January 14, 2010

Former Press editor dies in Massachusetts

A former editor of The Bristol Press, Charlie Hibbert, died last night.
Hibbert, copy desk chief of the Cape Cod Times, was married and had two children.
One of our former Tattoo writers, Amanda Lehmert. a Bristol Central High School, worked as a reporter in Cape Cod with Hibbert before she moved on to the Greensboro, N.C. News & Record.
Lehmert said she shared with Hibbert her humble beginnings at the Press and is "so sad" to hear of his death. Here's a brief remembrance she wrote up:

In my experience, you could not upset Charlie or stress him, even on deadline. One Sunday night when I was working the cops shift, I found out that a the Sandwich police has recovered a dog that had bitten up its owner, been shot by cops, and still ran off. And it was alive, by god. This was, perhaps 15 minutes before Charlie had to wrap up the front page.
He made a tough call easily: unravel the carefully planned front page of the newspaper and plug in this last minute story because it was important to our readers. We had little time to get it right -- but we did it. Not a single grammatical error or spelling mistake.
Other editors might have let the folks pick up the story the next day. Not Charlie. That's what a true newsman is like. And for that he will be sorely missed.



I never met Hibbert, but I do know the world can ill afford to lose quality journalists. 
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

1 comment:

Bernie O'Donnell said...

Steve, I can attest to everything Amanda said and more. Charlie was a classy guy, an excellent journalist and a wonderful colleague. Thanks for remembering him.

Bernie O'Donnell
former Cape Cod Times