M. Charles Bakst '66 has accepted the end graciously and gratefully.
Last month, the Herald alum and veteran political columnist at the Providence Journal accepted an early buyout offer by the newspaper's owner, A.H. Belo Corp., bringing to an end a career spanning four decades.
As he sits down with this Herald reporter on the Faunce House terrace, Bakst looks relaxed, at ease. He has a lot of time to answer questions, he says. After all, he is retired.
For the next two hours he shares numerous stories - about life after retirement, his career and his days at Brown.
It's surprising how time flies, he says.
Over the years as a reporter and later as a columnist, Bakst exposed every aspect of Rhode Island politics - the good, the bad and the ugly - to his readers. Many saw him as the voice for the voiceless. News of his early retirement sparked considerable dialogue on many local political blogs. Some rejoiced, some lamented. But at the end of the day, they all read what he had to say.
The process of retiring is more complicated and time-consuming than one might think, Bakst says. A flurry of activity marked his last few weeks at the Journal. Old acquaintances, loyal readers and even complete strangers called to say goodbye, to wish him well, to ask him "What's next?"
Many colleagues and friends wanted to take him out to lunch. His desk - that turned out to be a treasure trove of memorabilia, including letters and business cards from former presidents, governors and legislators - had to be cleaned out.
The last, the very last column had to be written.
In it, he reflects on his career - people he met, things he saw, problems he wrote about, problems that still plague society.
At one point he writes, "I have spoken several times with John McCain. And Barack Obama told me in a 2006 telephone interview that he would not run for president this year, but I do not hold his change-of-mind against him; as I am seeing in my own life these days, things happen."
On his last day he was the center of attention amid hugs, speeches, and a goodbye cake.
It was an emotional time, Bakst says simply, almost like "going to your own funeral."
Starting out
When the Fall River, Mass., native first came to Brown as an undergraduate in the fall of 1962, he thought he would become a lawyer just like his father. During his first week on campus he started writing for The Herald, soon realizing that writing was fun and came naturally to him.
The newspaper quickly became his life. He fondly remembers the nights he spent in its office, then located on the second floor of Faunce, eating hot dogs or fried egg sandwiches and helping produce issue after issue of the paper. He rose through the ranks to become editor-in-chief the spring of his junior year. In Faunce, he also met his future wife, Elizabeth Feroe '67, a student at Pembroke College. In their first encounter, Feroe confronted Bakst about an editorial he had written criticizing the Pembroke administration. Later, they became friends.
In early December, Bakst and two other editors decided to run a "hoax issue," writing two stories and an editorial claiming that the Advisory and Executive Committee of the Corporation was allowing up to 100 senior Pembrokers to live off campus as an experiment the following semester.
The administration and some faculty members did not appreciate the joke. And the next day, Bakst and his two colleagues resigned from their positions.
A front page story in The Herald informed everyone of their decision to resign. In a statement that ran in place of the editorial that day, the editors wrote, "We three editors conceived the idea for these articles, planned, and executed them because we believed both that the issue would be humorous in the short run and conducive in the long run to a more thorough discussion of Pembroke's residential and social system."
"I think (the incident) was good for me in a way. It knocked me a little off my pedestal," Bakst now says. "I think it made me a little more humble."
It certainly didn't deter him from wanting to pursue journalism.
During the summers he had worked as an intern at the Journal and after graduation, he went on to earn a journalism degree from Columbia. By 1968, he was back at the Journal full-time.
From obits to opinions
In more than 40 years, Bakst saw and did it all - from writing wedding notices and obituaries as an intern to having his very own column that ran three times a week from 1995 to 2008.
The opportunity to interview prominent politicians and average citizens, the luxury of a front-row seat at key events and a space to voice his opinions on both the local and national political scenes were a few perks of the job.
He learned a lot from it. When he wrote against racism or homophobia and received hostile calls or e-mails from readers, he says he could appreciate the challenges that many members of our community face today.
He could hold officials accountable for their actions and criticize them for their failures.
Earlier this year he wrote a scathing column about Gov. Donald Carcieri '65, calling him "distant and uninformed and incurious."
It was no surprise that in late August when he told Carcieri that the rumors about his buyout were true, the latter responded with, "Oh ... well."
At the end of the day, it's all part of the experience.
"Being a columnist is a real privilege," Bakst says. "(To be able) to cut through the sound and fury, to speak truth to power. It was an honor."
No more notes
Bakst is not angry with the changes in the journalism industry that took away the job he loved, he says. Instead, he laments the fact that buyouts and layoffs have become regular features of many newsrooms today.
On Friday, the Journal reported that it has laid off 31 part-time and full-time employees, "as part of a broader cost-cutting effort" - an unavoidable measure since not enough people accepted the initial buyout offer.
"You just want to cry (when you hear about the layoffs), but that's what's going on in newspapers around the country," Bakst says.
In such turbulent political and economic times, he says he feels reporters are all the more crucial. His advice to budding journalists is to accept change, to embrace Web technology and to be prepared for their careers to take a toll on their family lives.
"It wouldn't hurt to marry someone wealthy," he adds.
It's been more than a month since Bakst's last day. In the meantime, he has been relaxing, going to Red Sox games, visiting family in New Jersey and writing lots of thank-you notes. He has also been resisting the urge to write about national politics.
"It has been pleasant for me to find that I can watch those (presidential) debates, enjoy them, take them in, and not have to take notes and not worry if I doze off for a few minutes," he says.
He was, is and will be a fan of politics. Now, he will also be a spectator, watching from the sidelines like every other fan.
