Unusual career path led
from composing to copy

‘You could smell the ink. You could smell the lead. It was all heated to 550 degrees. You would hear the clatter of these Linotype machines.’

— Bob DeLand

Bob DeLand had a two-part career at The Flint Journal, moving to the copy desk in 1974 after nearly a decade working with hot type in the composing room.

Bob DeLand 1985 photo Age: 65 Home: Flint Background: Retired in 1998 after 33 years as a copy editor and composition shop technician. Personal: Married, two children. Memorable moments: DeLand was still in school and working in the Journal mailroom when the 1953 Beecher tornado hit. He said he went to a nursing home and stood in line to give blood after hearing radio reports of the tornado. He then went to school and eventually to the tornado scene, spending several hours at the state police headquarters on Pierson Road, typing road passes for emergency personnel. From there, it was back to the Journal for his regular shift.

“I had no experience in that sort of thing,” said DeLand, 65, who retired in 1998.

“I was overwhelmed at first because I had no conception of what that job involved. I knew there were people who wrote headlines and corrected mistakes, but didn’t know to what depth or what extent.”

DeLand’s switch from typesetting to copy editing resulted from a deal in which the printers union agreed to surrender the editing machines to the editorial department, he said.

When the machines went, “I went with them, with the deal that I would teach them how to use the machines, and they would train me to be a copy editor.”

When he started in the composing room, some 150 employees worked three shifts printing the newspaper with hot lead type.

“It was a busy place,” he said. “You could smell the ink. You could smell the lead. It was all heated to 550 degrees. You would hear the clatter of these Linotype machines.”

Copy editing was a big switch, he said.

“I had the good fortune of breaking onto the desk under Al MacLeese,” he said. “He was just the greatest copy editor and headline writer. He took me under his wing and taught me everything I know.”

DeLand began working part-time in the Journal’s mailroom while still in high school.

He later worked in the maintenance department before taking the test for a composing room job. He worked about six years in composing at The Saginaw News before coming back to Flint in 1965.

— Ken Palmer