out of college.
“He loved his time with the Dunkirk News and Sun and often shares stories of his experience with us,” his daughter Elaine Dabney said in an email this month.
These days, Jim’s retired and living in Florida. But Elaine hopes to provide a reminder of his Jay County days when he turns 80 in January.
She’s asking folks who remember him from his Indiana era to drop him a line, either by USPS or email to share some memories.
I’ve already promised a letter of my own.
If you have something to share from that long ago period, you can send it to Dr. James A. Beier, c/o Elaine Dabney, 4600 Camino Real, Sarasota, Florida 34231 or email to [email protected].
My guess is he’ll be glad to hear from you.