A feisty editor, gone too soon

Yesterday I sent a friend an email thanking him for an electronic birthday card. He wrote back minutes later, saying he'd just learned of the death of one of his mentors.

I share his sadness because I also knew, worked with and admired Deborah Howell, a trailblazing editor and long-distance colleague who championed the cause of diversity in ways both visible and invisible.

Deborah was a top editor at the Minneapolis Star and the St. Paul Pioneer Press during the '70s and '80s, and later became Washington bureau chief of Newhouse News Service (owned and operated by The Oregonian's parent company) and, finally, ombudswoman of The Washington Post before retiring in December 2008.

She died Saturday while on vacation with her husband in New Zealand. She was crossing a road to take a photograph when she was struck by a car. She was 68.

The Post's news obituary covers all the bases in reviewing her rise to the top -- a rarity for women 30 years or more years ago. An accompanying blog post sheds more light on her personality, which, she would have agreed, was feisty and irreverent, fair and honest.

Deborah was a sharp and talented editor who led the Pioneer Press to two Pulitzer Prizes, including the groundbreaking "AIDS in the Heartland" series in 1987 that help raise awareness of the deadly disease a generation ago. She was widely viewed as a role model by other talented women editors and reporters who came after her. Yet, if the public knew of her at all, it was probably in the context of her last job, as the Post's ombudswoman, charged with holding staff members of one of the country's great newspapers accountable for accuracy, bias and other missteps.

As for myself, I feel privileged to have worked behind the scenes with Deborah for the past two decades on one of the most meaningful things a person can do for others -- that is, to help select college scholarship recipients. Every year the Newhouse Foundation would put up $100,000 in scholarship money to be distributed in partnership with the four national minority journalist associations representing African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans and Latinos.

Deborah asked me, as a fellow Newhouse editor, to work with her every year to select the National Association of Hispanic Journalists scholarship recipients and, on an intermittent basis, to help choose winners for the other three associations. Imagine the boost of confidence you'd receive it you won up to $5,000 a year from NAHJ or one of the other associations -- a tangible expression of faith in your potential to become a newspaper journalist as well as a much-appreciated infusion of financial assistance, especially for first-generation college students.

To this day, I can recall the names of so many Newhouse scholarship recipients who later also became interns and/or staff members at The Oregonian: Melissa Navas, Ira Porter, Jodi Rave, Melissa Sanchez. Equally important, we helped hundreds of others who caught on elsewhere, thereby helping to diversify America's newsrooms.

I always looked forward to the selection process, hearing both the passion and impatience in Deborah's voice, as we considered each candidate. She was genuinely happy to assist deserving students, yet unapologetically dismissive of those who submitted sloppy applications. It was then she used that famously salty language to comment on someone's unfocused or error-filled essay. Yet I knew she wasn't being condescending. She, too, wanted young people to stretch themselves and be able to make a difference in journalism, but we both knew that effort had to begin with a rigorous self-examination, attention to detail, and demonstrated ability to get things done well and on time.

A final note: When I ran a half-marathon a few years ago to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Deborah was among those who contributed to my fundraising goal with a generous check and a handwritten note of encouragement. Though known for her tough exterior, she had a generous side that I can attest to. I join the industry in mourning her death.

Photo: Julia Ewan, The Washington Post