Michael Toole, the former business editor of the Newport News Daily Press, died Thursday at the age of 46 from a brain tumor.
Peter Dujardin of the Daily Press writes, “Once, Solomon said, Mr. Toole came to work ‘and it looked like he was mauled by a bear.’ It turned out that while riding his bike to work, he hit a ditch, and fell hard. He picked up the bike and walked to work.
“Daily Press Editor Ernie Gates said Mr. Toole coined a phrase 15 years ago that Gates still uses. Mr. Toole argued that there’s a fine line between answering all possible questions for readers and keeping a story or page readable and interesting, leading to his memorable quote: ‘We can’t do all their thinking for them.’
“He designed the Daily Press’ front page before becoming business editor in 1995. He left the paper in 2000 to become a paralegal at Kaufman & Canoles, becoming an attorney in 2003.
“A Tar Heels fan who graduated from the University of North Carolina, Mr. Toole received an MBA from the College of William and Mary and a law degree from Regent University.”
Read more here.Â
