Years ago, when I arrived in The Daily Chronicle newsroom to work as a reporter, news editor Gordon MacCracken assigned me to cover East Lewis County and the Lewis County Public Utility District (PUD).
On my first day, I attended a PUD meeting where commissioners decided to pull out of WPPSS. I sat there completely baffled. What was whoops? It sounded like a mistake, which in many respects, the Washington Public Power Supply System with its proposed nuclear plants at Satsop, was. I’ll always be grateful to Rene Remund, the PUD’s attorney, for sitting down and explaining it all to me.
I’m sure Gordon knew I was out of my element, but with patience and perseverance, he guided this neophyte eager to prove herself as a reporter. I worked with Gordon for three years, and I always respected his talent for writing and quiet sense of humor. My husband, Larry Zander, worked with him much longer.
So, it was with sadness I read a Facebook post from Gordon’s son, Mark, saying his father had died April 19 in Vancouver. Gordon was 68, having been born in Roseburg, Oregon, on July 28, 1954, to Charles Gordon and Aileen (Chamberlain) MacCracken. Gordon, an avid Oregon Ducks fan, had worked in the Chronicle newsroom for 30 years when he resigned in 2007. He then worked as a communications consultant with the Washington state Department of Health.
“Though he’s had a tough couple years, as many of you know, his passing was relatively sudden and unexpected,” Mark MacCracken wrote. “He was not in pain when he left us, which I find comfort in.”
He continued, “The world feels a little darker today because of his loss, but I know the days ahead will be brighter because of the impact he made.”
Gordon’s assistant in the newsroom, Doug Blosser, an ardent Washington State University Cougar, died last November at the age of 74. And their boss, Jim Shouse, known for writing his Sidebars column, died in May 2008 at 79.
I suppose it’s bound to happen as we age, losing people we loved and respected while working together for years to produce a daily newspaper. We gathered together for summer picnics, softball games and Christmas parties. Our coworkers hosted a baby shower for us when we were pregnant with our first child.
As managing editor, Jim led our thriving newsroom in the 1980s, with Gordon as news editor and Doug as his assistant. Larry ran the editorial page. I was one of nearly a dozen reporters and editors — among them Bill Dugovich, Mike Burbach, Erik Campbell, Dennis Auvil, John Pierce, Sam Bakotich, Mark Mansfield, Bill Mackey, George Blomdahl, Ann Trout Blinks and Maureen Mitchell. Orlo Mohr covered southern Thurston County, and Ann Bennett kept everyone organized.
Gordon, who graduated from Roseburg High School in 1972, started working as wire editor at The Daily Chronicle shortly after earning his bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon in 1976. When Doug Blosser arrived in May 1977, Gordon returned to a reporting job and worked his way up to news editor.
I’m glad he continued to write a column occasionally, showcasing his talent with the written word and his dry sense of humor. When Doug passed away, Gordon shared random recollections of their time together in the newsroom, including one tidbit that made me laugh aloud: “We had to make a rule that Doug couldn’t eat a powdered sugar doughnut in the newsroom. When he did, it looked as if something had exploded.”
After a year of covering East Lewis County, Gordon assigned me to the Centralia city beat at the time when it switched from a commissioner to a mayor-council form of government.
I also covered several murder trials, which gave me nightmares. I was especially horrified by the Sept. 3, 1986, death of 14-year-old Toni Antonelli, who was left dying near the Tenino water tower after being raped and beaten. Two men were arrested, Terrance Ray Moore, 34, and Monty Richardson, 29. For several weeks, I covered Richardson’s trial, until he pleaded guilty. I later interviewed him in prison at Shelton to hear his side of the story.
When I prepared to leave for a job with The Daily News in Longview, Gordon discovered I had never been to Pe Ell during my three years in Centralia, so he assigned me to write about a water shortage there.
He often walked by our desks and dropped a printout pulled from the Associated Press wire, asking us to localize it. My last week on the job, he quietly set a paper on my desk and walked away. I started to read it and jumped to my feet, exclaiming, “What? Monty Richardson escaped from prison?”
Yes, Gordon got me on that one. I gave him the reaction he wanted — and more.
Although we hadn’t worked together for years, Gordon and I reconnected via Facebook, and I enjoyed reading his posts. In 2008, he shared his traumatic journey to recover after suffering a massive stroke, which paralyzed his left side. He also wrote about a fall on May 2, 2021, that shattered his left hip and required four surgeries but still left him in a wheelchair.
When he wrote about an ambulance trip to Providence St. Peter in Olympia, Gordon questioned the wisdom of naming a hospital “after the saint we allegedly meet as soon as we cease inhaling and exhaling.”
Gordon, who described himself as “allergic to pity,” retired on June 30, 2022.
I loved seeing Gordon’s photos of his grandson, Parker, and hearing him express the love he held for that precious boy, the son of Mark and Ann MacCracken.
I recognized many names of people who commented underneath Mark’s post about Gordon’s death, including Brian Zylstra, the newspaper’s legislative reporting intern in 1988, who said, “He taught me a lot, and I enjoyed his sense of humor.”
“I always appreciated his columns and thought his work deserved a bigger audience,” wrote Tom May, who worked in the newspaper’s advertising department in the 1990s and early 2000s.
“Gordon was an amazing man with immense talent,” wrote Rick House, a reporter who later worked as an editor at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane. “I count myself fortunate I was able to be mentored by him for my first real job in journalism.”
I do too.
Rick continued, “Mostly I’m glad he didn’t fire me the first day.”
Me, too, Rick. I’m so glad he didn’t fire me that first day.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
