PAX Centurion - January / March 2016

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • January/March 2016 • Page 51 W illiam “Bill” Buchanan, (1925-2015), a retired reporter for the Boston Globe and frequent contributor to the Pax Centurion in his retirement, passed away Nov. 15 th , 2015, at a nursing home in Oviedo, Florida, of complications fromAlzheimer’s disease. Bill was 90 years old. To say that “they don’t make reporters like Bill anymore” would be a gross understatement. He recalled listening to police radio reports of the terrible Cocoanut Grove fire in November, 1945, that killed 492 people. He recalled the dawn of TV in 1950, when people would stand in front of department store windows, mesmerized by even a test pattern. (Anyone under age 50 probably doesn’t know what a “test pattern” was…). Bill worked for several different Boston newspapers, as everything from copy-boy to assistant city editor and overnight police reporter. He was also a jazz music writer and reporter, TV-radio editor, and “re-write” man. As re-write man, nothing would irk Bill more than transplanted reporters from New York or elsewhere who would erroneously report a street as a “road” or an avenue as a “boulevard.” It showed their ignorance of the city they worked in to have a native NewYorker transplanted to the Globe calling Blue Hill Avenue “Blue Hill Road,” or Dudley Street “Dudley Avenue.” Bill also reported on events such as the great Brink’s robbery in 1950. He loved jazz music, and reported on one of Bob Dylan’s first concerts at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964, before wryly noting that “he (Dylan) desperately needed a haircut.” He developed working relationships with many Boston Police officers, detectives and commanders over the years, and made it a rule to never violate a trust or demean an officer. Still, he reported on all matters factually, faithfully and fairly, remembering always that journalism was a sacred profession, and writing an art, a skill, and his first love. As such, he was truly among the few left in the profession of journalism to report news, and never to create it. He knew that the pen was, indeed, mightier than the sword, and that lives and careers could be destroyed or enhanced by what he wrote and how he wrote it. After his retirement, Bill moved to Florida, but stayed in touch with many of his old friends and contacts on the Boston Police Department. Now-retired Captain Robert “Bob” Cunningham put me in touch with Bill many years ago. Bill knew far more about computers than I ever did or will, even at his age, and would send me numerous e-mails, stories and photos about days gone by and police-history articles. His enthusiasm for writing was palpable over the phone, and he often inquired, almost giddily, “when was the next Pax being published?” Bill Buchanan, 90; retired Globe reporter contributed articles to Pax Centurion Theydon’tmake journalists likehimanymore… By James W. Carnell, Pax Editor With attribution to Boston Globe obituary reporter Bryan Marquard, February 7, 2016 I should have known, when his e-mails and phone calls became less frequent and then stopped altogether, that something was wrong. I only learned recently, through the outstanding obituary tribute of February 7 th by Bryan Marquard in the Globe , of Bill’s passing of complications fromAlzheimer’s disease back on November 15 th of last year. An insidious disease, Alzheimer’s; a painful, long goodbye. I wish I had met Bill in person. Sadly, and with few exceptions, they don’t make journalists like Bill Buchanan anymore. To put any reporter on the same plane as a Bill Buchanan would be the highest of accolades. I hope the Globe will consider establishing some sort of honor or award in Bill’s memory. Today’s graduates of Columbia School of Journalism, those privileged, sniveling brats occupying desks and consuming oxygen, should learn what a real reporter was and should be. Bill leaves a daughter, two step-daughters and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Rest in peace, Bill Buchanan, newspaperman and professional journalist. Guess who? Name this BPPA member – Pictures are scattered throughout this issue of the PAX – first correct response to rcolburn@bppa.org wins a $50.00 Dunkin Donuts gift card. If NO correct responses, the now-grown-up member wins!