When did William Dean Singleton become Chairman of the Associated Press?
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/04/06/daily16.html
In a past life I worked for Singleton, when he was working for a guy named Joe Albritton. Singleton had a house in town and whenever he was there he required a 6 am wake-up call from the newspaper. It was an afternoon paper, and for a bunch of us the workday started at 5 am. One of the girls always took care of calling Singleton, and I got stuck with the chore maybe once or twice. I think one time it was on a dare.
I got into computers from that job. We had a Harris system that never worked right, and when the production guy in charge of it wasn’t around I’d step in. My moment of truth came when I read a sticker on the computer that said, “Use double density diskettes only” and when I took one of the 8-inch floppies out it said single density.
One thing led to another, and working with Harris technicians by phone, I got the thing working well enough to hang in until the system could be replaced. My involvement with that process resulted in one of Singleton’s guys offering me a job in New Jersey, leading a team of installers and troubleshooters.
At the same time, one of my college roommates was trying to talk me into doing the same sort of work, except at hospitals. I decided that hospitals were a better long term bet than newspapers, and as a fringe benefit I’d get to work with my college buddies.
From the item at the link above, it sure seems that Singleton is the same guy he was, both good and bad. I love newspapers, but I despair for the industry’s survival and I’m very glad that I got out of that business.
