You may have read in the last edition Dwight Esauâs letter to readers about his retirement from the Sun Day. Hopefully, you read it. It was superbly written, genuine, and heartfelt…heartfelt for me, at least, and I wanted to salute Dwight and his career with the Sun Day with a formal, public goodbye addressed to you readers.
I remember my first meeting with Dwight. It was in the lodge, and despite that I had already worked in newspapers for a number of years, I had no idea what I was doing, starting a newspaper of my own or who this guy was sitting across from me. All I knew was that I was overwhelmed by this new endeavor, which hadnât published a single word yet, and that I needed the help. Iâm not even sure what I was expecting of this first meeting, but what I was not expecting was the wealth of knowledge, expertise, and experience that came with Dwight Esau.
To say that Dwight Esau was a âseasoned reporterâ at this time is the understatement of the century. Twenty-plus years in, Iâm a seasoned journalist. Presently, Dwight has me beat by three times that amount, practically making me a rookie. So at that first meeting what I got was a master journalist offering to write for my little startup. What else I didnât realize was that Dwight and I were about to begin a ten-year journey together.
At the time of writing this, there isnât a single person Iâve worked with longer than Dwight, which makes him both very easy and extremely difficult to write about. While I have a lot to say, or could say, reducing our ten-year relationship into a couple hundred words almost seems trite.
So let me, a man of words, turn to numbers to describe Dwightâs contributions to this paper and community.
Dwight worked for the Sun Day for 10 years.
Heâs been with the Sun Day since Volume 1, Edition 1.
His stories have appeared in approximately 260 editions.
He averaged two stories per edition, totaling approximately 780.
His stories averaged approximately 700 words, totaling 550,000 words written.
On average he interviewed approximately 2 people per story, totaling around 1,500 people interviewed (thatâs about 15% of Sun Cityâs population).
Looking over Dwightâs time reports, Dwight totaled about 7,500 hours working for the Sun Day, thatâs nearly 1 straight year of writing around the clock.
What all this adds up to is that Dwight dedicated a large chunk of his life to not only working for the Sun Day but to sharing the stories and happenings and affairs of your wonderful community. Through the hundreds of thousands of words Dwight wrote, Dwight raised awareness of certain issues, settled other issues, introduced readers to other readers, community members to other community members, established new relationships and expanded old ones. He was both fearless and conscientious in his reporting tactics. He knew when to press. But most importantly, Dwight IS a reporter and a man of extreme ethics and never made news where there was none. He never sensationalized and he knew when to back off because Dwight Esau is a man who understands the difference between something thatâs newsworthy and something thatâs just gossip, which he never wrote a single drop of.
I may be the owner of the Sun Day, but over the years, when it came to reporting, I learned a lot from Dwight and followed his lead, and he never steered me or the Sun Day wrong, and look, here we are, ten years later, and I can honestly say that the Sun Day would never have gotten so far were Dwight not behind the wheel.
Thank you doesnât seem adequate, Dwight, but I have no other words to say it. Thank you for your experience, your service, your counsel. But mostly, thank you for your friendship. You are in a class to yourself.
