Journalist inspired

This newspaper’s reprints of pages from the Arkansas Gazette revive memories of one of the best writers who ever worked for any newspaper. His daily columns were devoured by Gazette readers and were the highlight of the morning for many.

Yet his name was practically unknown outside of his family, friends and Gazette staff.

He was Patrick Carithers. Pat was a veteran reporter before he became the Gazette’s wire editor, a job that entailed gathering national and international news articles from the newspaper’s wire services, editing them and putting them together in coherent reports.

In addition, Pat wrote the frontpage “In the News” column for nearly three decades. He had an almost magical ability to write with an economy of words while preserving the scope of the reportage. His columns were a mix of political events, human-interest accounts and one or two funny, oddball items.

Those of us who subbed for Pat on weekends and holidays struggled to match his quality. Few, if any, ever did.

Pat made it look easy, but it was a tough gig. Readers who want to try their hand at it should do this: Choose any news article in today’s paper, condense it to one sentence that must begin with a person’s name, include the location where the event happened, and limit the sentence to fewer than 50 to 60 words.

Remember, it’s one sentence, so no cheating with semicolons and multiple commas.

Pat died in 2017. He was a consummate journalist who never craved recognition or awards. His accurate, concise writing and editing will always be a inspiration for the people lucky enough to have worked with him. JONATHAN PORTIS

Little Rock