Four Maine newspapermen tapped to enter Hall of Fame

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Four men who excelled in distinct areas of Maine’s newspaper industry have been chosen to enter the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame.

Entering the Hall in October will be:

. Ted Sylvester, who was a reporter for the Bangor Daily News for 24 years and chief of the paper’s Rockland bureau for 20.

. The late Bill Caldwell, “a lively, distinctive Maine voice” who wrote more than 3,000 columns and articles for the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram.

. The late Peter M. Damborg Jr., who was a State House reporter for the Guy Gannett newspapers in the 1950s and ’60s and “one of Maine’s premier political junkies.”

. Robert M. Moorehead, who was assistant editor of the Westbrook American, assistant managing editor of the Portland Press Herald and Evening Express, and general manager of the Morning Sentinel in Waterville.

The four will be inducted on Oct. 12, the opening night of the MPA’s annual fall conference, at The Samoset Resort in Rockport. They form the 10th group to be inducted. The Hall of Fame, established in 1998, will have 41 members after the 2007 inductions.

This year’s inductees were selected in early June by the MPA’s seven-member Hall of Fame Committee. The Hall of Fame is in the University of Maine’s Dunn Hall.

Working the beat

Ted Sylvester, a Rockland native, began working in newspapers in the mid-1950s as a linotype operator for The Courier-Gazette, where he turned down a reporter’s position and the pay cut that would have come with it.

In May 1967 he did take an offer from the Bangor Daily News – to be its assistant bureau chief in Presque Isle. He stayed there until April 1971, when he began his run of more than 20 years as Rockland bureau chief.

In Rockland he hired Emmet Meara, who still writes a column for the BDN

In supporting Sylvester’s induction into the MPA Hall of Fame, Meara wrote, “Ted Sylvester was always a Hall of Fame reporter to those who knew him.

“Sylvester worked the small town news beat to perfection, covering everything from city council meetings to fires and shootings, murder and mayhem that was all too common in 1970s Rockland.”

Meara recounted an incident in 1975 in which Sylvester was brought to the Maine State Prison in Thomaston to defuse a hostage situation. Inmates were holding a guard at knifepoint, demanding to see a reporter to air their grievances.

“With shotguns behind him,” Meara wrote, “Sylvester interviewed the inmates and secured the guard’s release.

“He didn’t stop there. When they said they feared they would be beaten in reprisal, Sylvester agreed to escort them to protective custody and defused the volatile situation.”

For 20 years, Sylvester wrote a regular column, Fish and Chips, which Meara called “a respected journal of life in the midcoast area.”

In his last Fish and Chips column, published on June 29, 1991, Sylvester wrote, “I can’t think of a more challenging and satisfying business. I have had the opportunity to fly with the Air Force, go to sea with the Coast Guard, ride the roads with police, and travel to Washington where the politicians hang out. I’ve had the opportunity to interview governors, senators, members of Congress and a vice presidential candidate. … On the other side of the coin, I’ve also talked with murderers and thieves.”

Said Meara: “No one who watched Ted Sylvester at work for 24 years writing news for the Bangor Daily News in Presque Isle and Rockland will be surprised to know that he will be named to the Hall of Fame of the Maine Press Association.”

‘The spirit of Maine’

Bill Caldwell wrote for the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram for more than a quarter-century and turned many of his columns into books about Maine, including “Enjoying Maine” and “Maine Magic.”

Writing about Caldwell on Jan. 10, 2001, five days after he died, the Press Herald remembered him as “a lively, distinctive Maine voice” and “a New York native who loved his adopted state and was one of its most celebrated chroniclers.

“Governors and lobstermen, loggers and CEOs were all his subjects. His white hair and beard gave him the appearance of an old-time sea captain, an aura he relished,” the paper said.

He was wounded in World War II, when he flew 69 bombing missions. He wrote for Time-Life, served in the Eisenhower administration, published a newspaper in England, wrote fiction and came to work at the Portland newspapers in 1965.

‘A great newsman’

Peter Damborg, who was a journalist for 14 years before he moved into politics and state government, was nominated for the Hall of Fame by John McCatherin, a friend and colleague of Damborg’s and a member of the Hall of Fame Committee.

Damborg, an Augusta native, began his career in journalism as a reporter for the Kennebec Journal in 1948 after serving in the Air Force during World War II. He became the State House reporter for the Guy Gannett newspapers in Portland, Augusta and Waterville in 1952, and stayed with the papers until 1962.

Damborg worked for the gubernatorial campaign of James B. Longley in 1974, and after Longley was elected, worked as his press secretary briefly in 1975.

Damborg was president of the Maine Publicity Bureau from 1978 to 1982 and later worked for the Maine chapter of AARP. He ran for the Legislature as a Republican in 1992, losing to Democrat Richard H.C. Tracy.

Damborg died of a heart attack on Feb. 20, 1994, at his home in Vienna, at the age of 74.

Portland sports, news editor

Bob Moorehead grew up in Bolsters Mills and Paris, and gradated from Paris High School in 1956.

He joined the Guy Gannett Publishing Co. in 1965 as a district correspondent covering Oxford County and moved on to reporting assignments for the Portland Evening Express and the Maine Sunday Telegram. He became assistant sports editor and slot man on the Press Herald in 1970 and was sports editor of the Press Herald and Telegram from 1971 to 1975.

During that time he arranged and participated in coverage of such diverse events as Red Sox baseball and the Belmont Stakes before moving to the news side as city editor. He later became assistant managing editor of the Telegram and was involved in extending news coverage and in a major redesign of the paper.

Moorehead left Portland to become assistant general manager of the Guy Gannett company’s Central Maine Morning Sentinel in Waterville and was quickly promoted to general manager. He left the paper in 1991 after a management change in the parent company.