By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Edito
There’s no doubt about it when it comes to my fondest memory of working at the Washington Daily News — helping write the series of articles that resulted in the newspaper winning the Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service in 1990.
Of course, there are many more fond memories, but they will be discussed later.
Being one of the two reporters who wrote the series of stories about the city’s water supply being contaminated with carcinogens like carbon tetrachlorides and trihalomethanes, I still take pride in that work. I am amazed that I am working with the other reporter, Betty Mitchell Gray, nearly 20 years later, albeit she’s just a part-time reporter.
As many awards as that series won, I am just as proud of winning a first-place award in investigative journalism from the N.C. Press Association a year later for a series of articles I wrote about ethics and morale problems in the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. That series resulted in several investigations by several agencies, including the State Bureau of Investigation, the state auditor’s office and the federal government.
Those awards, and others, are nice, but the real rewards have been meeting the people that my association with the Daily News allowed me to meet. I first came to the Daily News in April 1986. Except for the five and a half years (September 1991 to March 1997) I spent at the Free Lance-Star newspaper in Fredericksburg, Va., I have toiled at the Daily News.
I was here when Lieth Von Stein was murdered and those arrested for that murder and the near-fatal assault on his wife, Bonnie, were put through the judicial system. That’s when I got to know and respect lawyers such as Jim Vosburgh, Wayland Sermons Jr., Michael Paul, Frank Johnston, Chris McLendon, Keith Mason and others. I saw them in action, inside and outside the courtroom as they did the best they could for their clients, Christopher Pritchard, who was Bonnie Von Stein’s son and Lieth Von Stein’s stepson, and Neal Henderson and James B. Upchurch III, who were Pritchard’s friends at N.C. State University.
During Upchurch’s trial, which was moved to Elizabeth City, I would travel to Elizabeth City on Sundays and return Fridays during January 1990. After each trial day, I would file stories about that day’s events in the courtroom for the Daily News, the Winston-Salem Journal, The Associated Press and other media outlets. Little did I know then that I would be consulted for two books and two movies.
To this day, the Arts &Entertainment Network replays the episode of “City Confidential” that includes an interview with me about the Von Stein case. To this day, people stop me from time to time to tell me they saw me in that episode the night before or recently. I’d like to do the interview again. I’ve lost a lot of weight since it was taped several years ago.
Then there’s the time I met a true hero — Plymouth native Jack Lucas, the youngest Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor. I met Lucas, who received the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on Iwo Jima, when he was the grand marshal of a Belhaven Fourth of July parade about 20 years ago. Lucas didn’t make a fuss about his heroic actions that July 4, but a Marine general and other Marines at the parade sure did.
I will never forget that general saluting Lucas. In case you didn’t know, any recipient of the Medal of Honor rates a salute from any member of the U.S. military, whether it be a recruit in boot camp or the highest-ranking general or admiral.
I have met many admirable people because of my positions at the Daily News over the years. I cannot name them all because of space restraints. There are a few I will mention.
Early on in my time at the Daily News, I met Mo Krochmal, who came to the Daily News in January 1988 as sports editor. Within days, he became my best friend, which he remains to this day. Mo is passionate about journalism, with a penchant for teaching aspiring journalists (and some veteran journalists, too) how to use advances in “new media” technology to do what journalists have done for years and years and years — tell stories that are important.
Although he lives and works in New York, I have hopes he will return one day to North Carolina so we can resume late-night visits to a restaurant that serves breakfast after deadlines are met.
Jonathan Clayborne and I have weathered many a storm together, some of those storms being hurricanes, others of those storms being work-related. When he returned to the newsroom recently after a three-year absence, I was elated, in part because of his skills at covering political stories.
Gary Tomasulo, the president of the Historic Downtown Washington Merchants Association and who died in a tragic fall on Labor Day, also made an impression with me. He worked hard to make downtown a better place, for merchants and customers alike. I will always associate Smoke on the Water with Gary.
Most of all, I want to thank the Daily News’ subscribers and readers for the opportunity to serve them over the years. When a reader stops me on the street or in the grocery store to tell me they appreciate an article, column or editorial I’ve written, that makes working the long hours, the weekends, the holidays and the nights worth it.
I like to think that I have added to some of the good work the Daily News has done for the community in its 100 years. I believe I am a part of the Daily News and the Daily News is a part of me.
As Bob Hope said: “Thanks for the memories.”