8/3/2019 Robert H. Estabrook Tribute

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A THE LAKEVILLE JOURNAL, Thursday, December 1, 2011

 

 

By Donald Connery 

“Passionate” may not be therst word that leaps to mindwhen remembering Robert Es-tabrook. He was, ater all, a large,

serious, solid, honest, utterly reli-able, occasionally pedantic andsometimes finty Midwesternerwho did not suer ools gladly even i he could laugh at his ownimperections.

(Usually a careul seaman,Bob was aghast, chagrined butultimately amused at his ownolly the day he backed his be-loved cabin cruiser much tooquickly into the dock o a HudsonRiver marina. The explosiono the infated rubber dinghy attached to the stern may havebeen heard rom Manhattan toAlbany. We hid the evidence ina Dumpster.)

But passionate he was. Forliving lie to the ullest. For his

bride o more than six decades.For amily and riends. For coun-try and community. For books,music, travel and spirited conver-sation. For justice. For air andearless journalism — and theEnglish language clearly written.For transparent government. Forsimple decency, civil behaviorand whatever is the opposite o hypocrisy. For accountability by the powerul and paying atten-tion to the powerless.

In the words o our mu-tual riend, Studs Terkel, he was“against people who push otherpeople around.”

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Bob’s calling was not justabout reporting acts withoutopinions and giving opinionsanchored in reality. “Let rightbe done,” a phrase better knownin English law than in our own,was the inspiration or the rehe brought to injustices thatothers could not see or darednot challenge.

We shared, or example, in-timate knowledge o the rascal-ity o Joe McCarthy when therantings o the ormerly obscure

  junior senator rom Wisconsinmade him, or a time, just aboutthe most powerul man in thecountry. I viewed his lying, bul-lying ways up close as a UnitedPress reporter in Madison. Bobhad a ar more elevated obser-

vation post as the remarkably  young editorial page editor o theWashington Post, a newspaperwith a national infuence rivaledonly by the New York Times.

A torrent o Estabrook edi-torials raked McCarthy overthe coals or the ignorance-based Red-baiting tactics whichdestroyed the reputations o innocent public and private g-ures while prooundly injuringthe nation’s oreign policy andinternational reputation. Bob’swords, like the Herblock car-toons skewering the scoundrel,were crucial to the rising tide o disgust about McCarthyism thatsoon stripped away his power.

It was altogether tting, then,that Bob’s rst years at the helmo The Lakeville Journal weredistinguished by the restorm o local — then state and national— protest he ignited about themurder conviction o an inno-cent teenager rom Falls Villagewho had been led by police wilesto believe that he had butcheredhis mother during a mentalblackout.

Thus right was done withremarkable speed in a “wrongman” case now deeply etched inthe annals o criminal justice.Peter Reilly’s ordeal ranks asperhaps the classic instance o aalse conession obtained roma totally blameless homicide

suspect by interrogation meth-ods amounting to psychologicaltorture.

The local state police com-mander and local prosecutor,like their higher-ups in the justicesystem over the long run, couldnever admit that they had put ablind ocus on the wrong personrom the start, and they neverdid conduct a genuine investiga-tion o the likeliest and knownsuspects.

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Nothing inuriated Bob Es-tabrook more than the ailureo ocials at any level, in any circumstance, to admit that they might be mistaken. His early exposure o the Reilly-case mis-deeds in The Journal (leading to

proessional awards) was respon-sible not only or the foweringo Peter’s support group but thecritical involvement o ArthurMiller, the New York Times and60 Minutes investigations, thehearing or a new trial, and thediscovery o concealed evidenceo Peter’s innocence that leddirectly to his reedom.

Telling ourselves that evenpure journalists (i there be

such an animal) must get downand dirty sometimes in a goodcause, I joined with Bob in thesubsequent years in a series o secret eorts to solve the crime:collaborating with honest topprosecutors, even sheltering awitness who oered a believ-able story o how her ormerboyriend, our candidate as theprime killer, had conessed hisinvolvement to her.

