[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16571]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO SAM HEMINGWAY

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, one of Vermont's longest-serving 
journalists, Sam Hemingway, recently retired after a distinguished 37-
year career with the Burlington Free Press. His career at the paper 
spans a period of our State's history filled with interesting stories, 
and Sam covered so many of them.
  During the course of those many years Sam captured the pulse of 
Vermont, whether through his personalized columns or his probing 
reports. Sam's institutional memory was a rich and vital resource for 
the newspaper and for his readers. His writing talents, his reporting 
skills and his ability to make personal connections will be sorely 
missed.
  Marcelle and I join all Vermonters in extending all best wishes to 
Sam and his family as they begin a new chapter in their lives.
  I ask that this Burlington Free Press article sketching Sam's tenure 
and retirement plans be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From the Burlington Free Press, Oct. 7, 2014]

                   Hemingway To Retire After 37 Years

              (By Adam Silverman, Free Press Staff Writer)

       Sam Hemingway, a reporter, editor and columnist who is 
     among Vermont's most well-known journalists, will retire from 
     the Burlington Free Press after a career of more than 37 
     years.
       ``You don't know how much this place means to me,'' he told 
     the staff in announcing his departure Tuesday afternoon, 
     ``and I will miss you, and I will miss this work, so much.''
       A self-described ``generalist,'' Hemingway's award-winning 
     coverage stretched from the rejection of a controversial 
     shopping mall development in Williston in 1977, through the 
     illegal shipping of arms from a Vermont business to South 
     Africa in violation of the apartheid-era embargo, to a weeks-
     long trip to embed with the Vermont National Guard in 
     Afghanistan in 2010, among numerous examples across portions 
     of five decades.
       ``There's a great thrill, if you're into journalism, if 
     it's in your blood, to be present in moments of great 
     importance and to write stories that actually make a 
     difference,'' Hemingway said Tuesday in an interview before 
     addressing his colleagues.
       ``When you work for a paper like this, in a state like 
     Vermont, if you do a story and do it well, with the idea that 
     this is going to turn the rock over and show something that 
     people need to know about, there will be results,'' he 
     continued. ``You can help make something happen. That's a 
     great feeling.''
       Free Press Executive Editor Michael Townsend praised 
     Hemingway as a colleague and a journalist.
       ``With his breadth of experience, Sam knew where to find 
     the information,'' Townsend said. ``He had a great eye for a 
     hard news story. He was dependable, productive and engaged. 
     We will miss his unique style.''
       Hemingway, 66, wanted to be a newspaper reporter since 
     boyhood in New Haven, Conn. With the help of a ditto machine, 
     he produced a newspaper for his neighborhood. Coverage 
     included missing dogs, families' vacations plans and who 
     might have been suffering from the measles.
       He edited his high-school newspaper and then studied 
     journalism at Syracuse University in New York before moving 
     to Vermont in 1971. He helped start the Lamoille County 
     Weekly in Johnson, spent a year teaching journalism at 
     Johnson State College, and then began freelancing for the 
     Burlington Free Press.
       He joined the staff in 1977, when he was assigned to 
     provide full-time coverage of the debate over the Pyramid 
     Mall proposal percolating in Williston. Hemingway attended 54 
     night meetings regarding the Act 250 development-control law 
     over two years before the project was rejected.
       Then came the story Space Research Corp., a North Troy 
     weapons manufacturer that was breaking an international 
     embargo to sell millions of dollars of artillery and shells 
     to South Africa--possibly with the backing of the CIA. 
     Hemingway recalled sneaking onto the military base at Camp 
     Lejune, N.C., with a colleague and knocking on the door of a 
     suspected CIA agent said to be involved--and then departing 
     in a hurry when the agent called base security. Eventually, 
     two company officials were convicted of related crimes.
       As with his more recent coverage, including of teen girls 
     from the Burlington area lured into working as prostitutes in 
     New York, of the priest sex abuse claims against the Roman 
     Catholic Church, of the heroin epidemic sweeping Vermont, 
     Hemingway's reporting exposed a rarely seen underbelly of 
     Vermont.
       ``If you didn't shine a light on it, the cases might or 
     might not have reached a point where people went to jail,'' 
     Hemingway said. ``But there's more assurance that justice is 
     going to be meted out.''
       Hemingway is perhaps best known for his column, which he 
     wrote from 1989 to 2005 (with a yearlong hiatus to cover the 
     presidential campaign of former Gov. Howard Dean).
       ``It was wonderful to have a voice,'' Hemingway said. ``The 
     great thing about that column was it wasn't just a political 
     column, it wasn't just a crime column, it wasn't a slice of 
     life, it wasn't a feature--it was all of those things. And it 
     would change. Sometimes it was first-person. Sometimes it was 
     personal. Sometimes it was investigative. I broke stories in 
     the column. And it was very well-read.''
       The column aimed to give a voice to the powerless, 
     Hemingway said.
       ``It was average folks,'' he said, ``and that was the whole 
     point of the column: to be an outlet for people who weren't 
     newsmakers who maybe had trouble with government or a problem 
     or a personal issue, somebody who lost a kid in a traffic 
     accident.''
       Hemingway's work earned him 11 Best of Gannett awards from 
     the Burlington Free Press' parent company, along with 
     citations for excellence from the New England Newspaper and 
     Press Association, the Vermont Press Association and others.
       The time is right to step away, Hemingway said. He has been 
     thinking of stepping away for some time, and he's ready for a 
     change. He plans to write, travel and spend time with family: 
     his wife, Lee, his four adult children and his two 
     grandchildren--and a third on the way.
       His announcement came as the Burlington Free Press shared 
     plans for a newsroom reorganization, a process other Gannett 
     properties also are undergoing. Hemingway said his departure 
     is unrelated.
       ``It's very hard to walk away from this,'' Hemingway said. 
     ``I need to go. It's time for me to go.''
       He has yet to decide on the timing of his last day.
       ``I'll miss my colleagues in the newsroom,'' he said. 
     ``I'll miss the camaraderie of the journalism community at 
     large in Vermont, which, even though we sometimes compete, we 
     all for the most part respect each other.''
       Hemingway ended with advice for his colleagues:
       ``Don't just do the stories that you have to do. Try to 
     keep looking for the stories that need to be done. . . . You 
     have to push the limits, go after stories that are out there 
     but aren't waiting to be written, that you've got to go and 
     dig out.''
       ``That's what I've tried to do.''

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