Contributions won’t be forgotten
The Lethbridge Herald on Feb. 1, will look like every other Lethbridge Herald. You won’t notice any difference from any other Thursday except the news content and maybe a sale or two.
It will not be the same Lethbridge Herald, however. For the first time in almost 43 years, it will not bear the fingerprints of either Dave Rohovie or Bill Dudas. The two men, married by a work relationship that has lasted over four decades, will be retired on Jan. 31.
No industry has faced the crashing tides of technology like printing, and printing a journalistic product even moreso. These two men started working in the Buchanan Building in 1975 in the pre-press department and they haven’t shrugged off their duties, not once.
Dave is the senior partner, having started on Feb. 3, 1975. Bill crawled into The Herald’s womb on May 12, 1975. For the next 39 years, they formed a triumvirate of publishing knowledge and expertise with their dear friend, Mark Schandor. Mark died in 2016, and in my opinion, it’s never been the same.
But Bill and Dave kept on. Dave met his wife at The Herald. She was the daughter of a former Herald boss. Then she became Dave’s other wife. Over the years, she’s spent far less time with him than Bill.
When Dave got here, he was a long-haired partier with a child’s zest for hockey, news and whatever other shiny things passed by him. Now, Dave has no hair to speak of but somehow he’s kept those other things.
When Bill arrived, he was a Hungarian hard man on the soccer pitch. Age took that away but his stories from Mexican resorts show he just transferred his energy elsewhere. Bill runs the lottery and feeds the plants, a man of integrity and compassion — for the plants at least.
They married, raised kids and bought homes while working here. They begged, shoved, kicked, coddled, cut and cajoled the daily newspaper into existence. They saw colour photos, morning papers and Sunday publishing come into being.
They rolled their eyes at each other and cried every time a new decade would pass and they’d add a diamond to their long-service awards.
They buried their best friend. They buried nephews and uncles and dogs and were there, in it together.
Few friendships could last as long as theirs and it’s even less likely two men would work at the same place for that time.
Ask anyone who ever worked at this place at any time over the last four decades and they’ll remember Dave and Bill. On my first day, it was Mark, Dave and Bill who told me to just fake it and they’d make sure my pages got out. It was Bill who once offered to lend me money when The Herald forgot to pay me. I bought my minivan from Dave ($300 and it came with a spare starter. That was five years ago).
They are the truest friends but not just to each other. They are the truest friends the newspaper has had in more than 100 years.
They are leaving together and not entirely of their own volition but with grandkids and holidays and another lifetime ahead of them, this is the perfect exit.
Have fun, my friends, and thank you.