But too much time hadpassed; good evidence was longgone. Barbara Gibbons’ slayingremains unsolved. Still, we didmake history when a Freedomo Inormation appeal and aSuperior Court judge’s rulingorced open (or our eyes only,with Peter Reilly) the buried statepolice le on the department’smost-embarrassing-ever case.A saga o incompetence was re-vealed but no smoking gun.

I rst met Bob in New Delhiin 1957—which may permit meto claim a longer acquaintancethan anyone else in the North-west Corner. I was Time-Lie’sbureau chie or South Asia at aCold War time when any numbero the world’s amous leaders(e.g., Eisenhower, Khrushchev,MacMillan, Nasser, Chou En-lai,Ho Chi Minh) came to town totalk to Nehru, head o the ThirdWorld. Trouping in as well werebig-time columnists and oreign

correspondents, including Rob-ert Harley Estabrook, ormereditor o the mimeographed BurtLake, Mich., resort weekly (to citeonly the rst o his many plungesinto the business o being aneyewitness to history).

Though eight years my senior,Bob graciously hung on every word o my pretended knowl-edge o a territory stretchingrom Aghanistan to Burma. Hethen turned the tables by givingme a master class on Beltway 

 journalism. We bonded beauti-ully, each well aware o his goodortune in working or a majornews organization in the goldenage o oreign reporting.

Print was still king; televisionnews was in its inancy; jet-fight 

globetrotting had just begun;and our publications were im-portant enough to get us into theinner sanctums o the high andmighty, also fush enough to sendus winging to great stories o warand peace at the ends o the earth.Like schoolboys thinking they had outoxed the principal, wetold each other, “They’re actually paying us to do this!”

Years later, Bob and Mary Lou, towing their three boys anda girl, landed in London or a newassignment just as Leslie and I,with our three girls and a boy,arrived as exiles rom Moscow.In a grand coincidence, withoutany communication betweenus, the two packs o expatriatesended up in handsome red-brickhouses close to each other in thebeautiul green surroundings o Hampstead Heath. We enjoyeddescribing our neighborhood

as the site o Elizabeth Taylor’sbirth, Karl Marx’s grave, Sig-mund Freud’s cremation andthe residence o the then-primeminister, Harold Wilson.

So began our years in “Swing-ing London” o the early 1960s,marked by the rise o The Beatles,when Bob and I would requently bump into each other, i not inthe neighborhood then on FleetStreet or at the BBC or coveringthe civil wars in Cyprus andNorthern Ireland. We oten com-pared notes on England’s painulbut inevitable retreat rom itsdays o empire and great-powerstatus. Meantime, our intrepidwives sought out the graves o ancient churches and got on theirknees, not to pray but to bringhome brass rubbings.

This time o togethernessended when the Estabrooks de-parted or Bob’s new Washington

Post assignment as its UnitedNations correspondent (withCanada tossed in as a place orrequent reporting trips). They were well settled in suburbanPelham, N.Y., by the time we

came home or good in 1968to inhabit an old armhousein Kent. We wanted to give ourchildren small-town roots in theLitcheld Hills while I pursuedthe reelance lie.

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Bob and Mary Lou joined usone day or a party showing o our new digs in the boondocks.They conessed their plans toget o the Post payroll andstake their uture on buying andrunning a small-town weekly somewhere in the land. Pursu-ing the notion o a second grandcoincidence that would bring theEstabrooks close by once again,I raved about the natural bless-ings and human resources o 

the Northwest Corner. Did they know that The Lakeville Journalwas up or sale? We imploredthem to go or it. Instantly!

Their response was disap-pointing: very interesting, mighttake a look, got to go home now.Only later, with apologies, didthey say that they were undera condentiality restraint rominorming us that they were, atthe very moment o our excite-ment, in serious negotiationswith Stewart and Ann Hoskinsto buy The Journal and build awhole new lie in Lakeville.

