Spinmeisters, advocates and newbie writers will know Mark Higgins because the gatekeeper with excessive journalistic requirements, finely tuned BS detector and gentle-desk-side method. For the final seven years, our deputy opinion editor solicited, culled and curated our group’s visitor columns — Op-Eds, in our lingo — on our Opinion pages.
Higgins, a member of the editorial board since 2014, retired Friday after 23 years at The Occasions, a lot of that within the newsroom as a metro editor.
Readers upset about The Occasions’ editorial board’s view might often discover — or pitch — a visitor column mentioning the error of our methods. Complicated debates over points are not often outlined by two sides, however slightly, many.
That nuance was Higgins’ candy spot and a key a part of Occasions Opinion’s mission assertion: “To be a discussion board for group studying and dialogue.” That was his ardour.
Higgins offered one other present to Occasions readers, too. A couple of years in the past, he took over the Saturday web page for visitor essays, known as “My Takes.” These items, often private and poignant, offered our readers, particularly nonprofessional writers, an opportunity to share their views on all the pieces from parenting to psychological well being to being a well being care supplier working by means of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oh, boy, will his colleagues miss him — as will all of the visitor column writers who had the pleasure of his expert enhancing, no-nonsense suggestions and mild encouragement. Relaxation assured, Occasions Opinion will try to do him proud.
Comfortable trails, Mark.
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