Johnson, Bob

Taking advantage of the twists and turns that life presents will occasionally have long-range effects.

In 1957, as a freshman at Humboldt High School, I took a job at the weekly Humboldt Union, working a few hours a week as a printer’s devil and later writing a bit.

Malcolm Higgins was the first of five editors under whose tutelage I later went from a college math major to newspaper work. Absolute dedication, as wife Beverly would attest, was a factor of no little magnitude in my 63 years as a scribe at the Humboldt Union, Pittsburg Sun and Iola Register.

When I arrived at Kansas State College of Pittsburg in 1961 to study math, I was offered a proofreading job at the Pittsburg Sun. The Sun, under the direction of Fred Brinkerhoff, hired several students each year. I worked 40 hours a week, 4 p.m. to midnight, and after a year had a chance to be sports editor. I had not learned to type in high school, but after two weeks of intensive practice on an old Underwood, which would have been better used as a boat anchor, I typed well enough.

A year before graduation, Angelo Scott, the Register’s owner, publisher and editor, called me. Come be our wire editor and write sports, he said. I thought a year off from college would refresh me. I began on July 6, 1964, and retired July 7, 2020, 56 years and a day later. 

Emerson Lynn was my editor and my mentor the lion’s share of those years. Susan Lynn, Emerson’s daughter, took the reins before I retired, a move that was seamless and fortuitous for the Register. Susan, now with the help of son Tim Stauffer, has kept the Register on a positive course and improved it in many ways.

My intent, when leaving Pittsburg, was to return in a year or two. I didn’t realize I was about to get a thorough and eclectic education working as a newsman. Also, wife Beverly and I married Nov. 20, 1965, and until daughter Brenda was born in 1969, and son Bob in 1972, we talked occasionally about how I might return to KSC. But after they came along, I was firmly planted at my desk, and it didn’t hurt that both of our families lived in Humboldt.

My time at the Register has been busy with one adventure after another. I wrote about 2,400 personal columns over 50 years, as well as news about everything that happened in Iola, Humboldt and other nearby environs. Editorials were on my plate when Emerson and wife Mickey were on annual vacations. I never awoke one morning wanting to skip a day. I was part of the Register, and the Register was a part of me.

When Emerson returned to Iola from Bowie, Texas, and took the Register over on Jan. 1, 1966, he and I were the news staff. A few years later I petitioned for a sports editor; Emerson agreed, and we also added a wire editor.

I then was officially the city editor, though my duties remained a mix of all that had to be done to produce a newspaper that thoroughly recorded local history and kept our subscribers abreast of all news fit to print, including the little stories that distinguish a small-town paper from the metros. My opinion: “Everyone has a story. Stopping a person on the street can generate an interesting article.” I admit a time or three I’ve had to dig pretty deep to get a story, but I never failed to get one.

Some highlights:

I spent a week at the Republican National Convention in Kansas City in 1976, when Gerald Ford was nominated for a full presidential term with Bob Dole as his running mate. I wrote daily accounts mainly about area people who had a role in the goings-on at Kemper Arena.

When Iola had more than our share of murders – too often -- I haunted the sheriff’s office, became friends of KBI agents and covered each tragedy as thoroughly as I could. 

In the 1990s I visited Central America five times – Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras and Belize (twice) – to write about and photograph humanitarian projects assigned to the Kansas National Guard’s 891st Engineers, headquartered in Iola.

In 2001 I spent 10 days in France with a group led by a military history instructor from Fort Leavenworth. That produced a 10-part series about the June 6, 1944, Normandy Invasion, which meant much to me. My father, an infantry medic, landed at Utah Beach and was in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge. 

I was on the verge of going to Saudi Arabia during hostilities with Iraq until thoughts of my wife, children and grandchildren convinced me to pass on a shooting war.

I have been fortunate to win a number of Kansas Press Association awards for writing and photography. 

In 2000 I won the first Kansas Farm Bureau Golden Wheat Award for reporting on agriculture. Another 10-part series was the winning entry in competition then open to all Kansas newspapers regardless of circulation. I viewed the accomplishment as a feather for all other small-town Kansas reporters.

In 2019 I was honored at the KPA convention with the Karl and Dorothy Gaston Outstanding Mentor Award. That was special because of a touching introduction by Susan Lynn, Register owner, publisher and editor. Emerson Lynn was the first to win the award. An aside: Emerson, Angelo Scott and Charles Scott are in the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame, They, with Susan, comprised the Scott-Ewing-Lynn family that has maintained the Register as a family-owned newspaper for nigh on 150 years.

My work wasn’t limited to the Register. Back when it was kosher, I was a stringer for The Kansas City Star and Wichita Eagle, and did freelance work for magazines, including one article commissioned by Mother Earth News.

Aside from work, I coached baseball for 18 years, including the Iola American Legion team five years; we won Iola’s first American Legion championship in 1988 and finished second in 1990, my last year of coaching. For hobbies I collect coins, hunt Native American artifacts on private land and enjoy searching with a metal detector. 

Through the years I have hunted and fished, but now that I am 80 years old I’ve cut back on some strenuous activities ... but I don’t intend to quit altogether.