Adweek’s Yuhas, copy chief for 31 years, has died

Jess Zafarris and Lisa Granatstein of Adweek remember Mike Yuhas, the publication’s copy chief, who died unexpectedly.

He was in that position for 31 years.

Zafarris and Granatstein write, “Mike was a Vietnam War vet who only occasionally would share snippets from his time in the Army. He served from 1968 to 69 as an infantryman in the Mekong Delta before talking his way into the equally unsafe job of combat reporter/photographer way up north on the DMZ.

“But we knew him as our trusted, if irascible, colleague. You didn’t mess with Mike. He had a thing about ampersands (never use them), Nascar had to be written thusly and forget about serial commas. Young reporters (and that included me many years ago) feared him and his red-ink strokes and unsparing editorial commentary.

“He was vigilant and principled, and he was hilarious. He’d blow a train whistle to punctuate a newsroom joke, and his spontaneously composed Top 10 lists were cherished. Privately, each of us hoped we’d be immortalized in one of them.”

Read more here.