A man of science

What if I told you science and journalism are closely related? Can you hear the screams of doctoral graduates now, expressing outrage?

It’s true, students of science tend to have much more work to do that students of writing, but I’m not talking about narrative writing or even narrative non-fiction (which is still fiction). I’m talking about journalism, which is a craft. It has rules. Strict rules. And those rules are in place for the very same reason scientific rules are in place: to find the truth and publish the truth, an impregnable ground to stand on. In short, it’s all math.

Jim Darow contributed regular letters to the Sun Day, but he was, by all accounts, a man of science.

Despite how popular the phrase “Your reputation precedes you” is in movies and books, it’s not often said in real life because most people don’t have a large enough reputation (and in many cases that’s a good thing) to precede them.

As a journalist, I’ve met a lot of people in my life. Most were average, everyday Joes and Janes, while some were, for better or worse, notable, but of all the people I’ve known and interviewed or photographed, Jim Darow was the only man I met whose reputation preceded him.

Though it wasn’t accurate, which is often true for most people whose reputation marches ahead.

---

---

Before starting the Sun Day in 2010, I had a few sitdowns with SC officials to discuss my plans and explore how the Sun Day could contribute most to the community. In one such meeting, Jim Darow’s name was brought up and discussed because he was known for writing eye-popping columns in the Sun Day’s predecessor The Sun City Herald. Jim was labeled a “watchdog” with a nose for finding issues in Sun City. In other words, he was labeled a muckraker. But he sounded like a regular journalist to me. It’s a journalists job to, as the fictional Mr. Dooley said, “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”

But I’d argue it was never Jim’s intention to stir up trouble. A student of life, Jim liked to ask questions, and I can tell you as a journalist, many people are quick to say that someone who asks questions likes to stir up trouble. Or is a muckraker. But really someone who asks questions has guts and a care for his or her community and calls for justice. So if Jim saw something that didn’t sit right with him, he called it out. Honestly, who can blame a man searching for truth and asking for honesty? Honestly?

The Sun Day experienced this first-hand with Jim several years ago, when he suggested we, a newspaper, didn’t publish much news. The accusation struck me as off, but it made me wonder and prompted me to do dive into our archives and take account of ever story we published, classifying each into various news-type categories. Unfortunately for Jim, I was correct, as my findings revealed the Sun Day did publish (by a large margin) more hard news than any other news type (like features or profiles or previews) but had Jim not questioned this and we weren’t publishing more news content than other content, we would have carried on without a thought otherwise, which was the brilliance of Jim’s suggestion. It helped keep us in check, and when I think about the content we publish and see it on an average yearly basis, I keep Jim’s perception in mind and employ it in my own assessments. And I’d say that’s what Jim did with and for this community. He kept it in our minds.

In our eleven year history, Jim Darow submitted (conservatively) over a hundred letters to the pages of the Sun Day, and I can tell you that for as many times as they were critical they were also filled with praise.

At the heart of it, well, that’s what I mean. Jim had a big heart as a person and for this community. And I do believe that Jim wanted the community to be the best it could be and believed it could be that when the right questions were asked.

Jim Darow passed away at 86 years old on the morning of April 24, and speaking for the Sun Day, we mourn his loss and extend our thoughts and sympathies to his family and friends. He was a champion of this newspaper but more so this community, and he will be missed. A memorial will be held for Jim between 2pm-4pm Sunday, May 23 at DeFiore Funeral Home in Huntley. In death, Jim donated his body to science.

---

---