Just Deserts: Charles Levendosky

Remembering a Favorite Newspaper Columnist and Editor

I lost one of my best editors 17 years ago. Charles Levendosky made every effort to thrive in spite of a cancer diagnosis. Charles was both realistic and optimistic. With the support of his newspaper, the Casper Star-Tribune, his outstanding editorial team and, above all, his wife Dale, he gave due credit to colleagues, editors and the newspaper company for accommodating his working from home, which Charles did until he died in the late winter of 2004. Charles was 67.

As the columnist he hired, I wrote commentary for Wyoming’s Casper Star-Tribune from the 1990s into the new century, so I was in a position to observe, engage and debate Charles. While editing my articles about various issues, he countered my arguments. Charles urged me to apply for a Nieman writing fellowship at Harvard, which I did (to no avail) and he’s one of the few editors to succeed in persuading me to provide a headshot for my columns. Best of all, Charles read and edited my writing, which we often discussed over …