Thus was resumed our close-knit riendship. For many yearsit achieved a special glow eachsummer when the our o uswould be on the water (they supplied the boat, we helpedconsume vodka tonics on theantail at twilight). There wereidyllic days chugging up streamsand rivers, inspecting Cape Cod,circumnavigating Long Island,hauling ourselves through theErie Canal, anchoring at Cutty-hunk and Hamburg Cove, evenspending a ew low-tide hoursmarooned and sideways on aJamaica Bay sandbar.

Bob always had at least ourbooks to read at once, mostly 

non-ction. Mary Lou let noseagull go unphotographed i itsat atop a buoy or landed on amast. It was inspiring to see thecloseness o this orever-matedcouple. On dry land, when not

newspapering, they would travel— as i on a permanent honey-moon — to distant states andcountries. It was not so mucha case o being bitten by thetravel bug, I oten thought, as anunquenchable zest or learningsomething new every day.

Indeed, Bob, the sage o Lakeville, was never satisiedwith just being incredibly well-inormed on almost everythinghappening on the planet. Heregularly attended and savoredconerences o newspaper editorsacross the country because they were learning experiences — justlike the community collegeclasses he attended in Winstedin his senior years.

Thornton Wilder once ex-plained that he had not written“Our Town” just to show whatlie was like in one little village inNew England. Rather, he said, “Itis an attempt to nd a value aboveall price or the smallest eventsin our daily lie. I have made theclaim as preposterous as possible,or I have set the village againstthe largest dimensions o timeand place.”

Bob Estabrook’s preposterouslie on global scale came down, by his own choice, to an evergreenplace o small dimensions andeveryday events but with valuesbeyond all price. Like Mary Lou,he treasured these hills and thegenerations o inhabitants whohave made the Northwest Cor-ner a special place. I suspect hewould be more pleased by theoutpouring o warm memorieso his multitude o r iends thanall the accolades earned by hiseminence as a journalist.

Donald Connery, a longtime  oreign correspondent or Time-Lie, is the author o the book “Guilty Until Proven Innocent” about the Peter Reilly case. He is now working on a book about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

photo courtesy joseph meehan

ROBERT H. ESTABROOK, 1918-2011

Bob Estabrook ... never dull indeed

‘Let right be done,’ a

phrase better known in

English law than in our

own, was the inspira-

tion or the fre he

brought to injustices

that others could notsee or dared not chal-

lenge.

— Donald Connery 

8/3/2019 Robert H. Estabrook Tribute

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THE LAKEVILLE JOURNAL, Thursday, December 1, 2011 A

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In appreciation: 

Robert Estabrook Those who worked with Bob Estabrook at The

Lakeville Journal can all attest to his unailingrole as leader, teacher and exemplar o principled

 journalism. From my own years at The Journal Ialso carry two other abiding memories.

First there was Bob’s capacity, amid all the

stress, urgency and rustrations inherent inpublishing an ambitious community paper, oran interest in the lives and thinking o those withwhom he shared that adventure. Beyond takingan interest in my lie, my amily and my ideas,Bob also showed me many kindnesses, personaland proessional.

Second, Bob and Mary Lou brought to theirmission here an appreciation o what a good localpaper can mean or its community — in this casea community o several adjoining small towns.In such a newspaper we can glimpse at leastsomething o who we are today — our t riumphs,our losses, even our un and games. We can bereminded also o our place in the wider world

and o our past, o our history, to some extento what brought us to this point. Finally we canenvision and debate where we might want tomove our community in the uture.

Bob knew, as do all o us who grew up inmid-20th century America reading and some

o us even working on such community papers,that the world has drastically changed since the1950s and 1960s. Like Bob, I don’t see that we’ve

 yet discovered a new technology or a new productthat improves or even matches the community-nourishing role o the good local newspaper. Itbehooves us all to make good use o the heritagethat Bob embraced in his youth and sustained sobravely or the rest o his blessedly long lie.

