Were it not for Charies Bonenti I would not be here at The Berkshire Eagle.
Charles chaired the search committee that had been formed to find a replacement for the Eagle’s first entertainment editor, Milton Bass, who had retired.
Charles had been given my name, on pure speculation, by a friend of his, Judy Staber (then Judy Salisbury), who was, at that time, partner in a PR and marketing firm in Lenox. While we hadn’t been in touch for some time, Judy and I had met years earlier when she was publicist for Shakespeare & Company and I was writing for the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal. I had come up to Lenox to spend a day at The Mount for a piece I was doing in advance of the company’s three-week summer residency at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson.
On Judy’s recommendation, Charles contacted me in Poughkeepsie asking if I’d be interested. After two interviews, I was offered this job and the rest, as they say, is history.
Charles and I have worked together ever since. That was just over 27 years ago. Tomorrow that history enters a new phase. Charles is retiring after 42 years at the Eagle.
Charles has been features editor in “two different chunks,” he says, first for a brief period in the late 80s; then again since 1995, after The Eagle was sold to Media-News.
In all that time, he has been a valued colleague, mentor, guide, friend, editor, writer.
Charles defines professional dedication and commitment; standards. He also has a wonderfully inquisitive nature, key to being a good journalist.
Seated in the features pod between Berkshires Week editor Kate Abbott and me, Charles has been terrific at leading us by collaborating with us.
He is an impeccable, insightful writer, especially when it comes to the visual arts, which is his field and his passion. His overwhelming responsibilities as features editor have kept him from that passion. Now, in retirement, he will be free to write about art and I look forward to having his byline on my pages with far greater frequency.
What I’ve come to value even more than his graceful writing and consummate professionalism are his uncommon skills as an editor. He has a sharp sense of the fat content of a story. He understands and respects the writer’s voice and allows that voice to speak by asking the right questions, offering the right insights. I share a work pod with him and I’ve heard him do this countless times on the phone with his freelancers; in one-on-one conversations with Eagle staff writers; with me, especially one story I was having a terrible time with. he kept asking me question after question about the story in an effort to have me clarify for him, for the reader, for myself, what the story was about, what it could be about. Then, in one brief comment, Charles just opened everything up for me and cleared my clogged writing sinuses.
Charles will not want for things to do in his retirement once he’s had a chance to catch his breath. He is already active in his church and in the Williamstown community and I suspect that involvement will not lessen.
I look forward to his contributions to my pages;for us to simply catch up over lunch or perhaps even a breakfast or two.
The Eagle is changing. It’s time, Charles said when he told me of his decision to retire.
Thank you, Charles, for all you do and for what you have come to mean to each of us.
See you on the aisle!
– Jeff
