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Sunday, March 23, 2003
EDITOR'S NOTE: Jeannine Guttman
Colleague made difference in his brief time with us
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||||
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When it's all said and done, people want to look back on a lifetime of work and know they made a difference. Most of us spend our working years building toward a legacy, forging lasting relationships and bodies of achievement. We hope our accomplishments stand the test of time. We hope our days will be noteworthy, our time distinguished, our struggles valiant. We hope one day our children and relatives can look back and say, yes, he made a difference. Yes, she left a positive mark on everyone she touched. Yes, he was loved. We think we'll have 30 or 40 years to reach this goal. Many of us need that span of time to attain our success. But others do not. They are the rare souls who manage to have a profound impact every day, enabling them to amass create a legacy in far less time than the rest of us. One such person was Zack Gaulkin, who worked for about five years as the editor of MaineToday.com, our online newspaper. Gaulkin left MaineToday in January after landing a top editorial post at This Old House magazine. It was, he told me, his dream job come true. Still, he felt a bit guilty, he said, because he knew MaineToday staff members wanted him to stay and he loved working with his staff. But he figured the friendships he created here would last, and the publishing lessons he learned at MaineToday would serve him well in this next career move. And so he was eager to begin a new adventure, to open the next chapter in his life. But it was not meant to be. Gaulkin was killed Thursday night in an accident on the Maine Turnpike, near mile marker 18. About 7 p.m., while Gaulkin was driving north, a box truck veered into his lane, clipping Gaulkin's car. His car hit the guardrail and ended up sideways in the passing lane, where it was broadsided by a tractor-trailer truck. The drivers of the two trucks were not seriously injured. Gaulkin, of Kenne- bunkport, was 37. He leaves a wife and three young children. At our newspaper, Gaulkin will always be remembered as an exuberant journalist, a cutting-edge editor, a pioneer in his field and an all-around nice guy with an easy smile and a full, bushy head of hair. He graduated from Harvard University in 1987 with a degree in American history. He loved journalism and woodworking. He worked in a number of publishing jobs, from the Maine Times to The Jersey Journal to the York County Coast Star. He also was a boat builder, working on traditional wooden sailboats. He was intrigued by the new frontier of online publishing and that interest brought him to MaineToday in 1998. He quickly became known for his love of work and his deft touch at establishing solid workplace relationships. We were lucky to have had Gaulkin at our newspaper. In many newsrooms across America, the relationship between the traditional print newspaper and the upstart electronic newspaper can be challenging. The two mediums have different cultures and sometimes mixing those can have an oil-and-water effect. Everything, in terms of making that relationship successful, turns on the personal relationships of the top people involved. Gaulkin made cross-departmental relationships and interpersonal skills look easy. And for him, they were. Because of those gifts, he was a welcomed presence at our news meetings and planning sessions. Our editors always enjoyed working with Gaulkin, a creative force who looked for the positive outcome, for the win-win of any situation. To him, the glass was never half-full and it certainly was never half-empty. It always held the promise of being filled to overflowing. "One of the legacies he left here was the Gaulkinization of the language," said Carl Natale, an online producer. "He was fond of making up new words. We were supposed to 'briefenize' stories for the Midday Report," the noon update of news filed on MaineToday. "He referred to automating processes as 'scriptification.' If you think we have our own language up here, you are right. He carved out a new vocabulary that we use each day. "Seriously, he was a good man," Natale said. "He really looked out for us. . . . He made sure we were able to pursue our lives outside of work. He genuinely was concerned about our personal lives. And he understood the online business. From the minute I met him, I knew he got it. "He was in awe of his children. Ironically, the new job was going to give him more time with them. . . . It's not fair." Joe Michaud, president of MaineToday and the first editor of our online newspaper, said Gaulkin was "instrumental in taking it to a new level of its mission to be Maine's premiere online source of news and information about Maine." Gaulkin, who joined MaineToday three years after its launch, "subscribed to the philosophy that in this new age of media, people have easy access to numerous sources of information," Michaud said. "As a result, he was committed to ensuring that our site would be the No. 1 choice of Mainers and those outside who care about Maine." Gaulkin was a driving force behind a number of innovations on MaineToday, including:
"Zack was my idea of a 'new journalist,' " Michaud said. "He totally understood the fundamental values of journalism, but at the same time was tuned in to the rapid changes in people's media habits. He was a superb writer and editor who also had a solid grasp of the technology that drives our medium." Last year, Gaulkin spent much time working with Linda Fullerton, one of our assistant managing editors, to develop a joint coverage plan for the elections. "He was very friendly and very personable," said Fullerton. "He was easy to work with. If there were ever any issues that needed to be discussed, Zack was the first person to step forward. "Zack was on top of everything," she said, but he refused to turn problems into feuds, to make disputes into personal issues. "There was never any contentiousness about things. He always wanted to look at how we could do things better as a team and he had great ideas." Melissa Kim, an online producer, said Gaulkin pushed his team to excel. "He was so great to work with because he had such a high standard - he set the bar really high. He had such a keen sense of the best approach to a story, and never let us settle for less. "Just (Thursday), as we discussed our online coverage of the war in Iraq, I found myself thinking, 'What would Zack do?,' and I thought about calling him to ask him how we were doing, and if we'd missed anything. He raised the conversation to a higher level. There aren't many people like that around, and there's no way to fill that gap." Wendy Almeida, online news assistant, said she and Gaulkin "used to talk a lot about raising kids. We both have children around the same ages and he was always ready to share a story about the latest 'adventures' in his household. We laughed a lot about them. "He was great to work for because he was very understanding and flexible with my part-time work schedule and the demands of family life. I respected his ability and commitment to balance his career with the needs of his family as well. There are so many other things to be said about him but this is the one thing that really stands out in my mind and my friendship with him." Gaulkin left all of us with similar stories, unique to our relationship with him. He will be sorely missed by the newspaper staff and the brevity shortness of his life has left many colleagues distraught and sorrowful. But Gaulkin accomplished so much in the time he had. He built a family. He created a catalogue of achievement. He amassed a vibrant network of friends and colleagues. He left us with fond Zack tales and wonderful memories. On Friday, staffers talked about Gaulkin's reputation for being a safe and cautious driver who never traveled above the speed limit. They talked about his work ethic. How Gaulkin wouldn't want any of them to allow this tragic event to negatively affect their work. How he would want them to go on, to achieve, to be the best. He achieved a remarkable legacy that lives on in our newsrooms, both online and print. He will be missed, but he will not be forgotten.
Jeannine Guttman is editor and vice president of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram.
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