Saying goodbye to a competitor — and a friend

Burl Gilyard, the real estate reporter for Finance & Commerce in Minnesota, said goodbye to former competitor Terry Fiedler, a business reporter at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune who recently died suddenly.

Gilyard wrote, “Even though Terry lamented the superficial trends of the modern news business, he was truly passionate about reporting and journalism. Terry had a strong work ethic. Last week alone he had four bylines in the paper.

“If someone asked me to say good things about Terry Fiedler, I would never shut up.”

Later, Gilyard added, “He kidded me on the phone when I would tell him that I had to ‘scamper.’ Terry loved words and there was something about ‘scamper’ that tickled him. It became an inside joke between us.

“The dictionary on my desk defines ‘scamper’ as ‘to run or go hurriedly or quickly.’

“You scampered far too soon, old friend.

“Wherever you are, I hope they’ve already put you to work at the magazine.”

Read more here.