Jim Fall, an appreciation

Richard Fulton

The news was shocking, at least to me; Jim Fall dead just short of his 80th birthday.

Shocking because 80 just didn’t seem that old in relation to Jim. He had a studied approach to life and his work.

Enthusiastic when he needed to be but never loud or overbearing.

He was what he appeared to be: an attentive and loving father and grandfather, a thoroughly professional newsman, a community servant and an open, giving friend.

And he seemed to have friends everywhere.

If you read his columns in the Daily Forum you knew that the twinkle in his eyes reflected a love of humor that he received from his friends and passed on to us in his columns.

Corny? Much of it. Insightful? Some of it. Fun? Almost all of it.

But he chronicled much of what was going on in Maryville as well. He had been assigned two columns a week and he filled them with stories of his life and stories of the life of Maryville. Believe me, writing those columns was not as easy as they appear when you were reading them.

I have been writing weekly columns in the Forum for more than 30 years, which means that I was writing them when Jim was the publisher from 1989 to 1991.

He began writing columns for the Forum again in 2008-2012. In both cases he was not directly responsible for my columns.

When the Forum reorganized, and revitalized, in 2014 Jim became the executive editor and generously oversaw my articles.

Not for their viewpoints, but to help in making sure they were understandable and correcting errors of grammar and dates.

He was always respectful.

Just out of curiosity I went back to look at my articles in the early Fall years of 1989-91.

Not surprisingly, I guess, many of the themes that I have written on in these latter Fall years were echoes of the early writings.

The basics of political and governmental intercourse do not change much, it seems, only the specifics.

Back then I wrote a lot about Missouri’s lack of support for education, especially higher education since that has been my career.

In March of 1989 I noted with dismay that Missouri was the 49th state in support of higher education. We’re not much better now.

As an attempt at satire I proposed finding money for higher education by selling naming rights.

I thought that Kellogg should sponsor the University of Missouri and the mascot could be Tony the Tiger.

In March of 1989 I wrote about the chaos in Venezuela — just as I did earlier this year.

One article in February of that year had the headline, “Bipartisan support difficult to achieve.” Sound familiar.

In September of 1990 I even wrote about a character named Donald Trump who was getting a divorce and complaining about the nasty media. People don’t change. Though a headline for an article in July of 1991 read, “We are in the midst of a world in change.” Only in specifics, I fear.

I loved the headings that Jim gave to my articles these last few years, they captured the article sometimes better than the contents of the article.

Jim Fall saw it all and remained calm, I think, because his values were solid and his insights were mature.

He contributed to his community and his profession in numerous ways wherever he was and garnered honors along the way.

It will not be as much fun at the Forum without Jim, some change hurts. I will miss him as will his many friends. God’s speed Jim.