Former Herald-Times owner Scott Schurz holds his HSPA 2002 award, April 2003.
(Courtesy of the Herald-Times)
These are reflections by WFIU News Special Projects Editor Bob Zaltsberg about the death of former H-T owner and publisher Scott C. Schurz Sr. Zaltsberg started working at The Herald-Telephone (now The Herald-Times) in 1976, and from 1985 until 2019 he was the newspaper’s editor.
Scott Schurz Sr. sat behind his sturdy desk in his crowded – some would say messy – office one early one evening more than three decades ago. The desk was organized chaos, covered in stacks of documents and newspapers.
On the other side sat three or maybe four of Bloomington’s most influential political and business leaders. They had asked for this audience. Schurz had called on his relatively new editor to sit in because the group wanted to talk about a story that was being planned for the next day’s newspaper. They did not want it published.
The story involved city council approval of a tax break for a company whose name was not made public, and the newspaper’s plan to name the company in its next edition.
The leaders said naming the company would spoil the deal. The editor maintained the public had a right to know who was getting a tax break from city government. Voices were raised – though not by Schurz.
When it was over and Scott Schurz sat alone with his editor, he said: “You’re going to run it, aren’t you?” The response was yes. “Just make sure it’s right.”
The story was right, the company didn’t come, and Schurz never looked back. He loved his community but he loved the independence of local news even more. He knew the two were tightly woven together, and that his mission as owner/publisher was to make sure Bloomington’s local newspaper was as strong and independent as possible.
Scott Schurz (far right) is congratulated by incoming HT editor Mayer Maloney after being inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame, April 2003. (Courtesy of the Herald-Times)
That’s not to say he didn’t support things other than his newspaper. He was generous with his time and money on a myriad of community causes. He was a strong supporter of United Way, the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County, and a range of Indiana University endeavors. Two of them were the Department of Athletics and the School of Music, and he was delighted that his newspaper provided robust coverage of each. But there were other causes he supported, too, including the Kinsey Institute and the School of Journalism, now the Media School.
A free press was his passion, at home and abroad. As his career moved along he was as well known in international journalism circles as he was in Indiana, where he is a member of the Journalism Hall of Fame.
In 2005, Schurz was facing some serious health issues. One influential international group, the Inter American Press Association, named him honorary president for life for his work on press freedom worldwide. Many other national organizations presented him with similar “for-life” honors.
“They all think I’m going to die,” he told his editor with a grin. “Now I’m going to have to serve on all these boards.”
Closer to home, he hated seeing mistakes in the paper. Typos and errors in spelling, grammar, or a date or time would slip through – and he would always say to his editor, “How’d that happen?” The response was often a rather feeble, “human error.”
One day he called to ask how a mess-up had occurred in the comics pages – and oh my, he was a fan of the comics, which helped children learn to read. The Doonesbury comic was headlined “Cathy” and the Cathy comic was headlined “Doonesbury.”
After he asked “How’d that happen?” and was answered, “human error,” he was asked if he could stop by the editor’s office later that day.
No, he said, he was out of town – in Munich.
Calling from overseas about the comics was one of his quirks. Some might call it one of his excesses.
But perhaps his largest excesses were his kindness and devotion to everyone who worked for him.
As Laura Lane pointed out in her story Tuesday noting Scott Schurz died Monday night at the age of 85, he would roam the hallways and departments in the building at South Walnut Street at all times of the day and night. He wanted to see the people who worked there, whether it was 4 in the afternoon or 2 in the morning. He treated everybody with dignity and respect, and working for him was like working in a family business. Which, of course, it was.
That last week the Schurz family owned the H-T was difficult for him. He had trouble holding it together emotionally when he announced to the employees on Jan. 28, 2019, that the newspaper portion of the family business had been sold to Gatehouse Media (now Gannett) and the new company would take over Feb. 1.
He came into his editor’s office on his last day working at the newspaper, Jan. 31. That was also the editor’s last day, his retirement day, after being hired by Scott 33 years earlier. The two talked about a bunch of stuff, as they had hundreds of times before. They thanked each other and went their separate ways.
I cherish that memory. I owe him more thanks than he could have possibly owed me. And I, and my H-T colleagues all those years, will miss him dearly.
