Blue Ridge Muse has this post paying tribute to the now-retired Roanoke Times reporter, Paul Dellinger.
The Roanoke paper has Dellinger's parting shots and this story, which says in part:
"Sometimes, he could appear less than alert. "He'd sit with his eyes closed," recalled Glen Williams, senior U.S. district judge in Abingdon who has known Dellinger 30 years. But the next day, a complex trial would be boiled down in Dellinger's story to a complete and concise account. "He was listening. Had to be. He was always accurate. You could depend on him," Williams said. "He's a great reporter." . . .
Rick Rose, producing artistic director at the Barter Theatre, remembered meeting Dellinger at the news conference called to announce Rose's appointment to the theater in 1992. The local media chose to cover a leaping donkey at the Washington County Fair that day instead, Rose said, but Dellinger was at the theater announcement. . . .
"Paul is, of course, Southwest Virginia's ambassador to Vulcan, and so he and I have shared many tales about the world of science fiction," quipped another well-known local writer, Sharyn McCrumb. "He is encyclopedic on his knowledge of old Western movies, and occasionally I have asked him for research advice for something I was working on. In a story called 'Foggy Mountain Breakdown,' I needed the boys to go to a Southwest Virginia movie theater to see a Western serial, and Paul told me exactly what was playing that week in Bristol and described the action in the film for me." . . .
And what does a man who has written news stories for 44 years do when he retires?
He keeps on writing, of course. Dellinger says he'll write more fiction and also take some courses at a community college.
His wife suspects he'll also start sleeping late. "He tends to be a night owl.""
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