On February 10, 1991 – during the first Gulf War – I ran on the cover of the Sun-Sentinel Travel section a story titled “Flight from Iraq.” It was written by a local woman who had returned home a few months earlier after being evacuated from Baghdad, where she had been working at the American Cultural Center.
Monday morning Gene Cryer was not a happy editor. “Nobody’s traveling to Iraq!” he bellowed, using a few more colorful words.
Gene and I had different views on what a Travel section should be. Like most newspaper editors, he saw it as an escape for readers, and a source of practical information; I thought of it as having more of an educational, as well as an entertaining, role; a place for armchair travelers. My hope was that readers would be interested to learn about a country that was now the focus of the world’s attention.
Yet that was about the only time Gene complained about one of my unconventional stories, and there were many. He allowed me to run the section according to my philosophy, in part because he had more pressing concerns (Travel is a low priority at any newspaper) but also because he was of the old school, unfazed by potential disapproval from advertisers. He believed in the people he hired, and trusted them to do their jobs as they saw fit. It was with great sadness that I learned of his death.
