Lessons from former P-T editor John Futch enhanced many lives
The last words former Press-Telegram editor John Futch sent to me, in an email before he died in Cambodia last week, were characteristically blunt and affectionate.
He opened by repeating an expletive, but he wasn’t angry. Rather, using one of his favorite expletives was John’s way of showing concern and love. That’s clear by how he finished the sentence:
“Rich,” he wrote, “take care of yourself.”
He was responding to an email I had sent him, wishing him a happy new year and attaching photos of my wife, myself and our three granddaughters. I told him we were doing well despite the coronavirus pandemic and were hopeful that things would get better by the end of the year. I also wished him a happy 75th birthday, which he had celebrated in Cambodia, where he had moved following his retirement from the Press-Telegram after a career covering three decades.
Six weeks after sending the email to me, John died after suffering a severe head injury following a fall. His response to me was vintage John, always worrying about someone else, instead of himself.
I was managing editor of the Press-Telegram in 1983 when we hired John as a community news editor. We hit it off from the beginning and developed a close professional and personal relationship.
Anyone who would come over to my house and put together a new gas grill after my disastrous attempt to do it was my friend for life. He also introduced us to the world of computers and set up our first home desktop. I would still be using a typewriter if it hadn’t been for John.
He also loved kids, especially his stepson, Michael Delorio, who he would bring to the old Press-Telegram building at Sixth Street and Pine Avenue to show him the presses. John said he got a thrill every time he saw the presses rolling.
He would also entertain children, including our then 7-year-old daughter, Kelly, with card tricks involving dollar bills. He also would show off his pet parrot, Ochee, named after a scenic port city in Jamaica, where he spent many vacations.
John was a Parrothead, a big fan of Jimmy Buffett, his music and his easygoing lifestyle. John played the guitar himself, entertaining people with a range of songs from Buffett to Johnny Cash.
But despite his friendly, outgoing personality, John also could be candid, especially with me.
One time, he sent me a memo wondering how many “Stupid Pills” I had taken in making a decision on a personnel issue. His greatest skill, I think, was in helping staff members — whether you were an editor, a reporter, a copy editor, a designer or a photographer — become better at their jobs and, thereby, not only helping them but making the Press-Telegram a better newspaper. He truly cared about everyone and what they were doing.
This skill of John’s came through in the many responses from former staff members when they learned that he had died.
Tracy Manzer, now the communications director for Bay Area Congresswoman Jackie Speier, said John helped her and others “to be their absolute best, the finest quality in a good editor, and he was the best editor I had for that reason. He helped us focus our talents and energy, trusted us to do the job and fought for us when things got tough.”
When he retired in 2010, Manzer called John “one of a dying breed of newspaper men who really care about the craft and the role of journalism in the community.”
Carolyn Ruszkiewicz, who retired from the P-T as managing editor, said what always sticks with her about John was how kind and protective he was when she got her first promotion to management, as an an editor for the Life/style section.
“I was trying to find my way,” she said. “Even though John was on the news side, he always looked for ways to help me do the best job I could. When news was breaking, he would suggest great ideas on how to featurize what was going on to make sure that Life/style was as topical as the news pages. I will always be grateful for his help.”
Karen Robes Meeks, now a freelance writer, said John was “patient, kind, hard-working and inspired you to work just as hard as he did because you didn’t want to let him down.”
“When a complicated series I had written on businesses on Pine Avenue won an award, he rushed over to tell me the news first, (saying) ‘I’m proud of you. I knew you could do it,’” she recalled. “As a young journalist, that meant the world to me. His belief in me shaped my career and my life.”
Ron Kitagawa, whose first journalism job came courtesy of John, called him his “journalism dad.”
Kitagawa, now director of production at the San Francisco Chronicle, said John “taught me what I needed to know and then set me free to the rest of the journalism world. I will miss his latenight messages from Cambodia.”
Greg Mellen, now a freelance writer, remembered when he pitched the idea as a Press-Telegram reporter to go to Cambodia and cover the journey of a little girl named Davik Teng from a small village to Los Angeles for heart surgery.
John “rallied to the idea” and Mellen went to Cambodia, he said.
“The experience changed my life and John’s,” Mellen said. “He met Hearts Without Boundaries founder Peter Chhun, and his heart was captured by Davik and other children who came to Long Beach for surgeries and met their Uncle John.”
The list of journalists John helped could go on and on.
When word spread that John had fallen a couple of weeks ago and was being treated in a hospital, more than 200 friends and colleagues came to his aid, donating to a GoFundMe account Delorio set up.
I like what Jody Collins, who worked with John and is now a web producer for the Orange County Register — which, like the P-T, is part of the Southern California News Group — said about the outpouring of support for John:
“This is why the PressTelegram was such a wonderful place to work,” she said. “It’s still a family, even after all these years.”
I also agree with this comment from Jim Nolan, who was assistant managing editor at the PressTelegram was John’s first immediate boss.
“John was one of a handful of forever friends,” Nolan said. “I think he would find all the fuss uncomfortable, but inwardly, he would be proud of the love he’s gathered to himself.”
There will be a religious ceremony for John in Cambodia. The Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Cambodia will give John, a Vietnam veteran, military honors. His ashes, at his request, will be scattered in the Mekong River.
In the old days, when I was growing up in the newspaper business, I would end an article by typing “-30-.” That’s old school journalism shorthand for “the end.”
Few young people probably know that, but John would.
So here is my salute to you, old friend:
-30