When Peers Die: Last of the Old Style Newspapermen?
Arthur Bridgeforth Jr. was a truth-teller, a class act, a gentleman
Published in
4 min readJul 7, 2020
For the fourth time in two months, a beloved, good soul truth-teller in my life died: my Uncle David, Deacon Dave Lawrence, and two journalism peers: first Kevin Roberts and now Art Bridgeforth.
The unexpected deaths of peers remind us of our own mortality.
“COVID?” everyone asks. No, not at all. No connection to the news of the year made their sudden deaths — two on Sunday — that much more jolting. Each was a classic original who did it all well. One kept coming back into my life:
Arthur Bridgeforth Jr., I am now reminded, was my age (he was a few months younger than me), working at three of the same newspapers I did:
- I hired Art at The State News at Michigan State University. He immediately struck everyone for his kind heart and dedication to a higher calling: truth.
- We both had summer internships (a year apart) at the mighty Providence Journal in Rhode Island.
- A decade later, we started on the same day in April 1996 as reporters for Crain’s Detroit Business.
