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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2020)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | H.J. Parkison 1908 to 1911 W.A. Marshall 1911 to 1912 A.H. Harris 1912 to 14 C.C. Rynerson 1914 to 1939 ... 5 editors in the last 106 years From Page 1 In the parlance of the printing trades, they were “boomers.” That probably accounts for some of the turnover among early-day Labor Press editors. But the turnover was about to come to an end. In 1914, to suc- ceed the second Harris, came the return of C.M. Rynerson, who’d served fleetingly in 1911. His health restored, “Ryney,” as he was called, settled in for a long run. Rynerson ran the Labor Press for 25 years — from 1914 to 1939. With Rynerson at the helm, the newspaper gained stability, weath- ering financial and labor politics ups and downs. He kept the paper afloat during the Great Depression of the 1930s. A Republican, he sought elective office without suc- cess, and also ran for president of the state labor federation. He left the paper in 1939 when Gov. Charles Sprague, publisher of the Salem Statesman, appointed him to the State Industrial Accident Commission. 1900 1914 1946 1960 Oregon Serving the Pacific Northwest Washington LABOR PRESS 1986 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS 1987 to date Gene Allen 1939 to 1951 Gene Allen, who succeeded Rynerson, was a college-educated Teamsters Local 255 business agent who, at age 24, was the youngest editor in the Labor Press’s history. While editor, Allen was elected to the Portland School Board, serving from 1942 to 1954. He chaired the Multnomah County Civil Service Commission, and was president of Office and Pro- fessional Employees Local 11. A year after leaving the editorship he was elected as a Republican to the Oregon State Senate. He later went into the restaurant business. Allen passed away in 1991 at age 76. James W. Goodsell, son of a Methodist minister, veteran of World War II, and a Democratic activist, took over as editor in 1951. A former print and radio journalist in Portland and Astoria, he modernized the Labor Press’ ty- pography and won many awards for journalistic excellence from the International Labor Press Associa- tion. Mayor Terry Schrunk ap- pointed him to the Portland Dock Commission, and he was active in the City Club and Urban League. He was a member of Machinists Jim Goodsell 1951 to 1965 Gene Klare 1965 to 1986 Lodge 63. Goodsell resigned in late 1965 to become a foreign trade executive in the United States De- partment of Commerce. He died July 15, 2006 in Twisp, Washing- ton, at the age of 86. The next editor, Gene Klare, had worked for Goodsell three years before succeeding him. Klare was a veteran of the Portland newspaper strike, having been a pre-strike Oregonian reporter. He worked for the strike-born Port- land Reporter. He’d also been managing editor of dailies in Pocatello and Boise; owned a small weekly; ran a one-man pub- lic relations agency, and served as a sergeant in the Marine Corps. He’d been president of the Port- land Newspaper Guild, chaired the Multnomah County Civil Service Commission, was president of the International Labor Press Associa- tion, and was active in Democratic politics and served on city and state civil rights commissions. Un- til his death in 2008 at age 81, Klare was a member of Office and Professional Employees Local 11. Portland native Michael Gut- wig, the current editor and man- August 21, 2020 | PAGE 29 Michael Gutwig 1986 to date ager of the Northwest Labor Press, took over in October 1986 at age 29, after working as a reporter, sports editor and advertising man- ager for the Central Oregonian (not associated with the Portland Ore- gonian) in Prineville. A graduate of Parkrose High School in Northeast Portland, Gutwig was sports editor of his high school newspaper, The Eques- trian, and later was sports editor for the Mt. Hood Community College newspaper, The Advocate. The son of a Painters Union ap- prenticeship coordinator, Gutwig worked summers as a “helper” in the drywall and insulators trades. After obtaining an associates de- gree in journalism technology at MHCC, he completed a drywall finisher apprenticeship training program. He continued freelance writing in the Portland area before taking the newspaper job in Cen- tral Oregon. Gutwig introduced the Labor Press to desktop publishing. He also embarked into the World Wide Web, where articles from the Labor Press print edition are posted online at nwlaborpress.org.
