Old-timers like Dennie Williams can appreciate how far The Courant has fallen by the current state of the Thomas Green club.
This year’s event, which celebrates employees who have given 25 years of their career-lives to the company, will not be a dinner as it has been in the past and, more tragically, will only be open to those who still work for the company.
That means that guys like Dennie or Claude Albert will not be invited, despite their long association with the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper — founded by Thomas Green.
It’s probably prudent business to pare expenses like the Thomas Green event. These are desperate times, after all, and no measure should be spared to save the company as it struggles to stay afloat. On the other hand, maybe there’s a toast to be offerred to the longtime crew of the Tributanic while the deck is still above the water line.
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A few years ago, when the then-current management temporarily decided not to do Thomas Green, Dennie and some others organized an ad hoc get-together. Perhaps next year, some of us old-timers could do something similar — inviting the “new guys” too (those inducted this year).
Worked for the Courant for 24 years, 9 months, plus 5 years delivering my paper route. Composing room and press room. It was the greatest newspaper in the WORLD as far as I was concerned. Alot of really fine folks worked there. A big happy family. This is really sad, sad news. I will never forget the time that I spent there. I really loved my job, and the people who worked there. God Bless, Freddy “Downstairs”
Thought you may be interested..my grandfather was head of the pressroom at The Hartford Courant for 45- 50 years (until somewhere in the mid 1940′s) and brought many innovations to how the paper was printed..His name was Gottfried Salzar and he lived in Hartford, then West Hartford, then Simsbury…he was very proud of the paper in those days- he retired somewhere in the mid 1940′s and was a memeber of the Thomas Green Club….in fact I have a plaque that was probably made at the Courant out of whatever metal was used to cast the letters and numbers for printing… as an aside, my dad delivered the paper for years in West Hartford and I, of course, had to keep up the tradition and delivered it in Simsbury. In any case, I am proud of my grandfather’s work there and of the newspaper, at least the way it used to be….I have no idea how things are there now but I do know that it is extremely important to honor those who helped build a company- the Thomas Greene Club is an example. As headmaster of a small private school, I know the importance of honoring the work of my teachers….they appreciate it and it pays off!
I’d love to hear from you…
Sincerely,
Greg Swenson (a proud grandson)
What a sad state for one of The Courant’s most venerable institutions! Some things should endure these strange and chaotic economic times. The paper has lost so much of its identity/soul over the last 10 years — here’s another manifestation of loss.
My name is Maggie almquist and i am looking for the people who join my father Neil Almquist annualy at the old country buffet. he is turning 70 and we would like to have a surprise party for him< if anyone has any information please contact me at 860-477-0518. or email me at fiona_cec@yahoo.com
Thank You
Maggie Almquist
I have very fond memories of the warm welcome Dennie Williams accorded to me at my first year of eligibility for the Thomas Green Club and the-then annual banquet.
I started work at The Courant as a copy editor in the spring of 1967, so I probably first attended the banquet (at the Hartford Club) in 1992. In the years after that, I would station myself near the door to help attendees find their name tags and to give a warm greeting to that year’s inductees – as Dennie had done for me. I attended the ad hoc Thomas Green gathering that Dennie and others arranged and helped persuade the management at that time to try to do some modest version of the Thomas Green gathering in the future (but not so modest that the joys of an annual reunion were lost).
I miss reconnecting with present workers and retired colleagues and the joys of shared memories of working with people in earlier technologies that are now long gone. Many times I sat at a table with pre-press specialists who inserted Linotype (metal) into page forms (often with a layout they improvised for interior “state” pages based on a multi-column photo mounted on a “type-high” wood block – maybe Kirk Hatsian’s free-lance work – and stories with varied headline sizes based on the slot-person’s news judgment of the importance of one local story compared with another on that given day, or whether the story was carried under a “Scotch-rule” banner).
I’m truly sorry that, as a retiree, I was not allowed to join any copy editors or graphic artists that were acknowledged as Thomas Green Club members last year shortly before some of them were laid off. Let me take this opportunity to shout out a hello and an appreciation of longtime friendship with my colleagues. I miss you all and wish you all the best in work or retirement!
deb