Wells recounts career as columnist
Former Sterlingite began his journalism career at Journal-advocate in 1950s
Bud Wells, former Sterlingite with a half-century of journalism experience, spoke Monday at the Logan County Historical Society’s January meeting. He spoke to around 50 people attending about his journalism career and promoted his recent book, “2600 Cars and a Dog Sled.”
“2600 Cars” is a reference to the number of weekly columns that Wells has written over the decades for the Denver Post, reviewing a series of vehicles that he has test-driven. He continues to write the column for the Post to this day. The “Dog Sled” refers to the week when he testdrove a Porsche on frozen lakes in Whitehorse, in the Yukon, at the invitation of a manufacturer. Of the dog sled, Wells said, “The dogs took off and dumped us out.”
Nearly fifty people attended to listen as Wells described his early life here in Sterling, his newspaper career in Sterling and Denver, and his devotion to automobiles.
Wells said that he attended high school in Sterling in the mid 1950s after the family moved here from Wray, Colorado. His family was involved in the automobile business in Wray, and Wells inherited that same appreciation for fine vehicles. He married Jan of Sterling shortly after high school, and then heard about a job opening as the sports writer at the Sterling Journal-advocate, because the military was about to draft the sports writer Don Miles. Wells was hired, and soon the nineteen-year-old Wells was writing sports. He would sit at the J-A’S office on Third Street east of the courthouse until late on Friday nights and wait for the coaches in northeast Colorado to call him and report football and basketball scores.
In 1967, Wells decided to apply for a position at a big city newspaper. He interviewed first at the Denver Post, but at that time there was no opening. A Post official told him to instead apply at
the Rocky Mountain News, and he did, and they hired him. Months later a Post official called Wells and said they now had an opening. He walked down the street and joined the Denver Post and began a decades-long writing career there. In 1970, the Post asked Wells to begin an automotive page and review new cars and trucks, and that page continues today, although Wells said, “I am slowing down,” and that he may recycle some of his previous columns.
Wells described the most expensive cars he has test-driven, and also the quickest, and the fastest. The fastest he ever drove approached 150 mph. He mentioned the differences between English, German, Japanese, American, and Italian cars. He said that the Japanese cars are the most economical, the German cars are the most wellbuilt, but the American cars are the most comfortable.
Wells brought with him copies of his book that members could purchase. Others can purchase a copy through his website, “www.Budwellsbooks.com.”
In lieu of a March meeting, members of the Logan County Historical Society agreed to attend the documentary “The Five States of Colorado,” on Tuesday, February 27, 2024, at Dorothy Corsberg Theatre, NJC, beginning at 6 p.m. Jim Hahn and Dawn Thilmany will speak after the ninety-minute documentary.