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.