Steve Terry, a real Vermont scribbler

by Ted Cohen, on Patch.com

A legendary Vermont newspaper guy has died.

Steve Terry was 82.

Terry did a lot for Vermont journalism, not by any great Pulitzer work, simply by being a part of it.

(Pulitzer work is far overrated. Daily journeyman journalism is the real deal. Not fancy. Just hard work.)

To me, Terry gave the gift of consideration.

Terry hired me as a “stringer” – part-time reporter – in 1975 shortly after he opened the Burlington bureau of the Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus.

At the time, I was the news director at WJOY, a Burlington radio station that under John Reid of Barre became a major player – the player, actually – in Vermont broadcast news.

Reid was the first guy to give me a chance at journalism. Terry was the second.

While covering an event for WJOY, I met Terry.

I had earlier met Fred Stetson, a Burlington Free Press staffer, at a news conference. Watching Stetson work one day got me thinking I’d like to try newspapering, having gotten my original chops as a broadcaster.

So, when I ran into Terry we got to chatting. That’s when I learned he had just opened a Burlington bureau.

I remember asking him whether I could try my hand at newspapering. He told me he’d be glad to give me a chance but that he couldn’t hire me full-time.

I told him that was fine and before I knew it he gave me an assignment covering a Burlington Democrat political caucus.

The Times-Argus bureau was on the second floor of a building at the corner of South Winooski Avenue and College Street.

It was just a block away from the Free Press, with which we competed.

Actually, the Free Press, despite being the biggest newspaper in Vermont, competed with us. The Free Press was no match for the political coverage of the Times-Argus and its sister paper the Rutland Herald with political dynamites such as Terry, Mavis Doyle, Tom Slayton and Howard Coffin on staff.

I remember going in to the bureau the first time, typing up my story and giving Steve a roll of film that contained pictures I had taken at the caucus.

There was another guy there, Coffin, a legendary reporter for the Herald.

For me, just being in a newspaper bureau was enough excitement for a lifetime. It was the same feeling I had when I first went in to WJOY.

Getting to work alongside native-Vermont news hounds like John Reid, Steve Terry and Howard Coffin was a real treat.

After I had written about a half-dozen stories for Terry, I decided to start casting about for a full-time newspaper job.

To get a newspaper gig, you have to show an editor that you have some clips.

I had a half-dozen clips, no more, no less, thanks to Steve Terry.

I ended up getting hired at Maine’s largest newspaper, the Portland Press Herald, which was more than twice the size of the paper in my hometown.

I thought I was dreaming.

I ended up staying at the Portland Press Herald for 30 years.

But for guys like Terry and Reid, none of it would have happened.

Terry and Reid were similar in that they understood the simple-yet-complicated concept of giving someone a chance.

Steve Terry, RIP. Thank you for giving me a chance. Fifty years ago!