David ParkerKent

David Parker worked rom 1971 to 1976 as man-aging editor and then executive editor o The Lakeville  Journal, returning rom 1995 to 1998 as editor.

Bob Estabrook was a riend tome, always an encourager and anenthusiast.

More important, he was abeacon in the night to those o uswho believe that all o literature,not just journal ism, is a search tond the truth and a directing o 

our energies toward making thattruth understandable and ull o impact or readers.

He looked at the world aroundhim with seasoned but notcynical eyes, and thought deeply about what he might say aboutwhat he’d ound beore writingit down. For Bob, journalismwas more than the rst drat o history; it was the educated andcaring man’s obligation to hisamily, riends, neighbors andcountrymen.

Tom ShachtmanSalisbury 

In appreciation: 

Robert Estabrook 

I write to share an early — buttelling — memory o RobertEstabrook.

In 1953-1954, Bob Estabrookwas a young editorial writer orThe Washington Post.

Many years beore anyone hadconceived o an “environmentalmovement,” the National ParkService, supported by orces inCongress, ill-advisedly proposedthe building o a parkway alongthe path o the beautiul C&OCanal, which runs 185 milesrom Cumberland, Md., alongthe Potomac River, all the way into Washington, D.C. Theparkway would have devastateda vast, precious natural area. The

proposal generated great contro-versy in Washington.

In its wisdom, The Washing-ton Post supported the buildingo the parkway. Robert Estabrookwrote the editorial endorsing theproject on the basis that i thecanal was a public road, morepeople could enjoy it.

Justice William O. Douglas,who oten walked the towpathbeside the canal, immediately responded with a letter to ThePost dated Jan. 19, 1954:

“I wish the man who wrote  your editorial o Jan. 3, 1954,approving the parkway, wouldtake time o and come with me.We would go with packs on our

backs and walk the 185 miles toCumberland. I eel that i youreditor did so, he would return anew man and use the power o 

 your great editorial page to keepthis sanctuary untouched.”

Bob Estabrook and a col-league accepted the invita-

tion/challenge. By the time itstarted, the hike had grown to 58people. The hikers trekked romCumberland into Georgetown;The Post covered the event rombeginning to end. To the best o my knowledge, Bob Estabrookcompleted the entire hike.

Ater his eet had stoppedswelling, he persuaded his col-leagues at The Post to reverse itseditorial policy and to opposethe parkway.

In 1971, the canal and sur-rounding lands were grantedpermanent protection underthe Chesapeake and Ohio CanalNational Park Act.

At the time, I was 11 years old;

my parents, who were inveteratehikers, ardently supported JusticeDouglas.

As the Douglas/Estabrookcaravan approached Washing-ton, we met them with signsreading “May Justice (Douglas)Prevail” and “Scratch the Park-way at the Post!” I have conrmedthese early memories with my 98-year-old ather, who recallsthe entire incident vividly.

No person — and certainly no journalist — is possessedo inallible judgment. At anearly moment in his long anddistinguished career, Bob Esta-brook showed an open-mindedwillingness to reconsider and

acknowledge that he and hiscolleagues had erred. In time,he brought these qualities o 

 journalistic airness to the North-west Corner, and we are all thebeneciaries.

Henry Putzel IIISharon

In appreciation: 

Robert Estabrook 

We will greatly miss Bob Es-tabrook. For those who mightwonder, there is a story behindthe unusual title o Perambu-lating or Bob’s long running,thoughtul, wise and entertain-

ing column in The LakevilleJournal.

In 1973, several years aterBob and Mary Lou took overpublication o The LakevilleJournal, Bob was appointed asPerambulator o the town o Salisbury by then-First Select-man Bill Barnett. The appoint-ment was mainly a spoo, playingon Bob’s enthusiasm or hikingand outdoor exploring. However,it gave Bob a catchy new title orthe column.

