I Second That   

Thanks to AJR, Jason Felch and Marlena Telvick for singing the praises of unsung hero Frank McCulloch ("Unsung Hero," June/July). Frank is the best and most inspiring editor I've ever worked for, bar none, and as the piece documents, we owe him, big time.

David McCumber
Managing editor
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle, Washington

I first met Frank McCulloch when he was at the San Francisco Examiner, then a Hearst newspaper, in 1988. I had dealt with various editors at the Examiner since the reign of Reg Murphy in the 1970s.

I approached Frank with a feature idea to create a series of stories about being gay in America to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City. The 1969 Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village are widely celebrated as the birth of the Gay Rights Movement at the end of June each year.

I was very apprehensive at first because my long experience with the Examiner had proven the paper to be quite editorially conservative. But Frank dispelled my concerns from the very first meeting, by simply saying "this is something the paper should do."

In June 1989 the Examiner rolled out an impressive 16-part series titled "Gay in America" to wide acclaim — and my surprise. I sent the AJR feature to Pulitzer-winning author Frances FitzGerald ("Fire in the Lake"), who responded with a note, "I'm glad that fine man is getting a bit of the recognition he deserves."

I second that. Frank is one of the finest men I've met in 40 years dealing with the media.

Ken Maley
Media consultant
San Francisco, California