Journalist Shav Glick passes away

RESPECTED NEWSPAPER JOURNALIST SHAV GLICK PASSED AWAY EARLY THIS MORNING AFTER A YEAR-LONG BATTLE WITH MELANOMA.

I have no more details than the fact that he died peacefully after what had been a very uncomfortable time for a man who had been so vigorous and seemingly so bullet-proof for 85+ years.

Shav Glick's work was always about the people -- Covering the most tech-enabled sport there is, Shav always preferred to print the stories about the folks who made the tech work.

Not that he didn't understand or appreciate mechanical side of the racing sport, it was just that he understood that the real story always started with the first of the "5 W's" -- Who?

Motorsports movers and shakers? Shav knew them all, and his calls were always taken, always returned. Not out of fear, but because articles written under Shav's byline were considered important documents in his realm.

One of only two journalists ever to be elected to the Motorsports Hall of Fame; his words, his views, his interviews, were all plainly important to the sport. He always understood that fact, but never let on that he did.

By the way, he also got a lot of great mileage out of that last "W" as well: Why?

On a personal note: I got my job as the PR guy at Perris Auto Speedway on a one-word answer to a one-question job interview. "Do you know Shav Glick?" "Yes".

I've previously noted the kind of respect that Shav had among the captains and princes of the industry. He was universally respected, never feared, always revered.

He retooled Henry Ford's famous dictum by always explaining and (almost) never complaining. He was approachable, open, friendly, but always a true, tough journalist in every way when on the trail of a good story.

It seemed to me that he never broke a sweat, even while writing an exact number of column inches on a hard, fast-approaching deadline. In reality his work only looked easy. His stuff always read easily, one never had to go back into the copy to restring a thread of logic.

I know that he worked hard on every sentence that he ever wrote but his true talent was getting it right the first time. Perhaps no other newspaper journalist ever had to publish fewer corrections, and, when he did, he did it was always in the same "size" type as his original story.

Re-reading what I've written above about my dear friend Shav Glick, I notice the word "always" cropping up in just about every 'graph. Bad writing at it's best. However, for my writing talent level, there's no other way to explain this guy this morning. He was just an "always" kind of a person.

Godspeed Sir, Godspeed

credit: -Stokes 10/20/07