The primary duty o a per-ambulator is to periodically walkthe boundaries o the town, in-specting boundary markers anddetecting any encroachments by 

adjoining jurisdictions.

The oce has a long andhonorable history, appearing asa provision in the ConnecticutCode o 1650. However, by thelate 20th century the oce wasseen as antiquated and was

generally abandoned by othertowns.

Bob took his ocial peram-bulating duties seriously, study-ing maps, walking the bounds,nding long-orgotten boundary markers and taking special careto insure that the states o NewYork and Massachusetts did notencroach beyond the Tri-stateboundary marker located up onthe slopes o Mount Frisell.

My wie Sue and I arrived inSalisbury in 1971, as did the Esta-brooks. With common outdoorinterests, we soon got to knowthem. In the early 1980s, Bobgot me appointed as co-peram-bulator. That gave our hikes an

added ocial aspect. Bob’s occa-

sional mention in his column o “checking the bounds” broughtunexpected notoriety in 1993when the New York Times senta reporter and photographer toSalisbury to join us on a bound-

ary inspection tour.We enjoyed having Bob and

Mary Lou as riends, with hikingas a shared pleasure. Even in theirlater years when they were un-able to roam up in the hills, they maintained their adventurousspirit. We are thankul or theirriendship and or having thebenet o their wisdom and theirgenerous service to the commu-nity. We miss them both.

William F. MorrillSalisbury 

In appreciation: 

Robert Estabrook 

I can’t think o a moreimportant, admired and in-luential person than RobertEstabrook, who arrived in theNorthwest Corner in 1970 withhis bride, Mary Lou.

Without repeating his distin-guished obituary printed Nov.17 in The Lakeville Journal orthe letters o appreciation in theNov. 24 edition, I would like toadd one more acet o his lie.

In 1999, Bob became a mem-

ber o the John Robert’s Book

Club. What an addition!He was a source o present

and past history attributed tohis wide experience, travel andproliic reading. Now we havelost this ount o knowledge.

I personally eel his presencewill be irreplaceable. Many o our book club membership willbe at his service on Dec. 10 tosay goodbye to our belovedhistorian.

W. Peter Reyelt Jr., MD

Sharon

In appreciation: 

Robert Estabrook 

Robert H. Estabrook, The Lakeville Jour-nal Company’s ormer owner and publisher and editor emeritus, died Nov. 15, 2011, but an important piece o him remains with us through his writing.

Bob was a prolifc and gited writer whowas able to take complex subjects and present them with such clarity and simplicity that anyone could understand them.

He wrote about everything that interested him, and that was essentially everything inthe world. His readers learned through himabout topics as diverse as Nikita Khrush-chev, the Central New England railroad,

the names o the members o the Salisbury town crew, the best places to fnd mountainlaurel in bloom in the nearby hills.

Anyone lucky enough to know Bob well was treated to drives and hikes to some o the most scenic hidden valleys and peaks in the region — with ascinating history lessons o- ered humbly but enthusiastically at every stepo the way. Anyone not lucky enough to take those walks could still glean that knowledge  rom his columns and “perambulations.” 

His work has been preserved in the State Historical Society o Wisconsin’s archives (fnd inormation online at arcat.library.

wisc.edu, search or estabrook).And o course the perect complement to his 

writing is the photography o his wie, the late Mary Lou Estabrook. Her work is archived at the University o Connecticut’s Dodd Center (online at doddcenter.uconn.edu).

All o his work can be ound in The Lakev-ille Journal archives at the Scoville Memorial Library in Salisbury. A sampling o a ew columns is included below, as are remem-brances o him rom two colleaguesand some appreciations and memories by Northwest Corner residents on their pages.

