Remembering a Fine Journalist
I met Phil Latham in July 1989 when interviewing for a job at the Lufkin Daily News. At the time, I was working unhappily as editor and publisher of the Fort Stockton Pioneer. That part of West Texas didn’t suit me, though some fine people lived there. When I watched a tumbleweed the size of a Volkswagen Beetle come tumbling down the central street downtown, I knew it was time to leave.
So, I called Joe Murray, then editor and publisher of the Lufkin paper, saying I would take anything to get back to East Texas. He put me in touch with Phil, then his managing editor, who told me to make the long drive back to East Texas for an interview. He had an opening in the newsroom. Thanks to Phil, my fulfilling career with Cox Newspapers began, a relationship that lasted more than two decades.
The interview was remarkably short, maybe 10 minutes. Phil offered me a job as editorial page editor and rushed me out the door. I happily accepted, though it meant a pay cut. It was only months later that he told me why the interview was so brief. I had spilled coffee all over my interview tie and shirt before meeting Phil, and hurriedly had to change into a different shirt, no tie. It seems Joe had a rule that anybody who showed up for a job interview not wearing a tie couldn’t get hired, so Phil was trying to get me out of there before Joe saw me.
Upon settling into my new job, I swiftly realized that Phil was a passionate, fearless journalist. We became close colleagues, indeed friends. After a year, I moved across the river to work as managing editor of The Daily Sentinel in Nacogdoches for another of my mentors, Glenn McCutchen. A few years later, I became that paper’s editor and publisher. Phil eventually was transferred to Marshall to serve in the same position. We saw each other often, at editors’ meetings and other industry events.
In the mid-1990s, we had an editors’ meeting in Atlanta in February. Phil and I hatched a plan to head to Florida after the meeting and catch a couple of spring training games. He was as devoted a Rangers fan as I was to the Red Sox. The two teams held spring training in two Florida cities close to each other, Fort Myers and Port Charlotte. We managed to get media passes so we could sit in the press box for the games.
This required us to act as if we were covering the games, so we both pulled out our reporter’s notebooks and took copious notes. I did subsequently write a column about the experience, and I am pretty sure Phil did as well.
As it turned out, I became Phil’s boss when I was named publisher of the News-Journal in 2008, which didn’t change our relationship. I could always trust Phil to put out the best community newspaper possible with the resources he had. When Cox sold most of its community newspapers in 2009, I didn’t survive working for the new ownership. Phil did, eventually becoming an assistant editor of the News-Journal.
It was in that position that I believe Phil did some of his finest work, writing investigative stories on the city’s homeless population, passionate opinion pieces on perceived injustices. Upon retiring, he was named editor emeritus of the News-Journal, a fitting tribute for his distinguished career.
A group of us former Cox folks met a few times a year for lunch, usually in Tyler. That included Glenn McCutchen, Phil, former publisher Bill Martin, and me. We always had a fine time catching up. Social media made it easier to keep tabs on each other as well.
Sadly, I am the only one left of that small contingent. Phil died of a heart attack on Aug. 15, a few weeks short of his 71st birthday. He left behind his wife, Emily, a large family, and many friends.
Community journalism has been a calling for many of the folks with whom I became close over the decades, including several of those still working at the News-Journal. It has gotten more difficult as revenue and circulation have fallen, but still, these journalists keep after it. Phil exemplified what is best about this line of work — seeking to shed light in dark places, to celebrate those doing good, and to give readers the most complete coverage of their community as possible.
It was a privilege to have been Phil’s colleague and friend for more than 36 years.
A memorial service for Phil will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 6, at First Christian Church in Tyler, 4202 S. Broadway Ave.
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