Goodbye

His first job in the industry was delivering newspapers. That led to a job delivering newspapers to the guys delivering newspapers. That was followed by a job as an inserter in the packaging department, which led to a job in the pressroom. A year or so later, he was working in the color separation lab before landing a position as a staff photographer. Before long he moved on to The San Diego Union-Tribune, where he served as photo editor for the past several years.

Mike Franklin was a lifer. And a leader. A couple weeks after I began working at the old Times-Advocate in Escondido, the editors needed someone to fill a Friday night shift on the cops beat and decided I was ready for it. I had never covered cops before, and while I was perusing a cheat sheet that listed the various police radio codes, the scanner began lighting up with reports of a hostage situation and a police chase. I was like a deer in headlights. Suddenly the code for "shots fired" blared across the radio, and Mike - then a staff photographer at the paper - appeared like a vision and calmly said, "Let's go."

I had no idea where the hell we were going, and before I could grab a Thomas Bros. guide, Mike pulled me by the arm and said he'd drive. In no time, we were in his Jeep en route to a cul de sac, where police had just killed a bank robber - and his hostage. When we got there, the bank robber's body was in a pickup. The body of his hostage - a young woman - lay in the middle of the street.

Cops weren't talking and Mike wanted me out of the way. "Why don't you go talk to those guys and see if they know anything," Mike said, pointing to a pair of middle-age men in oil-covered clothes. So I did. Good thing, too. Turns out they had been working on their car when they saw the drama unfold, leading to the fateful decision of an officer to shoot the hostage as she tried to escape, in the mistaken belief that she was in cahoots with the robber.

I tell this story because Mike is no longer working in the industry. He was given a layoff notice a couple weeks back and his last day at work was today. He'll probably freelance for awhile, maybe longer. But the newsroom for me will never be the same. When I saw Mike, I often remembered that crazy evening some 26 years ago, an evening that made me grow up - fast - as a reporter.

Mike was one of nearly 50 people in editorial who lost their job in the recent round of downsizing, and each of them left their mark on this industry. Each of them helped make their community better. None of them deserved to become victims of a dying industry. Some of them left yesterday. Most left today.

I'll miss them all.