Knocking down grounders at Lefty Wilson Field in Plattsburgh, N.Y., an ex-Air Force community now stagnating dead south of Lake Champlain's buoyant menage in lower Quebec with the Richelieu and St. Lawrence rivers, Andrew deGrandpre fancied himself a future second baseman for the Montreal Expos -- a rookie phenom like Coco Laboy or Casey Candaele.
His fondness for creative writing bloomed while still in elementary school. Better bat speed arrived around the time he got to junior high. But when the unshakeable fear of being beaned snuffed his desire to play ball, words became deGrandpre's primary interest. Journalism struck him as a practical outlet to exploit his wares, and in college he committed himself to mastering the craft. He made it to Montreal all right -- as a study-abroad student at McGill University.
Less than two years after graduatiion, deGrandpre headed west for more education. Chicago changed everything. With another degree in hand, he was hired by a family-owned newspaper chain based in Small Town, Va., to run one of its North Carolina weeklies, which had fallen into ill favor with the locals. The resources were limited but sufficient. He hired two recent j-school grads, recruited a Pulitzer-winning cartoonist -- who, along with a handful of stringers, contributed for free -- and worked endless hours to improve the paper's appeal. After 15 months, it was visually revamped and boasted a lively opinion page. The paper's news coverage was named second best statewide in its circulation size.
That remains deGrandpre's proudest professional accomplishment. He and his two cohorts all but killed themselves to give that community a newspaper worth reading. Both reporters have since enjoyed productive tenures at larger publications. And like them, he too continues to reach for the higher apple, a drive that has brought him to Washington, D.C. |
