Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock
Thursday, Aug. 12, 2004. Colleague Ray Hobbs of Little Rock died Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2004. He wasn’t old, just 53, but had hepatitis C. [Link to obit has expired.] Here are two recollections of Ray.
1. In 1982, maybe 1983, I was working at a suburban Dallas daily (Irving Daily News and later its central production plant for several suburban papers) and missing Arkansas. I got an interview set up with the Arkansas Democrat’s city editor at the time, Bob Sallee. The day before I drove to Little Rock, I phoned Bob and confirmed the time.
I found my way to the second floor at the appointed time, but no one could find Sallee. Finally someone said he had just began a vacation.
Two fellows just a little older than me eventually introduced themselves, Ray Hobbs and Garry Hoffmann They would interview me, and give their notes to Bob on his return, but as they were relatively new assistant city editors they weren’t sure where we should go.
We ended up in the newsroom library. At that time, it was a small closet off the sports department. After the floor-to ceiling shelves there was about 3 by 6 feet of space. Ray and Garry gave me a folding chair to sit on, and they stood, leaning against the stacks of files. Our knees almost touched, it was so small.
Ray and Garry explained they really had not interviewed anyone before so they asked me any question they remembered having been asked when they were hired.
It was awkward, and we survived the half-hour. A week later, Sallee phoned full of apologies and an offer for a police reporter job that alas was much less than my current salary. I decided to stay in Texas.
In summer 1985 I was hired at the Democrat as a night news copy editor, supervised by Garry, by then the (sole) assistant managing editor, and reading copy that City Editor Ray’s reporters had written.
2. I don’t recall the exact date but in 1994 or 1995 a particularly nasty tornado went through central Arkansas, more or less following Interstate 40. I was wire editor then (titled international editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette) and thus played little part in its coverage.
I did sit in on that afternoon’s planning meetings and saw why Ray Hobbs was a terrific city editor.
Ray kept his cool and organized reporters, photographers and editors in the way I imagine a field general would. Ray wasted no time, no words and no feelings, and every journalist hustled for him.
As the afternoon became evening, reporters and photographers returned to write and to print. Ray from his desk kept an eye out on the assistant city editors and copy desk who put the special report together. Ray also talked with reporters who needed his particular advice and direction, and was on the phone quite a lot.
I thought at the time, and knew I’d remember, that this is what newspapers do best: Sure we put out editions day after day with the same gray stuff, but every once in a while there’s a day like this where everything has to go right, with no wasted effort. Such a time, at a good newspaper, takes a man like Ray Hobbs to run it. He’d done them before, and he had quite a few crises to manage afterward. -30-
