In more than three decades in this business, I've met a lot of people.
Don Seeley was one of the best.
Don was the longtime sports editor of our sister paper, the Mercury in Pottstown. He died suddenly on Wednesday at the one place he would rather be other than a high school sporting event - the golf course.
Don personified what community journalism - what at its core all of us strive to do every day - really is.
Most people that I know who get into the sports writing racket, dream of one day covering a pro beat.
Don was a pro whose beat was at the heart of what we do - high school sports. He did something we look to do here at the Daily Times every day. Yes, we staff the Phillies, Eagles, Sixers and Flyers. But we strive to offer the same style coverage - albeit likely without the same criticism - to high school athletes.
That's why the loss of Don is being felt so deeply in the Pottstown community. It's because Don, and the sports pages he edited at the Merc, exalted in local kids and what they did on the athletic fields.
It's a bond that community newspapers make with their readers. We put your kids' names and pictures in the newspaper. We exalt in their victories, and suffer along with the losses.
You might say Don Seeley was Pottstown sports. There wasn't a key football or wrestling match held where he was not holding vigil.
It's no secret that our business is struggling mightily these days. Losing Don is another punch to the gut.
He will be missed. By those who read him every day, by the kids and their parents whose moments of glory - and anguish - he captured for decades.
And he will most especially be missed by those in the business who knew him and admired him. Don Seeley understood what a community newspaper means to its readers.
It literally leaped off every page.
You don't replace guys like Don Seeley. You mourn their passing and redouble your efforts to do your job the way he did.
That's what newspaper people do.
And Don Seeley was the ultimate newspaper guy.
Rest well, friend.
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