Dispatch science reporter made the complicated understandable
DAVID LORE
When Mike Curtin walked into the Dispatch newsroom as an intern in 1973, it took him just a few days to figure out that he wanted to learn from Statehouse reporter David Lore.
"Dave was just a real straight arrow," said Curtin, who spent 34 years at the newspaper and eventually retired as associate publisher in 2007. "Dave's copy was meticulously objective, meticulously researched and was the epitome of what good journalism should be. He had a true north, and he really set the standard at The Dispatch."
Curtin recalled his former colleague with more than a touch of sadness. Lore, who retired from The Dispatch in 2003 after a career spanning 37 years, died early Tuesday of heart and kidney failure. He was 77.
Born in New York and a product of Fort Lee High School in New Jersey, Lore graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1962 and started at The Dispatch in 1965 as a police reporter. A thirdgeneration awardwinning journalist, there was little he did not report on, covering everything from education and crime to politics and prisons. He also worked as a projects editor and an assistant city editor. Though his early political coverage was standard-bearing, it was when he pioneered the paper's science beat in 1982 that he really soared.
Covering stories both near and far — from the ice caps of Antarctica to the research centers at Ohio State University and Battelle — he had the valuable talent of taking complicated material and writing it in an interesting way that readers enjoyed, Curtin said.
Former Dispatch reporter and local author Robin Yocum worked with Lore for more than a decade, but wasn't sure their styles would mesh when Lore became his editor on the projects team.
"Dave was very cerebral and I was more of a cowboy," Yocum said. "He would approach a story with a surgical knife and I wanted to use a ball bat."
As it turned out, it was a great partnership, Yocum said. He learned much from Lore, who quietly mentored countless young reporters.
A natural sense of curiosity was a fundamental part of Lore's life. He and his wife, Rosemary, made their home in Newark and were married for 50 years. Over time, they had traveled to at least a dozen countries on six continents. She died in 2013.
After his wife died, Lore moved to Atlanta to be with his daughter, Diane Lore; son-in-law; and three grandchildren. While there, her father flourished, Diane Lore said, adding with a laugh, "he was convinced Stouffer's lasagna was the elixir of life." He published a book (the nonfiction work "Firebrand") at 76.
Diane Lore said there will be a service in central Ohio but no date has been set.