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Generations of young journalists got their start working in the newsroom of The Marietta Times, including me.
For 46 years Jim Bartholow helped to gently guide them along. He knew what was going on in their heads because he had been in their exact same spot. Jim started at The Times directly out of Ohio University in 1972. He stayed there until he retired in 2018. He died last week.
Jim held a lot of jobs at the newspaper, both official and non-official. When I started at the newspaper in 1977, Jim was covering city government. He also covered sports on the weekends, and it was while covering games that he also served as my driver. You see, I didn't have a driver's license yet, and if I was going to get to a game, I had to hitch a ride with someone. That someone was normally Jim; whatever game Jim covered, I would be on the sidelines taking photos. Jim normally covered Fort Frye for some reason, so I spent the fall of 1977 riding back and forth to Beverly with Jim. On other weeks, we would go to Belpre or Frontier or even Caldwell. We never got the Marietta game. When basketball season rolled around, it seemed like we went even further. Woodsfield played on a stage, and I remember trying to take photos without accidentally getting on the court. Trips to Skyview High School seemed to be even further into the wilds of southeastern Ohio that up to that point, I had never explored.
It was likely during the long trips that I learned about the journalism program at Ohio University. Jim, and several other Ohio University alumni at the paper likely were a large influence on my decision to attend the school two years later.
Jim started at The Times when reporters still used typewriters to type stories. He was there for the first computer system. The mainframe for the system took up a whole room and less memory than your watch. He adapted through four rounds of computers and progressed from being a reporter, to becoming city editor and finally a senior copy editor.
It was in this role that Jim laid out thousands of newspaper pages and wrote tens of thousands of headlines. Jim was at The Times for more than 14,500 editions. If you read any of them, you likely experienced Jim's ability to sum up a story in under eight words. Jim had a razor-sharp wit that frequently showed in his headlines that won many state awards.
Copy editors in general work shifts that others would quickly burn out from, but Jim did it for years. As deadlines shifted earlier, it meant that Jim did most of his work overnight. If you struggle to be creative sometimes, think about how hard it would be at 2 a.m.
I never heard him complain.
Jim treated everyone the same, never being cynical or boisterous - showing respect and kindness to everyone.
When he retired, he arrived at a party held at the fairgrounds on the back of a Marietta Fire Department pumper. Fitting since he started his career nearly five decades before covering city hall, police and the fire department.
Art Smith is online manager of The Marietta Times and The Parkersburg News and Sentinel, he can be reached at asmith@mariettatimes.com.