A good-sized cops reporter, and one of the best ...
DOUG CLARKE, 1939-2007
How many people do you know who belong to both the NRA and the ACLU? That was Doug Clarke, built like a linebacker (6-2, 240) but with a ballet dancer's finesse on the typewriter keys as police reporter and then obituary writer in a 30-year Star-Telegram career.
The most important things in his life were family, football, hunting and teaching. He enjoyed dancing and country-western music. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve. He died Jan. 25, after being ill for some time.
One night, covering cops, he was rushing to a Berry Street liquor store where a clerk had been found shot to death. Night city editor Phil Record was monitoring the police radio.
Suddenly an officer radioed that he was pursuing a car matching that of the suspect. Record jumped on the two-way and told Mr. Clarke: "Head over to Fifth Avenue. The cops are chasing a suspect there."
There was a long pause, then Mr. Clarke replied: "That's me they're chasing."
Mr. Clarke commanded respect, both with the police and later as a teacher (Tarrant County College; Southwestern Adventist University in Keene; most recently in the TCU Schieffer School of Journalism, where he was nearing completion of his Ph.D.). Record, now retired from the Star-Telegram, said Mr. Clarke could get more details in a 10-minute phone call than other reporters could in 30 minutes at the scene.
As police reporter, when a story broke on deadline he would grab the phone in the cop shop press room in the basement of the old City Hall, call the police and announce: "This is Clarke down at City Hall. Tell me what's going on out there."
The person on the other end of the line, Record remembers, rarely failed to respond.
A graduate of UNT (then North Texas State University), Mr. Clarke began his newspaper career in Corsicana in 1962 and joined the Star-Telegram as a police reporter in 1964. He became night city editor, a feature writer and wrote a gun column.
He was named spokesman for the Fort Worth Police Department in the early 1980s. After leaving the city, he returned to the Star-Telegram as a relief obit writer for several years.
"He had huge, huge fingers, and I always thought it somewhat ironic that a man with such big hands could grab a pencil and write such a gentle piece and do such a good job as a reporter," former Star-Telegram columnist Jon McConal, a close friend and longtime co-worker, told the paper's Anthony Spangler. "He loved being a reporter. It was down to his basic fiber."
Added former Star-Telegram executive editor Mike Blackman: "He always had a good grasp of what was going on in the city. And in the newsroom, his sense of humor always kept things loose. He was a pretty special guy."
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MEETINGS
The Trouble with Today's Intranets
and Web Sites -- and How to Fix It
Online information is hard to find, out of date, unclear and doesn't respect the need for speed. Screens overwhelm with links, content may take days to scroll through, and misspellings and typos littler every page. Do you think cookies are just an afternoon snack? If you have issues with these issues, IABC's half-day seminar Feb. 27 is for you.
Jeff Herrington with Dallas-based Jeff Herrington Communications will ensure that you have effective hyperlinks and concise copy and get to the point ASAP (and don't forget those ADA requirements). Attendees will learn how to write web content so the user's experience is productive, what web site mistakes to avoid and what new web etiquette everyone should implement.
Herrington has traveled to 45 countries on five continents teaching writing and publication editing. He has taken his web writing workshop to online editors at IBM, JPMorganChase and Kansas City Power & Light, among others. He was named Dallas IABC Communicator of the Year in 1999, but perhaps most impressive of all, he has created several crossword puzzles published in The New York Times.
Time & date: seminar 8:30-11:30 a.m., lunch 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: seminar and lunch, members $75, nonmembers $95; lunch only, members $20, nonmembers $25, students $18 (online sign-up add $1 for lunch only, $3 for the seminar and lunch combined)
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Hearts and PR
Expect something to chew on but no soft gooey center at the PRSA Valentine's Day professional development seminar on media training and responding to new media. Dan Keeney, APR, president of DPK Public Relations, will discuss the ins and outs of media training, complete with small-group breakout sessions for on-camera practice and critiques. He will also note some red flags to anticipate when working with bloggers, plus a few lessons he learned the hard way.
Time & date: seminar 9-11:45 a.m., lunch noon-1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: seminar and luncheon, members $55, nonmembers $65, students $30; seminar only, members $35, nonmembers $45, students $15; lunch only, members $25, nonmembers $30, students $20
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The Power of Words
Words matter. They help us understand our friends and leaders. They help us solve problems, think, dream -- but also mislead, suppress, terrorize, generalize. They create fear and anxiety, suspicion and hate.
Steve Stockdale at the February SPJ meeting (rescheduled from the iced-out January meeting) will describe how semantics can help us negotiate the minefield of words that we encounter daily from politicians, business leaders and others who would influence our thinking. Stockdale is executive director of the Institute of General Semantics, based in Fort Worth, as well as an adjunct professor at TCU. He will explain the institute's programs and how understanding semantics helps people think and communicate clearly, whether orally or in print.
Time & date: mingling 6 p.m., eats around 6:30, then the program Thursday, Feb. 22
Place: Joe T. Garcia's Mexican Restaurant, 2201 N. Commerce St.
Cost: $15 members, $20 nonmembers, $5 students
Menu: Joe T.'s famous family-style enchilada dinner
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