His Fights Won’T Soon Be Forgotten

Spokane journalism lost one of its good guys Wednesday.

Frank Bartel, a major presence on the business pages of the Spokane Daily Chronicle and The Spokesman-Review for more than three decades, finally lost his long and painful battle with multiple types of cancer and pneumonia.

I hope St. Peter was ready for an earful.

I can just see Frank, after a cordial greeting, telling heavenly management that they really need to do better for the senior citizens. Let’s get some nicer housing and a few more perks from the Pearly Gates.

And about those potholes in some of the clouds …

Frank’s personality showed in his work.

Frank was fearless. Prior to Frank’s own retirement in April, recent columns about issues impacting the elderly scolded big companies and Congress, including our region’s delegation, for failing to make things happen — like lower health care costs and prescription drug prices. Frank often challenged the bureaucracy of the 33 million-member AARP.

Longtime Spokane activist Elinor Nuxoll, upon reading about Bartel’s retirement this spring, wrote: “We seniors miss his twice-weekly columns. His insight into retirement concerns and his experience as a journalist kept retirees informed about important issues and events.”

His work touched an elderly audience often neglected by the media.

Frank was a fighter. His work was balanced, but Bartel was not afraid to criticize questionable company strategies, corporate lobbying tactics, governmental gamesmanship. Large, influential targets were held as accountable as smaller targets, often more so. Influence did not buy immunity from Frank’s commentaries.

His newsroom discussions with sources and colleagues were memorable; Frank’s passion evident as his thick neck bowed. A few of the more combative confrontations years ago were the stuff of newsroom legend. Modern communications consultants might characterize these exchanges as “direct interaction” or “cutting through the clutter.” Frank had a unique way of doing that. You had no doubt where he stood on the issues.

Frank’s “filter” on most stories was “what’s the impact on average folks?” Readers appreciated his representing them.

One recent example was Washington Water Power’s (now Avista Corp.) wrenching change in its stock position from a stagnant source of dependable dividends (“a widows and orphans stock”) to an aggressive growth strategy.

The point here is not to debate the merits of the change, just to recall that Frank’s reporting provided valuable perspective from the pre-World War II days of public-private power fights to the current throes of a deregulated utility industry.

Two years ago this month, when WWP announced the changes, Frank quoted sources this way:

“The old WWP was motherhood and apple pie. It was almost a member of the family. Investors are emotionally attached.” Frank added: “It is imperative that shareholders fully appreciate the sea-change that has taken place in the culture of this most powerful and pervasive of Inland Northwest institutions.”

His words resonate louder as Avista’s transition continues, amid mounting challenges.

Frank tested the business world twice, and his experiences added to his perceptive columns.

In the late ‘60s, after a few years at the Chronicle, Frank worked briefly for Kaiser, then for the Portland Oregonian business pages. But he returned to Spokane, nearer to his Sandpoint roots, so he and wife Vilma could raise their family.

In the early ‘80s, Frank and his family tried to convert an old Chewelah bank building into a restaurant. The survival rate in any small business category is low, especially in food service, and the venture didn’t succeed. But the lessons added to Frank’s insight about the struggles small-business proprietors face daily.

Frank was prolific. In addition to his newspaper work, for years he worked to produce a Korean War-era novel, “World That Never Was,” published in 1997.

Frank was also painfully candid about the changes in the newspaper industry.

A year before he retired, Frank wrote in a reflective column that “America’s old gray newspapers are nearly all gone. So are the old hard-news reporters who told it straight - straight news reporting.

“In its place today we have boutique print journalism that emulates television. There is little to choose between today’s TV news consisting of soundbites interspersed with bits of entertainment trivia and the printed news that comes with the morning paper - packaged, predigested, simplified, magnified, glorified pap.”

Agree (I don’t) or disagree, that was vintage Frank. Every sacred cow was grist for the barbecue.

Frank’s passion and combativeness and genuine caring will be missed by colleagues and readers.

We can see St. Peter rolling his eyes already. But we know how much he will enjoy the company.