PEOPLE OF INTEREST
89
Name: Paul Janensch
Age: 75
Birthplace: Evanston, Ill.
Background: “I’m a journalist
People
— a writer and editor — and
a speaker.”
Family: Gail, wife of 45 years
whom he met when both were
reporters at the Louisville Courier-
Journal; three grown children; two grandchildren;
and a black Labrador retriever.
Proudest accomplishment: “My kids.”
Something people don’t know about me: “I love Taco Bell.“
People
People
One day, he was positioned close enough to the head of the
march to listen to a discussion about Stokely Carmichael,
a civil rights leader who was considered more radical than
King. “I was up front and King was talking to some of his
lieutenants,” he said. “I was taking notes. One of them said,
‘Did you hear what Stokely Carmichael said last night?’ The
lieutenant was upset. King said, ‘Wait a minute. We need
Stokely,’ meaning that Martin Luther King could appear to be
more moderate, and a healer.”
Janensch rose to become the top editor of the Courier-Journal.
During his watch, two staff members won a Pulitzer Prize for
their coverage of refugee camps in Southeast Asia. Janensch
later was the top editor of the Rockland Journal-News in West
Nyack, N.Y., and the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Mass.,
and the second in command at the Philadelphia Daily News.
After 30 years as a reporter and editor, he became a journalism
professor at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn.
He calls the period from World War II to the 1990s the golden
age of newspapers. “Newspapers made a lot of money, but
many papers also did good work,” he said. “Now, newspapers
are in trouble, and they’re not as good as they used to be.
My hope is there will always be journalism. I think network
TV is better than it used to be. There also are some very good
Web sites, though some of them are not to be trusted. The big
problem the media has is separating fact from opinion.”
Janensch writes guest columns for the local Scripps newspapers
and does a weekly Treasure Coast Essay for WQCS
radio, where he also serves as a volunteer reader on a channel
for the visually impaired. He and a co-author wrote a nonfiction
play, Dear Eva, based on World War II letters saved by
the mother of his writing partner, Catherine Ladnier. They’ve
presented the play about 20 times in Connecticut and recently
to a full house at the Hallstrom Planetarium at Indian River
State College, as part of the Lifelong Learning Series.
“Many times people bring their own letters and read
them,” he said. “We encourage that. Without exception the
audiences have been extremely eager to share their own experiences.”
Janensch, of Irish extraction, will direct another play,
based on recollections of the Irish potato famine of the mid-
19th century. It will have its premier March 20 at Ireland’s
Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University.
In Vero Beach, where Janensch and his wife, Gail, spend
four months of the year, he enjoys kayaking on the Indian
River Lagoon and taking daily walks on the beach. Janensch’s
Florida days always start with the daily newspaper, which is
folded, wrapped and delivered to his doorstep. “I literally do
read the newspaper with a cup of coffee before breakfast,”
he said.
/www.thepalmsofstluciewest.com