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| Volume 49, Number 1, Spring 2000 |
by Howard J. Lewis
Although I hope to be useful in
issues to come, this will be my last issue as editor of ScienceWriters.
I turned 80 last December and it seems like a good time to get
serious about my life. What I hope to do is to start writing letters
again-especially to old friends who don't read e-mail and to two
grandchildren who don't read at all.
It began with a luncheon invitation from JoAnn Rodgers and Dan Greenberg in late 1983. They told me that a grant from the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing now enabled NASW to hire a part-time editor for a quarterly newsletter. At that time, newsletters were being produced periodically by two otherwise fully employed reporters-Jerry Bishop of the Wall Street Journal and Mark Bloom of Medical World News.
Initial exhilaration was succeeded by what seemed to me a legitimate concern-my single experience as a working science journalist had been in 1956, covering a meeting of the International Academy of Proctology for the Medical Tribune. Although that exercise had been followed by 27 years in public information at the National Academy of Sciences, was I really qualified to separate the wheat from the chaff in science journalism-much less to know which was which?
Not wishing to wait for an answer, I suggested that I serve as managing editor, working under an editor with eminent journalistic credentials, Barbara Culliton, then news editor at Science. A few years later, Barbara said, "This is ridiculous. You're the editor." Since then, she has served as chairman and sole member of an advisory committee that has always been there for slippery spots on the learning curve.
Editing ScienceWriters has been a remarkable experience. To discover so late in life that something you enjoy more than any previous employment also evokes more appreciation than any other is gratifying indeed.
I am grateful, in turn, to the entire membership, whose dues made possible an evolution from 16 pages to 32. I am grateful to unpaid contributors beyond counting, especially those who met four deadlines a year-Ruth Winter, Cheryl Weinstock, Mary Knudson, Tammy Powledge-and to others whose bylines appear almost as frequently over the last 16 years, most notably my successor, Lynne Friedmann, but also Bob Cooke, Laurie Garrett, Charlie Petit, Andrew Skolnick, Bill Check, Sandra Blakeslee, George Alexander, Victor McElheny, Gershon Fishbein, Bruce Lewenstein, Sharon Dunwoody, and Karla Harby. Four others not only contributed precious copy but also called regularly with great ideas--Dave Perlman, Jim Cornell, Kendrick Frazier, and David Jarmul.
Then there is Diane McGurgan, who knows every thing that can be known about NASW and its membership--everything. She knows what is impossible and what is not, who is and who isn't, what needs to be done and what doesn't--a pearl of great price. But that's no secret.
I am grateful to Ben Patrusky and CASW for their financial and moral support through all these years and especially for the opportunity to recharge my batteries annually at Ben's superb seminars for science writers.
Finally, I must thank a number of editors for the opportunity to graze through their excellent publications: Chronicle of Higher Education, Science & Government Report, Chemical & Engineering News, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, The Scientist, Science, American Scientist, and Skeptical Inquirer.
Howard J. Lewis can be reached at 7310 Broxburn Court, Bethesda,
MD 20817, 301-229-6770, sciwriters@aol.com.