I’ve been thinking about Dennis Hoey, who worked for nearly 40 years as a reporter for the Portland Press Herald. Dennis died on June 22.
Some reporters win national prizes for stories that take months to research and write. Dennis was a different kind of reporter. He worked at night, usually as the only reporter left in the newsroom. It was up to Dennis to handle the late-breaking news stories and finish the work others had begun, tying up loose ends or adding more details. On a typical night, Dennis would write one or two stories, knock out a few briefs, and add paragraphs to a few more stories that had other reporters’ bylines. No matter how much work the editors heaped on him, he never blinked.
Dennis was the best at making the difficult phone calls that reporters often make – calls to family members for quotes for an obituary, for example, or a story about a fatal fire, car crash or homicide. My desk in the newsroom was close to his, and I could hear Dennis speak with empathy and kindness to the person on the other end of the call. I always thought that if something awful happened to my family and I had to take a call from a newspaper reporter, I would want that reporter to be Dennis Hoey.
Tom Bell
Yarmouth
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