Former journalists remember Byrne

Bob Goldsborough has an obituary in the Chicago Tribune Monday of Harlan Byrne, the former Wall Street Journal editor and Barron’s Midwest editor who died last week at the age of 89.

Goldsborough writes, “He joined the Wall Street Journal in 1949 and worked in several bureaus before becoming assistant bureau manager in Chicago in 1961.

“‘Harlan was the guy responsible for breaking in all the new reporters who came into the Chicago bureau,’ said Wall Street Journal colleague Todd Fandell, who later worked for the Tribune and as editor of the trade publication Advertising Age.

“‘The thing I remember most about him is that he was a very gentle man,’ Fandell said. ‘I don’t remember him ever shouting or cracking under pressure, and some afternoons and early evenings were really pressure-filled.’

“Mr. Byrne continued to write articles and edit stories written by reporters in the bureau. He kept up with many colleagues years after they had moved on from the Chicago bureau.

“‘He was always interested in what you were doing and what your family was doing,’ Fandell said. ‘When I was at the Tribune in the late 1970s and at Advertising Age after that, we would get together three or four times a year and just chat about what we were doing.'”

Read more here.