— Cynthia Hochswender

Remembering Bob Estabrook 

Perambulating by R.H.E.(Jan. 31, 1986):

New ChapterOpens After

800 ColumnsThis is the last o more than

800 columns I have written asa publisher o The LakevilleJournal. Ater Mary Lou and Ihave devoted most o our wak-ing hours or nearly 16 years tothinking about the enterpriseand its responsibilit ies, it is aneerie eeling to contemplatea change o direction in ourpersonal lives. Except that thishappens to everyone sooner orlater, and planning seems to usthe essence o orderly change.

We consider ourselves indeedortunate that the new editorand publisher is a person o the caliber and experience o Robert Hatch.

On the editorial page weexpress our gratitude to the

An editorial from the Dec. 20, 1973, Lakeville Journal:

A Boy’s Rights States Attorney John Bianchi has taken The Lakeville Journal

to task or carrying “headlines every week” about the case o PeterReilly, and a word o explanation to readers is in order. The Journalmaniestly does not know whether Peter Reilly killed his mother asthe State alleges in its charge o murder. But just as this newspaperis concerned that the assailant o Barbara Gibbons be brought to

 justice, so it is concerned the Peter Reilly’s rights, including the rightto a air trial, be respected. It also is concerned that a maximum o inormation be provided to relieve the anxieties o neighbors andtownspeople.

To reconcile all these objectives is dicult, especially in a situationin which secrecy has been pervasive at every stage. The Journal hassought to avoid sensationalism and has deliberately rerained rompublishing some proered details it could not check or attribute. It hasbeen much disturbed, however, by indications that alse assurancesmay have been given to Reilly as well as to neighbors who sought toobtain a lawyer or him. It also has been disturbed by the length o 

time he apparently was questioned without ood. This newspaperwould be derelict to its concept o the public interest i it did notcall attention to such considerations, or they are as relevant to theissue o a air trial as the points raised by Mr. Bianchi.

Northwest Corner commu-nity and to the many indi-viduals who have extendedheartwarming support toThe Journal. Let me addspecial appreciation to asmall group o persons inSalisbury who showed theiraith in us and their dedica-tion to the continuation o an independent community newspaper by investing init at a critical time. Theirbacking and counsel helpedus over a rocky period andmade possible the expansiono the newspaper into whatexists today.

...SO NOW what happens?

Well, you’re not ree o usquite yet. Bob Hatch has nicely 

asked Mary Lou to continuecontributing some photo-graphs and me to continuethis column and to write someeditorials or a while. In any event, we’ll be on hand or aslong as is needed or a smoothtransition...

....FOR STARTERS there

is the matter o unpacking.There are cartons in ourbasement that have not beentouched since we returned 211⁄2 years ago rom a our-yearoreign assignment based inEngland. Who knows whattreasures will turn up? I re-member in particular a 1695map o London and a Roma-nian icon I acquired on oneo my peregrinations (thegovernment-supplied inter-preter urged and helped meto buy it in what I now realizewas a possible setup becausethe Communist governmentcould have arrested me ortaking a historical item outo the country)...

...AND THEN o course,

come the hobbies. Music meansa great deal to each o us. I’m aweather nut. Also, I gure wehave about 100,000 color slidesto sort i they are to be o use toanyone; someone I know addednew ones aster than I could keeptrack, and I simply gave up aterwe took over The Journal. Thereare countless books to index,weed out and perhaps even read.In the matter o weeding endlesschallenges await in gardening

and maintaining paths throughthe woods.

There also is some seriouswriting to be done, and or this I

hope to acquire a personal com-puter that will be compatible withthe system at The Journal...

...FOR THE last I have saved

perambulating. There is a vastcatalogue o unwalked bound-aries and unhiked trails, andwe intend to do our ull sharewith Pica. In clement months

 you also may nd us aboard theAllegro exploring New Englandbays and coastlines rom its base

in Niantic.I calculate we have enough to

do to keep us busy or at least 20 years. We’ll be seeing you.

photo courtesy joseph meehan

Bob Estabrook was stationed in London for many years while working for The Washington Post.