A prayer for Van McKenzie

Never knew Van, but reading this thread makes me realize what a great man he was. Wish I had the chance to meet him.

RIP.

 

I remember the day in 1989 when Van called me into his office at the AJC to show me a little blurb that appeared in USA Today that morning. It was only a few vague sentences about Frank Deford leaving Sports Illustrated to start some sort of sports paper. "This is going to be big," Van declared. By the end of the morning -- many weeks before he would actually be contacted about a possible position -- Van had begun planning the paper that would become The National. He made a list of the 200 or so jobs that would be needed and even penciled in names of writers and editors from across the country for most of them. A month or two later, he was contacted by the executive search firm seeking a managing editor for The National. I doubt anyone had ever been more prepared for a phone call.
I'll forever treasure the memories of working with Van at the AJC and going with him to The National as deputy ME. During our first month or so in NYC, my wife and I and our two dogs shared a small corporate apartment with Van, Sandy, Von and their dog. It was the best of times.
As The National's launch neared, Van and I walked out of the office one morning after a particularly stressful all-nighter of trying to sort out nightmarish logistical problems. Folks were scurrying to work in midtown Manhattan. Van said something about how he bet those folks wouldn't enjoy their 9-to-5 jobs as much as we enjoyed our all-nighter. Van loved and celebrated our business, even on the hardest days.
As many others have said, Van was a great journalist, a great mentor, a great visionary, a great guy, a great friend. Working with him was the privilege of a lifetime.
-- Tim Tucker

 

Never heard of Van until this thread. What a human being.

 

First off, my deepest condolences to Sandy, Von and Van Jr.
I hope you can take some comfort in what's been said in this thread and the support from countless others Van has met.

Having worked for Van for 6-1/2 years in Orlando, I can definitely say I'm a much better journalist for having worked with him.
He could drive you absolutely bonkers with his ideas and changes, but most of what he proposed ended up making things better.

More important, he had a big heart.
You could see that from the times any children came into the office when Van's office suddenly turned into Grandpa's den, and it was hard to tell who was having more fun, him or the kids. You could tell it from his laughs when we told him that we had been referring to the department as "Van Quentin" or "Tinker Field," or when we challenged a crazy idea he'd float out there just to get someone to argue with him and start bouncing ideas around.
He was always willing to listen if you disagreed with him or just needed a sounding board, some travel guidance, or (often unsolicited) advice on how to properly build a fantasy football roster. And of course, he was great fun to be around, especially out of the office.

And since we're sharing stories, here are a couple:

I had been at the Sentinel for one month when Van started. Before his first day, there had been plenty of speculation about how much might change, and a lot of people were on edge, not quite knowing what to expect.
Once we got going at night, I don't remember him saying too much, mostly watching how things worked, and on that particular night, they weren't. We had all kinds of computer problems, and publishing a readable newspaper was a struggle.

So after we finally went to press, a couple of us needed a beer. Van, who had been in the office since sometime in the morning, decided to come along, and we wound up with the entire night crew going out to have a beer with the new boss.
Of course, after last call, as the bar staff is trying to leave, Van tried to bet me to see which of us could get another round for everyone. At the time, I didn't realize that was one of his favorite moves, so I'm trying to figure out if this guy is for real, not sure what to say. Before we could say anything more about the bet, someone suggested that we move the party to my place.

My first thought then was: Uhh...what? I had a one-bedroom place, still had things in boxes from the move and to top it off, had done laundry the afternoon before work, but only had time to dump the clean clothes out of the dryer and onto the living room floor before leaving. So here I am, a month into my new job in a completely different part of the country, clothes on the floor and now I have my new boss and at least 6-8 other stragglers coming over.
Sure enough, the conga line of headlights follows me to my place, and a few minutes after everyone files in, takes the 20-second tour of everything and pops open a beer.
Van walks over to me, shakes his head slightly and says, "Son, you either need a wife ... or a maid." By this point, I don't know what to think about anything, so I shoot back with, "No shit, Sherlock!" He immediately let out that giant laugh of his, patted me on the back and said, "This one's all right." From that point, I knew for all the power he might have, at heart he was just one of the guys.

That, I suppose, tops the time when Van got so into changing a page design that was on my computer screen that he started drawing a new layout on it -- with a pen. When I pointed it out, he paused for a second, straightened himself a bit, began to smile, said in his classic way, "Well, it still mahht work," and started to laugh.

And finally, I can vouch for the time he threw the page dummies at us, though it was my fault for bringing up the phrase "buzz" in the first place. That's what got him going. That was his phrase: The buzz. What's even better is that he thought the cartoon bees coming out of the flowers should have had a trail behind them that said "Magic Magic Magic Magic Magic Magic...." That's when we looked at one another, and busted up laughing because we couldn't believe what we were hearing. I remember catching Van smiling after he chucked the paper while we walked out.

I'm glad I got to work with the big fella and, like everyone else who crossed his path, I'll never forget him.

--Scott Andera

 

trying to post a pic of a bloody brain ...

 

I've got you, andrew:

 

http://www.kodakgallery.com/PhotoView.jsp?collid=67583247210.105547400110.1169969076870&photoid=994547400110&folderid=0&view=1&page=1&sort_order=0&navfolderid=2007&

 

Thanks, IJAG ...

Can't figure out how to post a pic ...

A bunch of Van's staff had many a bloody brain tonight. Great stuff.

There have been many great Van stories on this thread. The best one I ever heard, though, remains to be told. Only Ed Hinton can tell it. It involves Fargo, Roger Maris' funeral and the 1961 Yankees.

I hope he gets on here and shares.

 

This thread really makes me wish I'd at least applied for a position at the Sentinel in the past seven years, if for nothing more than a chance to interview with Van. I don't know how many more testimonials/stories are coming, but I do know I'm looking forward to all of them.

 

To which I'd humbly add

*Vanglorious -- one of most touching SportsJournalists.com threads ever.

So many funny inventive instructive stories highjacked by the reality that he's gone.

But man oh man what a legacy.

/commas omitted in tribute.

 

You'll note the absence of "vanity"