Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 10, October 2003

Copyright 2003 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article below in your research. Be sure to cite the Seattle Sun as your source.

Retired publisher rekindled

career as columnist

By CLAYTON PARK

(Editor's note: This is the third installment on a series of articles looking back on the distinguished career of Stan Stapp, the former publisher of the old North Central Outlook and popular award-winning columnist most recently for the Seattle Sun who finally called it quits earlier this year we think.)

When it comes to retirement, Stan Stapp at age 85 has become a bit of an expert.

After all, he's "retired" FIVE times.

His initial stab at retirement came in 1974 when he sold the North Central Outlook the community newspaper that his family owned for more than 50 years. He agreed to stay on after its sale to a citywide chain with the understanding that he was to be editor in chief, but quit after a couple of months after learning to his disappointment that his title was in name only and that the new owners had different ideas about how to run the paper. The chain, called Today Newspapers, went out of business after only a couple of years.

Retirement attempt No. 2 came a few years later when he decided to sell the small print shop in Fremont that he continued to run, called Seagraphics, so that he and his wife Dorothy could move to Anacortes.

However that even that attempt proved short-lived as he soon found himself starting up a new neighborhood paper called the Skyliner in 1978. The paper was essentially a one-man operation, with Stan doing everything from writing the stories and taking photos to setting the copy on his home typewriter, doing the layout, selling the ads, and distributing the paper. He eventually got help on the distribution end from volunteers from the community.

Retirement attempt No. 3 came in 1981 when he decided to cease publication of the Skyliner, even though his ad sales were continuing to rise, so that he and his wife could move back to Seattle to be closer to some of their grandchildren.

But sure enough, Stan was soon at it again. In 1984, he agreed to become an adviser to a community newspaper that covered Fremont and Wallingford called The Forum. Its editor was a recent graduate of Seattle Pacific University named Clayton Park, who had grown up in Wallingford and used to read the old Outlook as a kid.

Park's aspiration of becoming a journalist was, in fact, inspired by his visit, as a Cub Scout, of the Outlook offices, which at the time were located in the basement of Stan's old family home at 4203 Woodlawn Ave. N.

Stan provided editorial advice and helped to overhaul the business operation of the Forum to the point that by the following year the paper, which was being subsidized in part by the Fremont Public Association, was starting to break even. He also volunteered his services as a carpenter to build layout tables for the Forum staff.

Finally, in early 1985, Stan agreed to begin writing a monthly column for the paper, which debuted with the Forum's March issue. It proved an immediate hit with readers, particularly longtime residents who had fond memories of his columns in the old Outlook.

When the FPA turned over ownership of the Forum in 1986 to private businessman Terry Denton, Stan agreed to continue writing his column, which increased to being published on an every other week basis. The paper's name, under Denton, was changed to the North Seattle Press and later shortened to Seattle Press.

Stan's columns for the Forum and Press often alternated in subject matter from meticulously chronicling current observations of everyday life in North Seattle to recalling tales from his youth in Wallingford and memorable events and characters he covered as publisher of the old Outlook.

Denton observed of Stan's columns that readers either loved or hated them. "Some considered his writings as "too schmaltzy and too detailed," while others adored him for providing a "connection to the past and the sense of history that he offered."

Stan continued to write his column for the Press until 1998, when it was suddenly announced by the paper's new owner that Stan had "retired" as a columnist.

However, retirement No. 4 wasn't exactly a retirement after all. Earlier that year, Stan had begun writing for a new community newspaper called the Jet City Maven, run by Clayton Park and his wife Susan. The Maven changed its name last year to the Seattle Sun. His columns continued to attract fans, as well as letters and e-mails from throughout North Seattle as well as even other parts of the globe.

In 2001, Stan's columns for the Maven earned him a second-place award for outstanding column writing for a non-daily newspaper from the Western Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

While retiring has never been a problem for Stan, it's clear STAYING retired has.

But it appears that his decision earlier this year to retire from column writing may indeed be the retirement attempt that finally sticks, due to a gradually worsening eye condition called macular degeneration that has made it difficult for him to read small type.

"My eyesight's getting a little bit blurry," Stan says, "but the fact that I've retired (five) times, it there anything to prevent me from retiring again? I guess I'd sooner leave them wanting more."

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NEXT MONTH: Stan reflects on his career.