Ed Goldman, a columnist for the Sacramento Business Journal, remembers former Business Journal editor Jack Robinson, who died last week at the age of 61.
Goldman writes, “He had an infectious laugh and a mellow, mesmerizing speaking voice, which is why he was a natural fit for the weekly business reports he did on Capital Public Radio (the paper’s Sonya Sorich now does these — and with equal warmth, I might add). Jack simply loved radio. And as we got to know each other, he asked if I’d be interested in working with him to create old-time radio plays for a local station. My answer was something along the lines of ‘Anytime, anywhere,’ but before that could happen, he married his wonderful wife Jennifer and not long thereafter moved with her to Philadelphia, where she had serious career prospects in the building-preservation field. Jack bravely went back to Pennsylvania without anything in the offing for himself — though with his credentials, work ethic and personality, it didn’t seem to take him long to find work.
“When we met, Jack asked me if I thought I could write an online column ‘two or three times a week.’ I told him I’d write one five days a week, and even do a sixth one for the print version of the Business Journal. He chuckled and quietly said, ‘Well, negotiating may not be your long suit.’ That made me laugh and I told him why I was proposing something a little more taxing than he had in mind: in my experience with the brave new world of the internet, people would stop following you if there weren’t something new every time they decided to give you a visit.”
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