Paul Greenberg died on Tuesday. There has been much written about him the last day or two, with front page stories in this paper and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette — the two places where he plied his trade as an editorial page editor and writer. He, of course, is deserving of every word.
The internal machinery that made up Greenberg, although well-oiled, had certain qualities that seemed to be at odds with each other.
He arrived late to work when he was at The Commercial, where he was employed for 30 years. Oh, so he must have been someone lacking drive or focus or an alarm clock? No, not at all. After everyone had gone home for the day, his office lights were still burning as he wrote and rewrote and tore up and wrote and edited again and again. Eight, nine, 10 o’clock at night and he remained at his post. In his world, arriving at 10 in the morning was early!
His intellect was, well, let’s just say it was something to behold. Was there a line in any book, the words to any poem or song or a historical figure or reference that he had forgotten? It didn’t seem so. Well, in that case, he must have been a snooty sort who was only comfortable around other high-order thinkers? No, wrong again. As one of his friends put it, Greenberg was just a regular, easy-going guy.
While at The Commercial, Greenberg won a Pulitzer Prize, journalism’s highest honor. And he won it for a series of editorials about civil rights. Oh, civil rights, so he must have been quite the liberal? No, he was fairly conservative. It just so happened that he knew the difference between right and wrong and that racial equality was right.
As many have pointed out, Greenberg was an incredibly hard worker. When people drive themselves that hard, it’s sometimes easy to see the things in their personal lives that have suffered because of that single-mindedness. So Greenberg must have left a trail of familial failure in his wake? No, not even close. Devoted husband, devoted dad. As his son said, his father took time to instill in him good character traits that are with him to this day.
And finally, Greenberg, because he was so talented at what he did and because he did it for so long, the ink from his pen was feared and revered. So he must have, like many powerful people, lorded that over those he would end up editorializing about? No, there was nothing personal in what he wrote. He was just watching out for what he felt was best for his fellow human being, whether that being was across town or the country or the world. Just doing his job. A job he was so so good at.