San Francisco Wartime Work for United Press

 (For more information about this post, see previous.)

During World War II, Dad worked not for an individual paper but on a desk for UP, United Press, in San Francisco.  (He wasn't fit enough for any of the military services.)  Among his papers were a few stories he filed for them.  As a self-historicizer, he kept some of the original assignments, typed manuscripts, and copies of the stories as they were printed in various newspapers.

Follow the link below to see his very first UP assignment, an invitation to UP from the Republican Party to cover the visit of glamorous congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce to San Francisco in January, 1944.  Her daughter was tragically killed in a car accident, however, the day before she was due to speak.  Dad saved his assignment and the picture of her printed after her daughter's death.

UPI First Assignment







The following links contain his original typed draft and the various publications of a story about the destruction of Manila by the Japanese.  It's from 1945.

 Original typed manuscript and some publications of Manila atrocities

More publications of Manila story

San Jose Mercury News, 60s and 70s

(For further explanation of the purpose of this post, see previous.)

In the Sixties, Dad became the education writer for the San Jose Mercury News and won some awards.  This post contains a selection of articles from the early 1960s and mid to late 1970s.   The articles from the sixties are focused primarily on education, while those in the seventies seem to focus mostly on the elderly, especially the ones written shortly before his own retirement.  (Dad was a "Gray Panther.")

(Should you choose to access these documents, you will see that the gentleman using the scanner used a Knight Library brochure as a place holder.)

Mixed dates, including September 1962, September 1963 (clipped articles)

Fall, 1963, (clipped articles) (including reaction to Kennedy assassination)

Mixed dates, including September 1963 and February 1964 (clipped articles)

Winter, spring, 1964 (clipped articles)

Summer, 1964 (clipped articles)

Fall, 1974 (full pages)

December, 1974 into spring, 1975

Spring into Summer, 1975

October to December, 1975

December, 1975 to January, 1976

San Jose Evening News 1956-57

(For information about what this is, please see previous posts.)

Dad eventually got a job at the large paper from which he would retire in 1976:  The San Jose Evening News which later became the San Jose Mercury News.   He brought along his "Off the Beat" column to the News.

Downtown San Jose, 1950s, From SPUR

On a personal note, I well remember the old, old Mercury building, and not only because Dad took me to visit there.  I remember vacations that began in the morning dark when Mom would bundle us into the car, giving me and my younger sister half-tabs of Dramamine to make sure we slept.  Nevertheless, I would wake up just twenty minutes later as Dad absent--mindedly allowed the car to take as to the front of his workplace in downtown San Jose.  I would look up and see the spinning planet above the front doors.  Later, this home was replaced by a larger building which itself has now been abandoned.   


July, August, 1956, (columns in scrapbook)

August, September, 1956 (columns in scrapbook)

October, 1956 and March, April, 1957

August, October,  November, 1956 (columns in scrapbook)

November, December, 1956 (columns in scrapbook)

December, 1956 - January, 1957 (columns in scrapbook)

January, February, 1957 (columns in scrapbook)

San Jose Mercury News HQ, 1966-2014