I couldn’t have asked for a better first boss than Brian Lund.

Lund, who passed away this past Tuesday, April 14, had been the longtime publisher of the Republican Journal.

Back in early 1999, I had graduated the summer before from Marquette, and lets just say I was not having the best time finding a job. I was getting rejections from jobs related to working for officials, and jobs related to helping people through lobbying, and here I found in our local paper a job posting.

While I hadn’t gone to school for journalism, I had been very active on the student newspaper, and had loved working on the senior newspaper in high school.

So I applied, and I got interviewed by Brian and Cindy Lund at the RJ office. It didn’t take long, and I was offered the job of reporter.

I think I got the job because in college, we had laid out the papers digitally, and the Lunds were planning on making the switch from literal waxing and pasting on grid paper that the paper had been for decades.

So praise him or damn him for that, Brian gave me my break.

Like I said, there would be no better place to start any career than working for him. Brian treated all of his employees like family, sort of literally - we had very good health insurance through the RJ because it was also covering his family.

That first summer at the RJ, Brian pushed through a lot of change. We switched where we were printing the newspaper, which allowed us to print color for the first time (and overhead shot of the fair). That change pushed us to switch from broadsheet-sized newspapers (the real broadsheets, not the glorified tabloid-sized papers we see today) to tabloid.

And we made the change to digital. Those first weeks doing the papers a different way were grueling - what once would be done by 5 p.m. went until 2 a.m. that first week.

As the sun set on that Tuesday, and we were burning the midnight oil, Brian was making sure everyone was taken care of as we worked. He went and bought everyone burgers from the bar across the street, and was checking if we were missing anything that had been planned.

Sure enough, about a month into the switch, the paper was getting done by 3 p.m. on Tuesday - faster than the paste up.

That family atmosphere continued, as nearly daily his children would come into the office after school, and check in with their mom and dad, tell about their day, run off to practice. 

About midway through my time at the RJ, I got cold-called and offered a job as editor of another paper. While I would have been the head of a newspaper, the offer wasn't any better than what I had at the RJ, and with how the Lunds had treated me, it was an easy decision to stay, as I really felt a part of the team in Darlington.

Brian cared about his kids, he cared about his employees, and he also cared about the communities he covered for decades. I always find it funny that, in those last years in the job, Brian started writing, covering the local governments for the paper.

When I worked there, I cannot remember him writing a story, but here he was, going to regular council and board meetings.

“I really like it,” I remember him telling me, sitting in the back cubicle he had created for himself when they remodeled the offices the year before I started.

I think back to those days at my spot, watching him pop up when the bell on the door would ring when someone entered. I remember him having the Monroe radio station playing from his sound system, getting way too many times of Bread playing, or when he added a 100-disc changer to play his own music - let me tell you, I don't think I had heard the entire Steely Dan catalog before that point.

He loved music, he loved history, and he also loved technology. The first digital camera I ever used was one of the first consumer models available that Brian bought, and I would argue that the Republican Journal was the first newspaper in the region to completely switch to digital photography for all of its pictures.

That was because of Brian, striving to move things forward.

Brian showed me a lot of ways on how to be a small town reporter, how to be there to cover the events, and tell the stories of our neighbors.

His obituary notes he was a ‘quiet social observer’ and that is true - we are not there to draw attention and make ourselves the story, we are there to get the story.

Brian and his family were involved in so much during his time as publisher, and he could have easily tooted his own horn - he had the vehicle to do it. But he didn’t - he never looked to the limelight.

I will say that what Brian did for me, besides treating me like his own flesh and blood when I worked for him, was solidify caring about this job. Covering your own community should be a joy, a privileged honor, and Brian, and his easy-going nature presented that to me every day I worked in the same office as him, and every day I would go back into that office.

Brian Lund gave me that first break, and also gave me a career I didn’t realize I wanted. I wanted to help people, and as a reporter at a small town newspaper, it gave me the opportunity to do just that. You cover a person going through an adversity, and you then get to cover the community rally around them. You cover an issue, and then you see people come together to look for answers. You get to tell the triumphs and tragedies, and the everyday stuff we often take for granted.

I got the job that fulfills me because of Brian Lund. I will forever be indebted for that chance. When he retired, I believe I told him some or most of this, but I regret not putting these thoughts in the newspaper sooner to reiterate what he meant to my life, and what impact he really had on all of our lives.