Pressing onward
The Butler Eagle newsroom suffered a massive loss Friday as a man who represents 45 years of news gathering retired.
David Heastings — or just “Dave” to all who know, love and respect him — took his leave from the newspaper at the close of the day. His experience and news savvy will be all but impossible to replace.
Heastings began his long career at the Eagle as a general assignment reporter with his hire on March 14, 1973.
He covered the Butler County Redevelopment Authority for 15 years, the Butler County Housing Authority for more than a decade, and, as his employment continued, the county commissioners, the courts and the Butler and South Butler school districts.
Major stories the affable and soft-spoken Heastings recalls covering included the shooting of a clerk at a convenience store in Middlesex Township and a county judge illegally declaring a strike by the Butler School District teachers unconstitutional.
“He had no right to do that,” Heastings remembered. “An appellate court returned the decision saying it had no weight of law.”
After reporting on many and varied county events, meetings and spot news for 15 years, Heastings accepted the position of city editor in 1988.
“I assigned stories, kept tabs on reporters regarding who's available based on their writing skills and who would be the best reporter for each story,” Heastings said of his years as city editor.
Dozens of reporters over the years have benefited from Dave's quiet, but invaluable, advice and direction on which way to turn for news stories.
Heastings said he always wanted to be a reporter, which made his vacillating college colleagues jealous as they tried to decide on a career.
“The notion of being in the center of things, but observing it, appealed to me,” he said.When he signed on at the Eagle in 1973, he figured he would move on in five or so years, but an awareness his work educated regular county residents on a wide variety of happenings affected him.“I had this mental image of someone picking up the paper and reading it,” he said. “I learned that small papers are no less significant than large ones; it's just a matter of scale.”Heastings also loved the top-to-bottom operation at the Eagle, where everything from inquiries at the front office to reporting to advertisement creation and printing and circulation happened under one roof at 114 W. Diamond St.He recalls breaking away from the newsroom to go downstairs and watch the paper being printed and prepared for delivery before the printing press operation was moved in 2003 to West Wayne Street.“You could walk around here and catch the trappings of the whole process,” he said. “I hated to see the presses move to the Island.”He also laments that young people increasingly are getting their news from social media or other sites run by individuals with no journalism skills or background.“People don't know how much monitoring and editing goes on before the story sees the light of day at a newspaper,” Heastings said.He also appreciates getting the newspaper and leafing through the various articles, editorials, headlines and ads as opposed to gazing at a computer screen.“There's something about papers. They're a certainty,” Heastings said. “For very little money, you get at least one thing out of the paper that means something to you.”
He hopes the younger generations will embrace the medium and recognize its value.“It's democracy in action,” Heastings said.One huge benefit Heastings received as an Eagle employee was meeting a new co-worker, Sally R. Miller, who was hired as a reporter.The two married in 1992. Miller eventually attended law school and joined the bar as a family law attorney.Eagle Publisher and General Manager Ron Vodenichar, said it isn't often anyone dedicates 45 years to anything.“We are so appreciative of the lifetime of dedication that Dave has given not just to the Butler Eagle, but to all of our readers and to the dozens of young reporters who he has tutored along the way,” Vodenichar said. “His calming presence and professional approach made him a unique asset to the company.”He hopes, as do all who had the privilege of working with and learning from Heastings, that his retirement will be a wonderful journey.“We wish Dave and his wife, Sally, many happy and healthy years in retirement,” Vodenichar said.
