I’m hesitant to eulogize Tyler Murphy yet again as it’s been done in each successive column this week, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mark the auspicious occasion in some way.
Actually, we’ll be marking it in our own way down at Fred’s in a few hours, but I digress ...
Having two-plus decades under my journalistic belt here at The Evening Sun, I’ve seen a lot of reporters come and go. I’m not sure what’s changed in the last few years, but that revolving door has slowed quite a bit – there was a time when it was a rarity for me to keep an editorial staff intact for more than a year at a time.
But today, Tyler breaks up our happy little family, after five-ish years at our newspaper, to follow a new path in Albany. The newsroom bonds formed will be torn asunder, only to form anew once Reporter X (I suppose I should get around to hiring someone, eh?) succeeds him. We’re a small, close-knit group here, forged into a team by a single common goal: Friday lunch. Err, the Pursuit of Truth! Yeah, that’s what I meant. It will take a while before we figure out where Reporter X fits in, where his or her talents are best put to use, how he or she will mesh with our eccentric little coterie. Just ask poor Brian, who we still refer to as “New Guy” after almost two years.
Although I lost a few reporters here and there (they’re probably around here someplace) during my first few years as editor, I remember the first truly devastating departure for me personally was when Karen Bergamo (now Moore) left near the end of the 90s. “I can’t do this without you,” I remember telling her as we hugged goodbye in the Lackawanna Avenue parking lot. Even the late Kathy O’Hara shed a tear over that one. And yet, on the following Monday morning, we put out another edition and the local news business marched on. That’s how we roll; the news waits for no man, I always say.
There have been countless goodbye scenes since then, and it never gets any easier (except when their exits are sudden and not of their own volition; that’s always fun). “So many faces in and out of my life; some will last, some will just be now and then,” Billy Joel once sang. Indeed, I’ve been largely blessed with a tremendous amount of talent, dedication and friendship in The Evening Sun newsroom over the years, and I’m grateful, at least in some way, for each and every one of them. For a time, they toiled under our banner, and their blood, sweat and tears changed the fabric of this ever-evolving product forever.
So today Tyler, my friend and colleague, joins the legion of Evening Sun Reporters Past – Karen, Jude, Nicole, Jessica, Mike, Christian, Sean, Barb, Stacey, Dave, Jeff, Katie, Jill, Vince, and 30-some others – who gave their all and left their mark on Chenango County’s Hometown Daily. Most were good employees. Many were good reporters. Others were good friends. A select few were all three.

Follow me on Twitter ... @evesunjeff.