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Date: 9/27/2022
I don’t know The Reminder without Mike Dobbs.
Mike hired me during my senior year of college, first as a freelancer, then quickly an assistant editor, six months later assistant managing editor, a few years later managing editor, now executive editor. I have spent the entirety of my career as a journalist working for him.
Over the past few weeks, watching him pack up 20-plus years’ worth of trinkets, books and memorabilia from his office admittedly gets me a little choked up.
While I am excited and honored to be entering this next chapter of my career with The Reminder – being the new executive editor – I am sad that it means we won’t be seeing Mike in the office anymore.
Over the past five and a half years, Mike and I have made some fun memories at work together. We attended MGM Springfield’s opening week events and enjoyed “Tequila Mockingbird” cocktails at the MGM Lobby Bar at 10:30 a.m. (Side note – any idea when the Lobby Bar is reopening? I miss it dearly.) We rode Six Flags’ THE JOKER 4D Free Fly Coaster, CYBORG Hyper Drive and Harley Quinn’s Spinsanity on their respective opening days. I even managed to get Mike to ride SUPERMAN – The Ride on his 65th birthday. I can still hear the sound of his screaming/swearing to this day.
Over five and a half years, he has taught me countless lessons. I offer readers a few that stick out:
•An event cannot be “held.” During my first week full-time at The Reminder he brought me an article that I wrote with red pen marks on it and stated, “An event can’t be held. We cannot physically hold it in our hands. We can host an event, an event can take place, but it can’t be held.” You better believe that now I share the same sentiment with all our reporters.
•He taught me that in this business, sometimes we must put on a “persona.” After sharing countless times my reluctance to write my opinion in editorials or to participate in handshaking, schmooze types of events where we put ourselves out there, Mike explained to me that he has the “Mike Dobbs persona.” While he can be a shy person, he said, sometimes you just have to act the part – put on your respective “persona,” – and get out there to do the job.
•Mike taught me that editors do not have to be people who – his words – “sit behind a desk and bark orders like Perry White.” Editors can be collaborative people who are genuinely interested in the lives of their staff, their success as reporters and can even be friends.
The institutional knowledge that Mike has for Western Massachusetts people and politics is unmatched. The number of assignments he’s covered, stories he’s written, photos he’s taken, people he’s met, relationships he’s built – he has done such a great service to the Pioneer Valley over the past nearly 22 years. I have been fortunate to learn from one of the best.
I am thrilled that Mike will still be continuing to write for us in a part-time and eventually freelance capacity.
Next week, I’ll write to you all to discuss The Reminder moving forward, but this week, let’s all take a look back. In this edition we honor Mike’s journalistic legacy in our papers where we have two pages dedicated to Mike through the years. Look for it toward the back of each edition, where we typically have sports photography.
I know I can speak on behalf of everyone at The Reminder when I say thank you, Mike. Thank you for serving the community for 22 years and thank you for trusting me to carry on your legacy. Congratulations on your retirement.