Tribute to The Times-Picayune

When I began my public relations career at Sacred Heart, my relationship with The Times-Picayune was typically with community news, photography and education. When I entered the agency world, those media contacts broadened, commensurate with the more sophisticated needs of clients. I adjusted.

St. Joseph’s Day altars and Lenten fish fries are obvious symbols of New Orleanians’ faith. When I open my notebook to interview area cooks, however, less obvious expressions of that faith often emerge.

I can’t imagine a better way to learn all about your city than to write for a daily newspaper.

The Times-Picayune has diligently kept the public informed about the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center since its conceptual development in 1978, when the state Legislature was considering the feasibility of developing a modern convention center to replace the Rivergate.

I’ve worked for The Times-Picayune as a photojournalist for 26 years. Trust is all I have. On the day of Tom Benson’s funeral, I was hoping to get into St. Louis Cathedral to photograph the event.

The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center has long been considered a “destination of choice” for events that bring world-leading innovators, entrepreneurs, scientists and technology and business leaders from all kinds of fields to the Crescent City.

I was 21 the three months I worked in The Times-Picayune newsroom on Lafayette Square. We used manual typewriters, shared telephones and threw trash on the floor.

I sat at a French Quarter bar watching floodwater creep in, when the familiar frenzied pinging of my phone started. The NOLA.com | Times-Picayune newsroom was shifting into high gear.

Working on the photo and video staffs at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune was an amazing privilege. I spent 41 years as a photographer, chief photographer, assistant photo editor, multimedia editor and finally photo/video manager.

My favorite part of column-writing at The Times-Picayune was the memorable people who entrusted me with their stories. None inspired me more than Amanda Hill.

Ad Reporter was a daily column of blurbs about The Times-Picayune advertisers launched in 1981 by Advertising Director Bob O’Neill. It revived and updated a previously popular “Want Ad Reporter” column by Maud O’Brien.

Despite all The Times-Picayune’s rituals, it was sometimes hard to figure out exactly what was happening. It was impossible if you weren’t on a desk downtown.

New Orleans is a passionate sports town, and for two decades I had the best job in it. As The Times-Picayune’s lead sports columnist, I witnessed some of the greatest sporting events in New Orleans history.

This is the story of how we wrote the 2002 Times-Picayune series “Washing Away,” which set the stage for what would happen to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. For years, I had tried to convince my editors that we needed to explain to readers what would happen if a catastrophic hurricane hit New Orleans.

One of the many things I handled during my years at The Times-Picayune was the Loving Cup ceremony. Before I was more intimately involved, I thought this was just some award that was given to a well-known person in the community, to someone who knew a lot of people and sat on a lot of boards.